Career Series

BRG – JPMC – ABP Career Series Episode 06 – Transcript

[jazz music]

Soledad:

Hi, everybody. I'm Soledad O'Brien, I'm a journalist. I’m also a producer for Matter of Fact with Soledad O'Brien. I am a very proud advisory council member for Advancing Black Pathways. It's an initiative from JPMorgan Chase to drive economic growth in the Black community. So thank you for tuning in to the JPMorgan Chase Career series, which is brought to you by Advancing Black Pathways. So in our previous episodes, we have covered how you could explore a career in various fields within the financial services industry, including a career in technology, a career in treasury, as a financial advisor, and internal client advisor, and as a community manager. We've also talked about how you can apply to open jobs at JPMorgan Chase. So now we're going to share with you some tips to help you stand out from the job search competition and better position yourself to land that ideal role. Today, I'm here with Jessie Jackson, he's the Head of Learning for JPMorgan Chase. And Kim Gregorie, she's the Head of Talent Development and Total Rewards Program Office. They're going to give us some very tangible, specific advice to help you on your journey. So welcome, so nice to have you guys.

Jessie:

Pleasure to be here.

Soledad:

Thank you. Thank you.

Kim:

Thanks for having us.

Soledad:

Let's begin with your own careers. Tell me about your career path. Jesse, why don't you start for me? How did you get to where you are today?

Jessie:

While I'm fortunate to hold a doctorate in education from New York University, I've started my career as a teller in a branch bank for Chase Manhattan Bank. Then that eventually became JPMorgan Chase. And it really is a function of understanding the adaptability needed in one's career pathway, understanding the opportunities that present themselves, and how to navigate those opportunities effectively. And that's something that I think we will be double-clicking on shortly. So thank you for the question.

Soledad:

You bet, you bet. How about for you?

Kim:

Yeah, so I think that'll, very similar to Jesse in that I feel like I was in the right place at the right time, and able to articulate what I was good at. But when I think about my career, I started my first job working for the United States Congress and then navigated to go get my MBA after I decided that I couldn't be a lawyer, which is what I thought I wanted to be. And then I ended up at the bank. So my point is I think: be okay with moving around and doing different things because the skills that I learned made me what Jessie often calls me, which is a utility player. So someone who can show up, assess problems, and then move through to solutions.

Soledad:

I think there's a lot of contradictory advice, right? Like, "Just go out there and don't think too hard about your career, but be very specific about what you want to get to. Bring your whole self to work, but actually don't overshare about your personal," I mean, it's like literally contradictory. How do you think about basic advice for people who are looking for a career right now? Why don't you start for me, Kim?

Kim:

I have a 16 year old and I'm always telling him: if you start to hear the same thing over and over again, change it, because it's getting in your way. And I think that's the biggest piece of advice I wish I would have given myself. And the right feedback hurts.

Soledad:

Yeah.

Kim:

The right feedback is the feedback that makes you sting a little bit, the feedback that makes you feel good, move with the one that stings and then change it.

Jessie:

Soledad, I would keep it very simple, and simply frame it as get up, dress up, and show up. And in this age of acceleration that we live in, it means something materially different than it meant when my father gave me that same advice. So as we think about getting up in this age of acceleration, it really means being intentional with respect to where those customers are, how do we get up in a way that really makes it easy to interface with them and deliver more value that differentiates us as individuals. But it's also understanding that we all have uniforms, whether it's in a business, small business, a large business. As I think about Michael Jordan, he goes out, or did go out, in a uniform as I think about Ms. Biles. Again, she has a gymnastic uniform as well. We need to--

Soledad:

Has a little goat on it now.

Jessie:

That’s right, a little goat as she deserves, right? And these are the greatest, right? So we need to ensure we understand what are those uniforms for our industry, for our businesses, and really ensure that we're showing up in a way that cements our brand as professionals.

Soledad:

But if you're just coming out of college and you were scooping ice cream last summer, and maybe for the last six months you've been, I dunno, babysitting or nannying or something. I think it's hard to articulate how those are career builders.

Kim:

One of the things that really resonated after I talked to hundreds of people in the field was the inability to take something I've done and then talk about it so that people really understand how that would apply to what you're looking to do for them. And so we worked with people on, we're going to give you programming, but then we're going to help you with how do you write your resume and how do you sit down and talk about, I went and got a degree in project management, but I'm not a project manager. So, I don't know if I know how to do that. And I said to somebody, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no. You went and got a degree in project management, but then you came to help me on a committee for a project and you ran that project. And they said, "Oh, does that count?" Yes! It all counts. Figure out what you learned in that role that you can bring forward to the importance of that new opportunity.

Soledad:d

I think that's great advice. And I have found when people come in to talk about their past experience, that often they frame it about themselves and not about the work or what they accomplish for the person they work for.

Kim:

Or the team.

Soledad:

I mean, it really is that results thing, right? It's like, yes, I'm sure that you were great, but I want to hear how the team did.

Jessie:

And to pull the thread on Kim's comments on, that's one of the attractive things about this age of acceleration is 25 years ago when I started, it took you 10 years to become proficient in what it is you do. Now, because changes so rapidly, these young adults can become proficient in a fraction of that time, to the extent that they apply themselves as Kim has outlined.

Soledad:

Yeah. Any final words of advice for the people who are watching this who are thinking about, "Is this a step I should take to start exploring some of these careers?"

Jessie:

My final comments would be first to reinforce what I said earlier. And that's this notion of really getting up, dressing up, and showing up. But also bolting--

Soledad:

Kudos to your dad, by the way for that.

Jessie:

Yes, thank you. And also bolting onto that, this notion of saying yes. Finding more opportunities to say yes.

Soledad:

That's really, really excellent advice. Thank you. You can also visit JPMorganChase.com/ABPCareers, as in Advancing Black Pathways Careers, to catch the replay of this episode or any other episode in our series. A big thank you to you guys for great advice. I think really putting the cap on all that we've heard earlier in this series and giving people really good advice as they go and apply for these jobs. And thanks to all of you for tuning in to the JPMorgan Chase Career series, it's been brought to you by Advancing Black Pathways.

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BRG – JPMC – ABP Career Series Episode 05 – Transcript

[jazz music]

Soledad:

Hi everybody. I'm Soledad O'Brien, I'm a journalist and I'm a producer for matter of fact with Soledad O'Brien. I am a proud advisory council member for Advancing Black Pathways. It's an initiative from JPMorgan Chase to drive economic growth in the Black community. So today, we take an inside look into the career of an Internal Client Advisor. I'm here with Adam Sucov, he's the Head of Internal Client Advisor Sales Team at J.P. Morgan. And Shabeen Rehman, she's an Internal Client Advisor at J.P. Morgan Asset Management. They're going to share what it's like to work in the field. Also, they'll tell you how you can access open Internal Client Advisor roles within J.P. Morgan, which means jobs, jobs, jobs. Nice to have you both with me.

Adam:

So glad to be here.

Soledad:

Thank you, thank you. Let's talk about what your jobs actually are because they're quite lengthy. Head of the Internal Client Advisor Sales Team.

Adam:

It’s a mouthful.

Soledad:

It really is! What does that mean?

Adam:

Sure. So I work with Internal Client Advisors just like Shabeen who are located either in New York, Chicago, or Columbus. And they spend their time working across the country with financial advisors at many of the big broker dealer firms, like a Merrill Lynch, a Morgan Stanley, an Edward Jones, or maybe some RIA firms. And they work with them to help them understand: how can they find the right solution for their client? Again, every client's different, every client's looking for something a little unique and special, and that's what our team does. And so I work with all of our teams across the country to make sure they've got all the tools, the resources, the training.

Shabeen:

Exactly, exactly right. So like Adam said, we talk to the financial advisors across the territories we support about market insights, we have J.P. Morgan solutions based on some of those insights, and we're able to help out with portfolio analytics for those advisors as well. So we wear a lot of hats as Internal Client Advisors, which makes the job a lot of fun.

Soledad:

Tell me how you got your start, because I think for a lot of people when it comes to banking, there's a sense that you're a math wizard in elementary school, you know, through high school where you're nailing calculus, and then you get your degree in finance and possibly mathematics, and then you go on to be in banking. And we've had to talk to a lot of people who talk more about relationships, necessarily, than a degree in finance. Talk a little bit about your pathway.

Shabeen:

Absolutely. So my pathway to an Internal Client Advisor starts with me not even knowing the role existed, let alone the industry, really. So I started out studying in my undergraduate for international affairs, I was a political science major. Really focused on becoming a lawyer and probably working in international development. Fast-forward to post-graduation and post-sitting for an LSAT exam; I don't want to do it anymore. And I'm kind of stuck like a lot of 22-year-olds end up feeling. And so I have a friend who happens to be at Chase, I'm working on some side projects in the meantime in digital media. And he says, “Why don't you just go and try out for this banking job, what's there to lose?” Great. I go and I try for it, land the job, enter the world of financial services, which does allow me to get a few of my financial licenses--

Soledad:

What was that first job?

Shabeen:

It was a personal banker at Chase right here in Manhattan. That kind of really opened the door into an industry and a world I had really no knowledge about prior to. So, I start there as a personal banker, I do that for about a year and a half, a little shy of two years. And in that time, I actually meet another Internal Client Advisor. So again, I was in Manhattan and meeting a lot of internal J.P. Morgan employees. She tells me I'd be perfect for this role. Mind you, I have no idea what she's talking about. She says “You gotta meet my boss.” Sure. Kind of getting the itch to move on to the next challenge. And that's when my world really opened up to the internal client advising role and generally just to asset management and what that part of the bank really does. I think a unique pathway into the role, but not so different from so many other folks at 22 and 23 just trying to figure it out.

Soledad:

And how amazing that it really sometimes is about bumping into somebody or leveraging a relationship before you realize what actually might be a perfect fit. You just didn't know it at the time.

Shabeen:

Absolutely. And just being open to trying something new and having that mindset of “I'm open to at least learning about what this could be about and see if it might be for me.”

Soledad:

What was your pathway?

Adam:

So I was one of those people who had the accounting degree--

Soledad:

Elementary school accounting degree. Yup, yup.

Adam:

Right, right. No, but so look, I started the first 10 years of my career was heavy into commercial banking, investment banking, bond underwriting, the hard stuff. And I decided, look, I can do the stuff behind the computer and the spreadsheets, but I was much more interested in working with investments and really working with people.

Soledad:

There are not very many female financial advisors. I think one in five at the best [laughs] the best possible numbers. Talk to me a little bit about challenges. I mean, did you find any working in a heavily male dominated field?

Shabeen:

Yes, absolutely. So I think just some of the few challenges come from not being familiar with the industry. So right there, just trying to catch up on the capital markets and learn some of the jargon in an industry, again, that you've no experience in, it can be a little bit challenging. And second to that, being at a place as big as J.P. Morgan can feel really overwhelming sometimes. And then in terms of being maybe a minority on the team in a few ways, as a woman, as an Indian American as well, I think that presents challenges. And what I have realized over the last five years of being at J.P. Morgan is that I've been able to navigate those challenges all in the same way. And it was really through the support of my peers and my mentors.

Soledad:

For people who don't necessarily have a finance background or a banking background, are there ways that they can get kind of up to speed on the places in which they actually need to have a better grasp of financing?

Adam:

Yeah, it's a misconception. People do feel that they need to have that finance background to be successful. Now it doesn't hurt, but we can teach you and train you on the nuts and bolts of the job. But what is harder to do is teach the personal relationship skills. And if you have those types of skills, you can be really successful in here.

Soledad:

People talk about relationships a lot in banking. More than they talk about math, more than they talk about a finance background, frankly, relationships and the passion around people. Tell me a little bit about what you mean by that exactly.

Adam:

Sure, so the people that end clients and advisors want to work with, they don't want somebody to give them information that may not be truthful or accurate. People want to work with people that they like and people that they trust. And that's what we do and we do really, really well at J.P. Morgan. You need to be comfortable having conversations. People are also going to say like, “No thanks, I'm not interested.” So there's a little element of that, but that's the relationship or the nature of a sales job.

Soledad:

One of the things that I've liked about working with Advancing Black Pathways is this very tactical and strategic thinking about how to increase diversity. Why does diversity matter in what you guys do? Why does it even matter?

Adam:

Maybe I can start in if you want to fill in that.

Soledad:

That'd be great. Yeah.

Adam:

So why it matters, I think there's two reasons. Number one is: we serve hundreds of thousands of advisors who serve millions of clients. And we all know that not everybody is the same. There are lots of different needs out there, lots of different perspectives, lots of different backgrounds. And the ability to network and leverage from all of those people makes our team better as a whole, right? It's really one of those situations where the combination or the sum of the parts is better than each individual unit on its own.

Shabeen:

Yeah. And just to add to that. So I think that's one of the reasons why we've talked a little about why you don't necessarily need a finance background or need to be a math wiz. It is because of that idea sharing, there's so much communication within the team. And so just really focusing on certainly a diversity in gender and sexual orientation, etc., that definitely matters for our clientele. But just in diversity of thought. You know, me having an international affairs background where I started this role, and in this job, thinking that PM meant prime minister, not portfolio manager. That, being able to overcome that--

Soledad:

Thought it meant evening. But carry on!

[laughter]

Shabeen:

That too. Just being able to overcome that is absolutely because of the diversity of thought.

Soledad:

Thank you so much, Adam and Shabeen. I really appreciate it. Great conversation. You can also go to JPMorganChase.com/ABPCareers if you want to catch the replay of this episode or any of the episodes that are in our premiere series. Thank you for tuning in to the Career series. It's brought to you by Advancing Black Pathways, and I’ll see you next time.

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BRG – JPMC – ABP Career Series Episode 04 – Transcript

[jazz music]

Soledad:

Hi, everybody. I'm Soledad O'Brien, I'm a journalist and a producer for Matter of Fact with Soledad O'Brien. I'm also founder and CEO of Soledad O'Brien Productions. And most importantly, a very proud advisory council member for Advancing Black Pathways. It's an initiative from JPMorgan Chase to drive economic growth in the Black community. So thank you for tuning in to the JPMorgan Chase Career series, which is brought to you by Advancing Black Pathways. So today Sam Philogene and Rachele Greene from JPMorgan Chase's Treasury Chief Investment Office are joining us for a discussion on how you can establish a career in treasury. They're also going to provide insights into exploring open positions at the firm. So specifically jobs, we're going to get to that in a moment. First welcome. Let's begin with, this might seem like a bit of a silly question, but what is treasury in relation to a bank? Like what do you do in treasury? What is the Treasury Chief Investment Office?

Sam:

So Treasury Chief Investment Office, we manage the balance sheet on behalf of the firm.

Soledad:

All the money.

[laughter]

Sam:

And with the liquidity, interest rate, and capital risk infrastructure as well. So what does that mean, right? We, basically we fund the bank, all the activities that the line of business are interacting with in terms of debt management and investment. We are part of that. We work with the line of business to make sure that the balance sheet is properly balanced and the risk is properly risk managed as well.

Soledad:

So you're the money guys in one of the biggest banks in the world?

Sam:

Absolutely. And I would, you know, what I like to say, right? Is corporate treasury itself as it functions, we are the heart of the bank, right? Because if you think about it, the bank itself, every line of business are out there, they have their own objective to work with clients and raise capitals and corporate treasury itself are the center to kind of look at things holistically across all line of businesses.

Soledad:

Does every line of business in the bank have its own treasury?

Sam:

Yes. Every line of business has its own treasury teams and own treasures and we are the center that brings all of them together.

Soledad:

So if someone were interested in being in treasury, it sounds like both of you had strong math and finance backgrounds. Is that what you would recommend or in some other fields, I think people often feel like, "Well, if I don't have math, if I don't have finance, maybe this is not for me."

Sam:

Absolutely not. So I think, we, she has a math background, I have a finance background. But we do have many different people within our organization that does not have those types of degrees as well. So we encourage people within all diverse background and majors to join corporate treasury. Because if we think about it, we, what the skill set that we're looking for is for people to come in and want to make change and bring themselves to the workplace and being able to learn. So with J.P. Morgan itself, we heavily invested in continuous education. So we train people when they come in into the role, as opposed to someone coming in, they already have all the tangible as well.

Soledad:

What's your day like? I mean, are you up at five, are you up at seven?

Rachele:

No. No. I think the day's usually somewhere around like a nine to 6:30-ish kind of day. So nine and a half hours to get quite a bit of stuff done. To be completely honest, I think a normal day for me, a normal day in your quotes, right?

Soledad:

Of which there are no normal days.

Rachele:

Yeah, there aren’t any normal days right?

Soledad:

But carry on.

Rachele:

So essentially our team is global as Sam mentioned. So a lot of times our days will start out mainly in like Bangalore and Poland, so India and/or Saul respectively. So they will actually get a first look at the data for us and kind of pinpoint anything that might look a little bit strange, right? Because essentially numbers are numbers, but you can easily tell when something does not look right. So then our job will be in North America as the day kind of continues. And like it starts to become evening in their time locations. We use our time and our rest of the day to find a root cause of the issue and saying, "How do we rectify the situation? Like what do we do as a team to make sure that our reporting is complete and accurate as humanly possible before that 6:00 PM like deadline that we hit every single day?" So it is very fast paced. It's a lot of looking through data, problem solving, and then working with other individuals to fully fix the situation as a whole.

Soledad:

If someone wanted to start a career where you're working, what would you advise them to do? I think for a lot of people, right? If your mom or your dad didn't work in finance or didn't necessarily work at a big bank, you might feel like you're a little bit lost in terms of next steps.

Sam:

The first thing I would tell them is to apply, right? I think people, especially within our community, we shy away from the banking industry because of the unknown. And I think, so statistics says that especially people of color that we sometimes we don't go for with the banking degree, therefore we don't apply for a role, right? So I, the first thing I would say is like put yourself into the pool because what we look for is someone that's definitely gonna come in and that wants to learn our process. And then if they have the right attitude, we can teach them what we do on a daily basis.

Soledad:

Were their big obstacles? I mean, did you feel like you were able to be taught every step of the way what you needed to know for your job?

Rachele:

Yeah, absolutely. I think for me, a lot of times, the hardest part of starting within this industry is to know that you won't know everything. I think as an inner perfectionist, you want to come into a job and say, "I'm helpful. Like I'm here to be a resource to you."

Soledad:

How would you describe the culture for people who are thinking about, "Hmm, is banking for me?"

Rachele:

There's always something to learn. And I feel like every team member within TCIO is really, really interested in actually learning it. Like if you have something that like, Sam knows I don't, I want to know. Like I want to be involved. I want to actually have the opportunity to expand my horizons. And I think there's so much information at your fingertips, in the liquidity reporting space especially, that there's always something new to learn. I think all the team members are very big into collaboration and teaching and just kind of like expelling all the information that they have into everyone else so that we can all kind of thrive and make sure that we do hit our deadlines and that we do do the best work humanly possible.

Soledad:

Are there jobs right now in corporate treasury?

Sam:

Absolutely. Absolutely. There are jobs across different regions in our, especially in our Delaware office where we are, the majority of our liquidity reporting and an instructional interest rate reporting aspect has being done where I am one of the recruiters for our group where they’re jobs there. And then we do have, like Rachel was saying in Wausau in Bangalore and different part of the states as well.

Soledad:

Somebody who wants to check out the careers that exist, where should they go?

Rachele:

They should check out the careers website at jpmorganchase.com. I think a lot of them are under corporate treasury at this point in time. Definitely take a look there.

Soledad:

Thank you, Rachel and Sam, I appreciate all that advice. And also reminder you can go to JPMorganChase.com/ABP (Advancing Black Pathways) Careers to catch a replay of this episode. And of course all the others in our series as well. A big thank you to you guys for your advice.

Sam:

Thank you.

Soledad:

Great advice. And also for all of you for tuning in to watch our JPMorgan Chase Career series, it's brought to you by Advancing Black Pathways. I'm Soledad O'Brien, I'll see you next time.

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BRG – JPMC – ABP Career Series Episode 03 – Transcript 

Soledad:

Hi, everybody. I'm Soledad O'Brien. I'm a journalist, I’m a producer, and I am a very proud advisory council member for Advancing Black Pathways. It's a new initiative from JPMorgan Chase to drive economic growth in the Black community. So today I'm here with Toacca Rutherford. She's a product owner in digital self-service at JPMorgan Chase. And she's going to chat with us about the role that technology plays at JPMorgan Chase.

Toacca:

Great to meet you as well.

Soledad:

What does that mean? Your title is a little long and complicated, right?

Toacca:

Yes.

Soledad:

Owner, product owner in digital self service. What does that even mean?

Toacca:

Right. So product ownership, let's take a step back and think about how we build products for Chase. And when I say products, I mean the application, the chase.com site, the mobile app, and what it takes to deliver those features to customers. And so in digital self-service, we build capabilities like: "Hmm, I've changed my address. How do I go in and do that easily on the app? Or, "Oh goodness, I've lost my credit card, my debit card," right? How do I go in and replace it easily? And so we build those kinds of capabilities for customers.

Soledad:

All those things that you will lose your mind--

Toacca:

Yes!

Soledad:

--if they don't operate smoothly. You really get very frustrated because of said digital version of customer service.

Toacca:

That's right.

Soledad:

That drives you crazy. Were you always interested in technology?

Toacca:

Always.

Soledad:

As a little kid?

Toacca:

As a little kid, yes. And I always loved science and math. And I was into STEM before it was called STEM. [chuckles] I'm kind of dating myself.

[both laugh]

And for me in school, I always loved like science fair, science projects. I don't even know if they do that anymore. But certainly enjoyed like experimenting, testing, and learning, and really exploring what it's like to problem solve. And so, when it was time for me to pursue my career or my, actually education at Rutgers University, I decided to pursue engineering. And in that I knew I wanted to solve problems. And how could I do that in a variety of ways?

And for me, industrial engineering was the way. And in that I learned how to focus on things like building things that are more efficient, optimizing processes so that things will go smoothly. You know, sort of how do we anticipate using mathematical information, what problems to solve for. And so it's really like, for me, a great way to start and think about how to then blossom into spaces like data. I had my first internship at U.S. Army Research Labs in Maryland. And at that time, I got a chance to work with engineers and got exposed to data. What that could be for building platforms or building solutions, I'll say, cause that platform's got a little techie for a moment.

Soledad:

No, no, I really get it. I mean, I love when I look at technology as problem solving because certainly as an end user, right, we all just need this issue solved for us.

Toacca:

Absolutely.

Soledad:

Wow. So what's your day like?

Toacca:

Wow.

Soledad:

I can't decide if you go into the office and you just start coding like a madwoman. Or are you overseeing, when you're thinking problem solving, are you thinking sort of in the macro? Like, "Here are some issues we're having and now we need to sit down and think about problems."

Toacca:

Absolutely. So as a product owner, my responsibility for digital self service is really looking at our overall strategies. How do we, what kinds of initiatives we want to build for customers? So what are those friction points? What is, like, problematic or troublesome in that digital experience that we want to solve for customers? And so we do that by researching with actual customers, we spend time in focus groups, things like that, to understand the pain points better, understand what we call the customer's jobs to be done. What are they really trying to do? Let's step in the customer's shoes.

Soledad:

I was just about to ask you: how big is your team and what what's included in your team?

Toacca:

So in my team, I have a mixed, a wide range of skills from, and some of this is through partnerships as well, not just people that report into me. So there's a lot of collaboration in that regard. And so the skills range from user experience design and customer research, which I talked about, as well as data and analytics, so we need to understand the customer behaviors. And so what insights come from that in working with our data analytics partners. Of course, business analysis. So really understanding what problems to solve and how to interpret that into what we will code into software.

Soledad:

Accenture and Girls Who Code found that half of women abandon their tech careers by the time they're 35 years old. And that women leave tech careers at 45% higher rate than men do. 21% of women in the study said that they believed this is it. They believe the technology industry is a place where they can thrive. And that's not even, that's not women of color, that's all the women. And if you break that down to women of color, 8%. So 8% of women of color think technology is for me.

[Toacca sighs heavily]

That’s a giant sigh. Wow.

Toacca:

Yeah. It is really challenging. And in part, certainly for me when I started, you know, you look left and right, and then there's no one that looks like you. And certainly for me when I started my career, that it was that way. And in some cases still to this day, that's when I'm in the room, sometimes I am the only one. Not always, we've made progress. But there's definitely a long way to go.

Soledad:

So what would you say to a woman of color who's watching who says, "Listen, I like to code and I like technology. But I'm tired of being the only one. I’m probably some of the only one in my classes, in my STEM classes.

Toacca:

Yeah. First I would say broaden your network, because then that helps to extend your community in a way that allows you to not feel alone. It can get incredibly lonely at times. But when you have a network that's outside your team, or your organization or your group, or just like your immediate community, connect with someone that you may have something in common with outside of like being, outside of gender or race. And those are ways that allow you to then explore what it's like for them and how they have been able to persevere. And sometimes you just need to vent. You need someone that is like-minded that you can vent with and express your frustrations, and really get underneath what's bothering you in the moments that you are navigating through.

Soledad:

Did you have challenges early on in your career?

Toacca:

Oh, for sure, yeah, absolutely. And, you know, I mean, I don't know how many times I was asked for directions, on the floor because they thought I was the assistant or things like that that happened. And I just, and it's no disrespect to assistants at all. It's just what people believe is possible of a Black woman. And I think that, certainly for me, I try to uphold the ideals of what, of a role model in technology for Black women. And really what that means is showing what's possible. Showing what it's like to persevere through challenges, to navigate and get promoted and work my way up through the company, things like that, mentor and sponsor and advocate for others, not just Black women, but for others that are seeking to pursue the career.

Soledad:

Why does diversity in technology matter? Some people might argue technology. I mean, you're not interfacing face-to-face with human beings, isn't it kind of irrelevant?

Toacca:

Ooh, it is very relevant.

Soledad:

That's a trick question.

Toacca:

In part because more and more, we want personalized experiences, right? If we think about what we expect of our phones or our devices, what we expect them to know about us, what we willingly share. And how does that now come together to create moments that matter. And I think for diversity in particular, if we don't have voices at the table to create those experiences, to code them, to design them, to create the algorithms or the rules that sit behind, or the models that sit behind it, then we miss out, we get overlooked.

Soledad:

What about different ways to kind of move up the path? For example, you obviously went to Rutgers. But are there opportunities for people who don't necessarily have their BS or that they might have certificate programs? Or how are you thinking about recruiting people? I mean, is it an opportunity to pick from kind of a different pool?

Toacca:

Absolutely. So what's great is we have an emerging talent program here at JPMorgan Chase that looks at non-traditional pathways. Meaning if you didn't go to a university for like computer science or engineering or kind of tech-related careers. And what that emerging talent program does is to first of all identify candidates, looking at experientially diverse, cognitively diverse, as well as sort of a traditional diverse lenses to figure out and widen the pool. So that when we think about who we can recruit in or should recruit in, we are more open-minded. And preparing those individuals through a bootcamp-style training so that they learn how to code right here at JPMorgan Chase. They may not have had any experience before. And there's a program in the emerging tech talent initiative called TechConnect. And we have that on our career site and people can apply, which is really, really cool. 

Soledad:

What advice would you give, let's talk young women at this moment who were interested in tech. What would you tick off for them to be really thinking about as they move forward?

Toacca:

Yes. So I would say listen to your heart, right? That's the first thing, because as certainly as women, we have that sense of intuition. What is my heart telling me about what I like, what I don't like? Because it is not for the faint of heart in that regard. And so I think, really important, and like I mentioned for me, I loved science and math. Before it was called STEM, I was really into it and that's okay to be an outlier, and to find people that may exemplify for you what it looks like.

Soledad:

Are there open opportunities right now on the career site? And how does someone get to the career site on JPMorgan Chase?

Toacca:

Yes. So careers.jpmorganchase.com is the site. And there, what you can do is there's actually a place for TechConnect. And so that's really exciting because anyone who is interested should apply. Just give it a chance and see what comes from it.

Soledad:

Toacca, thank you so much. Really amazing advice for everybody. And a reminder you can visit JPMorganChase.com/ABPCareers to catch a replay of this episode and others in our Career series. Big thank you for tuning in to the JPMorgan Chase Career series, brought to you by Advancing Black Pathways, and I'll see you next time.

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BRG – JPMC – ABP Career Series Episode 02 – Transcript

[jazz music]

Soledad:

Hi, everybody. I'm Soledad O'Brien, I'm a journalist and I'm a producer for Matter of Fact with Soledad O'Brien, and I’m also a proud advisory council member for Advancing Black Pathways, which is an initiative from JPMorgan Chase to drive economic growth in the Black community. So thank you for tuning in to the JPMorgan Chase Career series, where we share real advice and real tips on how to build lasting and rewarding careers. Today, I'm here with JPMorgan Chase Community Manager Jared Evans, and Education and Counseling Market Manager Regina Broadnax, two people who are committed to helping their communities get back on track to financial resilience. They're also going to share with us some tools and resources to help you better understand your finances and help you thrive on your financial journey. It's so nice to talk to both of you.

Jared + Regina:

Thank you.

Soledad:

Oh, my pleasure. When we talk about financial resilience, what does that actually mean?

Jared:

Financial resilience really is being able to weather the storm of life. And we saw it even last year, where we had to have folks that were in a terrible light. But they came out of it, we've all come out of it because of the fact that we are resilient, because of the fact that we have things set aside, funds put away, "prepared for rainy days" if you will.

Regina:

Yeah. And for me, some of that resilience, the word that just comes to mind is always sustainability. So sustainability, and that's a lot of what we teach and we encourage, and really what is required to have made it through these turbulent times.

Soledad:

What can a community manager do on the day-to-day for people who are struggling? Explain to me what your role is.

Jared:

So my role really is to be proximate in the community, to bring the bank and the community together. I'm a bridge, because let's be honest: sometimes it's intimidating to see someone in a suit coming in from the neighborhood and telling them your business. And there's some trust, right? And so as a community manager, we were branch managers and doing all of the things that we have to do in the branch. But as a community manager, the branch side is taken out, I get to focus on the nonprofits, the churches, the people that are in the neighborhood. We provide financial education to people, and we will discuss with them the tools of savings and budgeting, how to keep your credit, maintain it. Or if it's not there, build it up. I bring them financial education, I bring them knowledge, knowledge is power.

Soledad:

A poll that was conducted by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health found that 66% of Black households with children reported serious financial problems during the pandemic compared to 51% of white households. When you see data like that, how do you think about what kind of information and advice you have to give people about resilience and weathering these kinds of storms?

Jared:

We have to let them know they're not alone. No one predicted this. And so we have to be honest with them and say, your worries and your struggles technically are ours as well, but we will get through it.

Regina:

So, managing and monitoring and maintaining credit scores has been a challenge in this. We see that people were using more credit, leveraging their credit cards. And so their FICO scores are lowering. Credit is key. If you want to buy a home, if you want to buy a car, even your car insurance, the amount you pay is connected to your credit score. We have resources at Chase, one that I really am fond of, Credit Journey, which helps our customers as well as non-customers manage, monitor their credit scores. It also gives them the opportunity to put in scenarios to work on the credit scores.

Soledad:

One of the most common ways that people inherit and pass on generational wealth is through owning their home. And so you're well aware of this. TIME News reported that the gap in home ownership rates between Black Americans and white Americans, it grew. It grew by 30% last year, a higher gap than what it was when racial discrimination in housing was legal, right? It's illegal now and that that gap continues to grow. One of the reasons I joined the advisory team for Advancing Black Pathways was I love this idea of how do we jump in and very intentionally try to fix those gaps. Talk to me a little bit about the work that you guys are doing and the bank is doing in order to help on that front, specific details.

Regina:

We are working very hard at Chase to minimize the gap. We've got newly-created roles to address the gap. Roles like our community home lending advisors, community managers, community lending managers. We've hired people, the right people who mirror the communities that they serve and they are working with our partners.

Jared:

Yeah. So intentionality is one of the things that, one of the words that I use quite frequently when I have--

Regina:

Me too. [laughs]

Jared:

And it is a reason that I was lured from the institution I was working for before. I've never seen a firm take this stance.

Regina:

That’s true.

Jared:

And I'm very proud of it that you would create 150 community managers across the U.S. I'm one of five in Chicago and I always say, if we had 50, it wouldn't be enough.

Regina:

One of the products, it was of our 30 billion Path Forward commitment. So under that commitment, one of the things that I am so excited to have been a part of and watched our Chase Home Buyer grant grow, that grant is up to $5,000 now. And it is available in 6,700 of our minority communities. So we've been very intentional about increasing and expanding that grant to help more people achieve home ownership, giving them monies for their down payment and their closing costs. Even the people who own homes, we've not forgotten about them. We have a grant $2,500 to refinance if they're going into a particular product. So, very intentional about the products and what we do to increase home ownership. And we believe that if we continue on this path, that at some point, we will see the gap become a little smaller than it is today.

Soledad:

I often think people think of banking and they think math, and you have to, you know, that there's sort of certain kind of person, right, who can be in banking. And they may not think that they're that person. What kind of a person do you think...what are the attributes of somebody who could say have the jobs that you have?

Regina:

Passion, passion, passion. But I tell you, there is nothing like the phone call that you received from someone who just moved into their home and they say, "I could not have done it without you." So you just have to have the passion. You talk about the numbers. I'm not a numbers person. It's not numbers. It's people, it's people. So community banking, what we do is all about people. You take care of the people, the numbers will come, they will fall in place. It's not, it's passion for the people.

Soledad:

To anybody who's listening to this conversation and thinks like, wow, these are careers that they'd be interested in pursuing, or at least looking into, where would you send them?

Jared:

Absolutely. So we want them to visit careers.jpmorgan.chase.com.

Soledad:

And they can view all the careers that are available in banking and doing the things that you guys do.

Jared + Regina:

Absolutely.

Soledad:

Oh, fantastic. Well, thanks for a great conversation. I should also mention you can catch a replay of this episode, in fact all the episodes in our Career series. A big thank you to the JPMorgan Chase Career series, which is brought to you by Advancing Black Pathways. I'm Solidad O'Brien, I’ll see you on our next episode.

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Soledad: Hi, everybody. I'm Soledad O'Brien, I'm a journalist and I'm a producer for Matter of Fact with Soledad O'Brien, and a proud advisory council member for Advancing Black Pathways. So thank you for tuning in to the JPMorgan Chase Career series. So today, I'm here with Franz Warren – he's a Regional Director for Wealth in Chase Wealth Management and Cassandra Cyrius – she's a Financial Advisor for Chase Wealth Management. And we're going to talk about how to establish a career as a financial advisor. They're also going to provide some insights on open positions that you could explore today. So let's get right to it. Thank you guys. It's so nice to talk to you.

Franz: Thank you.

Soledad: So this is going to seem like a really basic first question. What does a financial advisor do? 

Cassandra: Essentially we work with clients and help them attain whatever goal they set forth. Generally it's to, whether it's retirement planning, education planning, or just making sure that their savings is efficient. We work with clients as far as making that happen for them. So it really takes you talking to people and understanding different thoughts and needs, and just really making sure that you're not showing cookie cutter approaches. You're just really just giving a broad scale of what they can do with their money.

Soledad: Do you need to be strong in economics and in math to be able to be a good financial advisor? What is the thing that makes a financial advisor good at their job?

Franz: You gotta want to really like help people, right? Be genuine. You also want to really, I think be a teacher. You've gotta be understanding in terms of what folks are looking for, and certainly you've gotta be patient. So the interest in math, the interest in economics, I think that does certainly help. But they're definitely a lot more non-educational criteria I guess you can say that you would need or be able to use. 

Soledad: I would love for both of you to walk me through your path to your careers.

Cassandra: So my path to finance actually started with me knowing that not many people within my own demographic understood it. If I bring you back to 2008 when I graduated college, the, you know, obviously you were at the height of the recession. And what I was seeing as far as the medical career was concerned is I wasn't really sure of going into med school. But I did want to go work. No one was hiring except finance. And I started going through different firms and from there I pretty much started, with my life insurance, license, and things of that sort. What I was finding is when I was interacting with people, a lot of information about finances and how to invest or what kind of life insurance coverage to have, just very basic information, was very hard to access. And they didn't understand, like, really how to do it. So I came in more as a teacher than a producer.

Soledad: You started off as a financial advisor. You now are the Regional Director for Wealth at Chase Wealth Management. Tell me a little bit about how you started your career. 

Franz: I wanted to be an accountant, probably like my father was. And in college, I started getting more of an interest and a passion in terms of just the classes that I was taking and was intrigued by it. Then I had a college roommate that started in the industry. But he was a referral, I went in and was intrigued by what they were talking about, the, you know, being an entrepreneur, kind of running your own business, which is certainly what being a financial advisor can help you with. So I started out right out of college, got licensed, so passed the different qualifications, which aren't necessary to get in, but you certainly do need to pass them to continue, built a successful practice, dealing with individual clients, and then started having a passion more for coaching and helping. So that started me in the transition of becoming a Producing Branch Manager. And fast forward 20 years later, I've been fortunate enough to not only run large branches, large areas, districts. And then now, you know, the regional director for the boroughs at JPMorgan Chase.

Soledad: What's your day like? 

Cassandra: So I love my day. What I usually do is I go into the office and I work with my team, who will be the bankers within the branch. Essentially really understanding what's going on, getting a recap of what happened yesterday, and again, preparing for what we need to do today. In addition to reading and understanding what's going on, not only in the markets, but in the world, too.

Soledad: I was going to ask you if you get up and have to read a whole bunch of newspapers, just because obviously all those things are going to move the markets, whatever's happening kind of in the news, which means it's going to land at your doorstep and your client's doorstep in some way, shape, or form.

Franz + Cassandra: Absolutely.

Cassandra: Yeah, you kind of have to, like, kind of keep up with what's going on in the world and it's important because then it helps you kind of dissect and help a client understand. I always joke and say, "Listen, after I initiate your account, my job is to be your therapist." So how else can I talk a client off the ledge when they're seeing crazy market volatility if I don't really understand the purpose of it?

Franz: So fortunately, like with J.P. Morgan and what Cassandra mentioned before, there's a lot of fantastic resources for someone to come in and really get comfortable with this industry, especially if they haven't had it before. You still need a passion. But what I've loved about this industry when I started in the early 90s to now is you ask what's a day like, I can tell you in the 20 something years, there's probably no two days that are alike. So it’s great.

Soledad: I think often for young people and for me, young is like 40 and under. But I often think a challenge is they're good at lots of things. They might say that they have lots of things that they're passionate about. What would you advise someone as they're thinking about this as a career?

Franz: So I think you've got to want to help people, so you gotta be genuine there, and you've got to want to teach them. A lot of what--

and you've got to want to teach them. A lot of what--

Soledad: You use the word coach, which I thought was a great...

Franz: Coach, yeah. And a lot of what we do is actually teaching someone in terms of the fundamentals of investing. You've got to be coachable, so there's not one way that's going to help you so you have to be open to listening and change as you navigate and ultimately grow your career. You've got to be a psychologist as well. And you've got to be able to talk to clients, understand them, and help them navigate this world.

Cassandra: When you're dealing with a client and you need to explain what is a stock, what is a bond, things of that sort, they need to know that you know what you're talking about. And although you can just do a quick Google search, but you are licensed and you did actually study to make sure you know what you're talking about when you're speaking to clients.

Soledad: Why are there so few Black financial advisors? So the number I have 551,000 personal financial advisors, this is from 2019. 82%, a little more, are white. 6.9% are Black. Why such low representation do you think?

Franz: Certainly, this is an industry that if you're growing up in most cases in the 80s and 90s, you definitely weren't sitting at the dinner table and speaking about investments. Your parent or maybe someone you were looking up to probably wasn't a-- he or she wasn't a financial advisor. So I can tell you that, fortunately, the stats since 2019 have actually changed and are getting better. I think there's also definitely an intentionality that's happened which has created this. And I think as a couple examples that I can give, you can look at JPMorgan Chase and their Path Forward and their $30 billion commitment in March. They just also announced in addition to it that they have a commitment between Black and LatinX advisors between historically Black colleges and also internal promotions that there's a goal of 300 advisors by 2025. So I think you'll start to see that shift. 

Cassandra: When you're dealing with finances, and as Franz was saying, I'm first-generation, my parents came from Haiti. And they know how to make the money, but we didn't discuss the investment side, right? That wasn't something I grew up understanding. So there's a lot of preconceived notions when it comes to finance, a lot of stereotypes that come to finance. So when you are talking to someone who shares a similar experience to you, it's more comforting as far as having that conversation as opposed to someone who you may think, just from walking in, they won't really know your life or understand what you came from.

Soledad: There are jobs available. This is my favorite part of this conversation [laughs] because I think for a lot of people, especially if you're watching on LinkedIn, you're really looking for employment opportunities or things to look into, at the very least. Talk to me about the opportunities that are available now and what people should do should they be interested.

Cassandra: I would say, if you are thinking about being an advisor, do it because you have a passion to not only help people, but to implement a change overall. I think that if there's anything we've learned in the last year is that a lot of changes need to be made. And if you want to be part of that change in the most positive way, is by impacting families and helping generations. Because if you can help a family create a legacy plan, you then help their generations going forward. And that in itself helps me sleep so well at night. So I would say, make sure that's what you lead with: the passion. 

Soledad: Thank you guys, Franz and Cassandra. I really appreciate it. Thank you for a really great discussion on building a career in financial advisement. Big thank you for tuning into our series. It's brought to you by Advancing Black Pathways and I'll see you at our next episode.