Angela Wang is a senior in the Canfield Business Honors Program studying finance from Plano, TX. She transferred to Canfield BHP in her sophomore year because she liked the idea of smaller classes, which would allow her to meet other students more easily.
In Canfield BHP, Angela enjoys being around inquisitive peers who constantly ask interesting questions in class. Additionally, her professors push her to dig deeper and draw applications to the real world, and they are deeply invested in each student’s success. The alumni network is also extremely strong, and she enjoys learning from them through alumni dinners and the BA151H Lyceum class that Canfield BHP sophomores take, where Professor Andres Almazan brings in alumni on a myriad of career paths. Overall, Canfield BHP has contributed immensely to her growth.
Another big factor of Angela’s college experience is her involvement in extracurriculars. She joined the University Securities Investment Team (USIT) and Texas Consulting (TC) her freshman year, and she credits them with providing her best mentors and friends. USIT and TC allowed her to meet peers with similar interests and become close with them through social events.
Both organizations are hands-on, with upperclassmen teaching crucial skills such as modeling and leading consulting projects. This has provided Angela a solid foundation for her career. Moreover, having alumni and upperclassmen to ask questions to was invaluable to her career exploration–she talked to many of them to hear what aspects of their career path they liked, and she reflected on what resonated with most. As an upperclassman, it has flipped–she started giving back to the organizations that taught her so much. Last year, Angela was President of USIT, and this year she is a Board Advisor and Portfolio Manager.
Angela completed internships in trading, private equity, and public equity, and she ultimately decided to pursue a career in public equity. USIT helped immensely in exposing her to what she will be doing full-time–picking stocks and analyzing companies. The biggest aspect of public equity that appealed to her was the accelerated learning opportunity. At a hedge fund, every day is different, and the very nature of the job is to think differently from other people. This entails being creative and constantly being pushed. The work is meritocratic, propelling investors to take ownership of their work. This is partly because everything they trade is publicly marked, so they get constant feedback on their performance. Angela also appreciates this work because she has learned to get comfortable with ambiguity, take risks, and develop a growth mindset since investors are often wrong in the public markets. These skills have been applicable to many facets of her life.
Last summer, Angela interned at Citadel, where she will be returning full-time after graduating this semester. Her internship consisted of four weeks of lectures and guest speaker series, and three weeks each of being on two investment teams. She received comprehensive training on investing fundamentals, modeling, writing investment memos, and soft skills such as how to present yourself. On the investment teams, she researched stocks and gave recommendations in tech–where she learned about NVIDIA and its suppliers–as well as financial institutions. She got close with her cohort of 11 interns and gained exposure to many people in the firm who came to speak with the interns, and she enjoyed the immersive learning experience.
When asked for her best piece of advice, Angela emphasized that it is unhealthy to idolize others and think they have something you do not. Everyone starts from knowing nothing, so it is important to remember this and be confident. As she put it, “this one thing not working out for you is part of everything working out for you.”