By Jong Eun Jung
Dominic Jiang
Dominic Jiang (MSF’20) hadn’t thought about a career other than engineering during his first three years at Vanderbilt University, where he majored in Mechanical Engineering and Mathematics. During the summer after his junior year, he interned as an equity research summer analyst at Thompson Research Group, LLC, and realized how much he enjoyed working in investment banking. “(Finance) is a career path that is very problem-solving oriented, which is within my skill set, and I love the fast-paced working environment,” Jiang said.
After talking to Megan Nichols, the Associate Director of the Career Management Center, Jiang decided to pursue the MSF program at Vanderbilt Business. He began networking with Vanderbilt Business alumni in the finance industry to get advice on moving from engineering to finance. Although the two fields seemed vastly different, Jiang realized that he could leverage both sets of experiences to land a job in the oil and gas industry, so he narrowed his focus on connecting with people in that industry.
Thanks to his extensive networking, he interviewed for and accepted a job as an investment banking (restructuring) analyst at Houlihan Lokey, a leading investment firm in the oil and gas sector. “It’s been something I wanted to do for awhile, so I’m pretty excited about that,” Jiang said. “But most importantly, I think I’m looking forward to the training and experience. Because of the oil price fluctuation, (there will be) a lot of restructuring work. So it’s gonna be pretty busy, but I’m looking forward to that to get a lot of transaction experience.”
Click through Jiang’s timeline below to find out how he landed the offer.
