Meet Will Sargent — Software Developer Pivoting to IRAM

Let’s start with the basics – what were you up to before business school, and what led you to pursue a career on the buy-side?

I was a software developer, working in e-commerce and the media space for about 5 years. I really enjoyed the tech world, but I didn’t see myself doing that long term. My life-long passion has actually been the markets – my grandfather gave me a share of Home Depot for my 10th birthday and I’ve been hooked ever since. I spent a lot of my free time managing my own portfolio and investing, and I found that I enjoyed viewing a company through the lens of an investor rather than an engineer, asking question like how is the business going to grow, is this a worthy investment, etc.

Investing covers a wide variety of career tracks – were you attracted to any particular area?

I was partially drawn to the U.S. equity markets, primarily just because I haven’t been exposed to other markets. There’s a lot of interesting things happening in the private market, but the attraction of the public market is like a puzzle you can’t put together – things are changing constantly. It’s solving a puzzle. That being said, I was definitely open to alternative investments, sell-side and other options.

Could you explain the difference between buy/sell-side and maybe a unique quality that each requires?

Buy-side are the firms that are actually buying and selling equities – wide range of firms including pension funds, mutual funds, endowments, hedge funds, and others. Sell-side are the ones putting out in-depth research, forecasts, and opinions on companies that the buy-side will invest in – in a sense they act as a resource for the buy-side.

A sell-side analyst will typically only cover ~25 companies, on the buy-side you could be covering 100 as an associate. If you get up to the portfolio management level, you could be analyzing the entire market. As your coverage grows it becomes difficult to have a deep understanding of each company, which is where the sell-side comes in to aid.

In interviews, what is the balance between technical and behavioral questions?

Not very technical in the traditional “banker” sense, for me I only got a handful of those questions. The rest was broken up between behaviorals and the stock pitch. How deep into the weeds you get for the stock pitch depends on your interviewer and on your background – they would most likely push you harder if you have a background in financial services or a CFA, versus me as a newcomer to the industry. They wanted to make sure you could back up your pitch with data. I had two or three formal one pagers, but I still had to customize my pitches for whatever my interviewer was covering.

One thing that really helped was doing research on my interviewer beforehand to learn what industry they cover and what was going on in their market.

Did you interview with mostly Johnson alum?

It depended on the firm – with some, I was talking exclusively with Johnson folks, and at others I didn’t speak to anyone from Johnson.

What is your outlook on the future of IRAM recruiting with the increase in industry automation?

The industry is changing and it’s becoming harder to compete with the industry giants who are charging very low fees, which combined with the rising interest in passive investment is putting pressure on active funds. That being said, there are still a bunch of active folks out there, and always opportunity, but it has been getting more challenging.

Did you ever think about pursuing quantitative finance?

I wanted more management interaction, more control over the analysis, but I still find it an interesting and appealing angle. Software will eventually do most if not all of the low-level tasks but as markets are constantly changing, I think there will be the need for active analysis. I do feel there is a symbiotic relationship between quantitative and fundamental which is definitely an interest of mine.   

Did you feel supported by the Johnson alumni network going through the process?

We have a large contingency of Johnson folks in the industry who were always super helpful, but with such a diverse ecosystem of firms out there it is less standardized – it was a balance between the Johnson alumni network and cold-reach outs to folks outside of the alumni network.

You were kind of the guinea pig of virtually recruiting. Can you just share what that experience was like?

Let’s start with a con: Without the face-to-face experience, you miss out on the social cues and the minute or two when you meet in the lobby and get a quick read on them. You also can’t get a feel for the office, to see if people are chatty and happy or hunkered down and bummed?

On the pros side, it enabled a lot of flexibility in terms of scheduling, especially in IRAM where we are meeting teams all over the U.S. There is also a certain comfort of being at home doing the interview – you can also wear sweatpants!

Were there any advantages you saw of recruiting from Johnson versus other business schools?

The only interaction I really got was through stock pitch competitions, and I was impressed by some different schools at those. Our career work groups and professional clubs were amazing – the dedication that CWGs put in is your lifeline.

I remember one specific time where the interview didn’t go great, and right after it ended I called my CWG and worked through the tough questions immediately. Being able to lean on them at all times was a huge benefit for me personally.

What are you most excited about for your summer internship?

Just getting started. It’s almost like Day 1 coming to Johnson – its all about what you’re recruiting for, where you’re headed, what your summer has in store. So now we’re finally about to experience the thing we’ve been talking about all year. The people seem awesome and I’m excited to learn from them.

Will can be reached at wms87@cornell.edu.