The Corporate Climb

Mason Murray ’19 is no stranger to competition. He’s a finance major on the NYC Campus with a bevy of internships under his belt: SmartAsset, HIS Markit, SEC, Highland Capital Management, Blue Wolf Capital, and even JPMorgan. Murray was even selected as one of 90 applicants to the 2017 Goldman Sachs Pride Summit, a multi-day opportunity for undergraduate freshman and sophomores to participate in career workshops and meet with members of the firm’s LGBTQ network.

Back at Pace, Murray is a Chairperson for Beta Alpha Psi’s Investment Group, works as a teaching assistant for the entry-level Business Honors Course, and is a student representative for the Business Honors program. He also takes time out of his busy schedule to volunteer for Read Ahead, a nonprofit that promotes childhood literacy, and a subject he’s extremely passionate about. Join us for a rundown of all the incredible things he’s been up to lately!

Why did you end up choosing Pace? What set Pace apart from other universities?
I’m from Dallas, Texas, so when I began looking at colleges in high school, I looked everywhere—east coast, west coast, close to home, far away. I narrowed it down to NYC because I knew I would be pursuing finance and I loved the city. I remember when I visited other schools in the same area, the tours were really impersonal and I couldn’t picture myself there. Then I visited Pace and they had a personalized little bag with information about the business school and other things that interested me. It was a small gesture, but it really stuck with me and helped me realize that Pace would be a good fit.

How did you hear about Career Services? Were you referred by a professor or a student?
I first heard about Career Services in UNV101, but didn’t actively engage with the department until I was a part of the Wall Street Careers Workshop headed by Susan Glendon. This was a really pivotal experience for me in terms of helping me zero in on what I wanted to do with my degree and how to make that happen. From then on, Career Services—and specifically Susan—have been an incredible resource for me.

What was the preparation process like?
The Wall Street Careers Workshop really helped to prepare me in terms of getting a better idea of what the finance industry looks like as a whole. It also helped me fine tune my resume and networking skills. When I finally landed an interview, Susan helped to prep me by mock interviewing me as well as letting me how I could better prepare for that specific interview, like being well-read on the company and available position.

Of all your employment positions, which did you like the best? What was a defining moment for you while working there?
All of my internships have been pretty different, so they’re hard to compare. I guess I enjoyed my time at IHS Markit the best. They had a super robust intern program with about 25 other interns in the New York office, so it was fun to meet and hang out with other college students from all over the country—and even the world. My work there also helped me understand what I like to do and what I want and need from a career.

A defining moment during my time at IHS Markit was probably the intern group project that I participated in. IHS Markit is an extremely global company, and there are probably about 20 groups of five to six interns who participated in that project competition all over the world. We were tasked with coming up with a new product or process and pitching it to the C-suite and board of directors at the end of the internship. Working with other super smart and motivated interns really pushed me and helped me to grow a lot as a team player. I learned so much and my team ended up coming in second globally, so that was awesome.

What motivates you?
I’m a really motivated person, but it’s hard for me to pinpoint exactly where that comes from. I guess I like to surround myself with people like me who are successful and motivated as well. That helps me to stay on top of my game and keeps a little pressure on me to achieve my goals. I also am pretty competitive, so the idea of competition really motivates me.

You’re a Student Mentor for the non-profit Read Ahead, which promotes children’s literacy in New York. What drew you to volunteer for them? Why is it important to you?
Honestly, I first signed up for Read Ahead because I thought it would look good on my resume. I knew that employers value volunteer experience, and I like kids, so I thought it was a good match—and I was right! It’s probably one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had in the city, and it helped me to learn a lot about the public school system in NYC.

This is important to me because from a political standpoint, education is the policy issue that I’m most passionate about. I think it can fix a lot of other problems in our country. In the NYC public school system, there are a lot of underprivileged children who don’t get very much one-on-one time in the classroom, and this is a great solution to help young students catch up to their classmates’ reading level.

You were selected as one of 90 applicants to the 2017 Goldman Sachs Pride Summit. That’s incredible! What was that experience like?
This was an amazing experience that opened up so many doors for me and introduced me to so many awesome people. It was there that I really became motivated and passionate about a career in financial services. It was also so cool to see that a company like Goldman not only cared about diversity, but celebrated it. The experiences I had there and the people I met have stuck with me to the present, and has ultimately been the reason why I fulfilled my goal of landing a front office internship at a bulge bracket bank here in NYC. I’ll be at JPMorgan next summer in the Private Bank doing wealth management.