Cornerstone Advisors Asset Management has a weekly extern program at the beginning of the calendar year. They engage with college students who are interested in learning more about the business and about Cornerstone. These four externs are exceptional individuals. Nick is a junior majoring in Finance at Rutgers University. He’s a big fan of Brazilian Jujitsu and likes to travel. Nick joined the externship program because he is particularly interested in diving deeper into the investment side of the business. 

Taylor is a sophomore finance major at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He recently picked up golfing. He’s interested in becoming a financial advisor. This program has piqued his interest in retirement planning and private wealth management.

Herman is a third-year student at Kutztown University, majoring in finance and personal financial planning with a minor in psychology. He helps manage a cafe owned by his sister on the weekends or on breaks, which propelled him to want to go into finance. He loves the client aspects and, through the extern program, realized that this business can be taken in many directions.    

Kyle is a junior at Millersville University with a sports medicine and financial economics major. When he’s not in the gym, he enjoys spending time outside doing things like hiking, camping, or fishing. When the pandemic hit, Kyle became fascinated by the stock market as a way that people could create wealth for themselves. At the moment, he’s thinking he might like to get into the role of being an analyst and help people make financial decisions. 

In this episode…

What do college students think about financial services, and why are they interested in pursuing it as a career path? 

Cornerstone Advisors Asset Management runs a weekly extern program at the beginning of the calendar year. They engage with college students interested in learning more about the business and the firm. These externs spend the week meeting with senior leadership to understand the sales process, the service process, operations, the investment process — everything under the Cornerstone umbrella. They are asked to complete a research project by the end of the week, which they will present to the firm. Nick, Taylor, Herman, and Kyle are all interested in the asset management world for various reasons and discovered a lot by participating in the externship program. 

In this episode of Cornerstone Unplugged, JP Cavaliere and Meredith Heydt sit down with four college students from the extern program. They discuss the students' motivation for seeking a career in financial services, what a deal-breaker will be if they want to take up a job in the field, the best way to prepare their resume, and other fun topics.