Our Millennial Summer Interns Setting the Jefferies Tone for the Month of August

Earlier this month, we asked each of our 165 global analyst and associate summer interns to set the tone for all of Jefferies by writing their own August 1st JEF Today letter. The senior leaders of Jefferies (along with the two of us) read every individual entry. The submissions were original, honest, inspiring, creative, thoughtful and fun. We should all be proud of each of our interns as they brought a unique perspective to our firm and hopefully many of them will become future full-time culture carriers in our company. Like last year, our original goal was to pick one winner from this impressive group and give him or her the honor of addressing the entire firm as the two of us do monthly in our JEF Today letter. While we could have easily selected dozens, we decided that there are three winners whose messages touched each of us in a very positive manner. Congratulations to Conor Coleman, Ryan Coughlin and Molly Hurlbut. Brian is travelling on business, but Rich is looking forward to having lunch at 12:30pm at Sushi Ann with the three of you today to learn more from each of you.

Enjoy your August,

Rich and Brian

P.S. All letters without the authors’ names will be posted on our intranet and each intern will be given a hard copy of all letters for their end of summer reading enjoyment. Thank you to all interns for participating.

P.S.S. On behalf of all of us at Jefferies, we would like to thank every intern who joined us this summer. You brought positive energy, new perspective, lots of intelligence, and a tremendous work ethic to our company. Enjoy the rest of your summer and we look forward to hopefully having many of you influence and lead Jefferies into the future.

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The winning letters are below:

It Is Not The Critic Who Counts

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” – Teddy Roosevelt

This was the last thing my Coach said to us before we took the field before our first game in the 2016 NCAA soccer tournament. To give a little background, my team was having an up and down year. We had had some unlucky breaks during the season, and were fortunate to even make the tournament this year. We were very talented, but, more importantly, we were a very close-knit team. The setbacks we had during the season hurt – losses to our rivals, losses to schools at the bottom of our conference and losing the first round of our conference tournament. However, these setbacks brought us closer, made us stronger. We had found our identity through the setbacks and knew all we needed was one more chance. We got that when we found out we were one of the last teams to make the NCAA tournament. It didn’t matter that everyone was calling us underdogs or that experts predicted that we were going to lose first round. They didn’t control what happened – we did. That’s why I think the quote above resonated with me so much. We ended up winning that first game of the NCAA tournament, which, by itself, was a massive achievement for our team given the season we had been having. By all means the season would have been called a success if we lost in the next round, but we didn’t want to win just one game. That wasn’t our team’s identity. Instead, we took our new life and ran with it all the way to win more games and our school’s second ever national championship.

Going into my senior year, I have been reflecting a lot on my time at my school and playing the sport I love. How much I am going to miss it – the competition, the teamwork, the culture, the hard work, the atmosphere and the bonds formed with my teammates and coaches. It is tough to leave something you have poured your ‘blood, sweat and tears’ into. It will leave a massive void in my life. Replacing the characteristics and feelings associated with being on a sports team is not easy to do, and frankly is probably one of the most important things driving my job search once I am out of college.

I am not going to lie – I was skeptical about whether this career path was the right one for me heading into this summer. Many of my former teammates / friends of mine, who have gone down this career path, have had bad experiences. Whether it was because of the long hours, the cut-throat culture or other things, most of my friends have come away disappointed and in search of another job that will fill the void. However, that has not been my experience at all this summer. In fact, I feel Jefferies is exactly the place I need to be to fill the void that sports will leave behind for me. And a lot of that is due to Jefferies’ core values – which, based on my admittedly limited experience, I think are different than any other Bank.

Through my limited time at Jefferies, I have already seen similarities between Jefferies and my national-championship winning team. For one, Jefferies has a culture that rewards hard work. If you put in the work, you will get rewarded at Jefferies. You won’t get overlooked or stuck on the sidelines. Hard work will get you your chance. Now, it is still up to you to seize that chance, but Jefferies will at least give you that chance that many other Banks won’t. Secondly, Jefferies is a team and has the culture of a team. Everyone seems to truly care about each other and have everyone’s best interest in mind.  In our intern class, no one is hostile with one another. It is not a cut-throat, “I am coming for your job,” type of environment. Instead, I can honestly say I have made close friends in my class already that I know I will keep up with no matter where we end up next year. The same goes for the current employees at Jefferies. Everyone I have worked with has been welcoming and has taken the time to answer every single one of my stupid questions. I was honestly shocked the first time that a MD or VP took the time to explain the process of the deal I was working on and answer my questions. I can tell you one thing – my other friends at other Banks this summer are not having the chance to even talk to the senior guys, let alone have the chance to form a relationship with them like I have been this summer. And because of this culture, Jefferies is getting the very best from me. Much like I would run through a wall for anyone on my soccer team, I want to stay late to help the members on my deal teams. That feeling and trust is special to me and Jefferies provides it.

The last thing that I want to touch on is that Jefferies knows its identity. The Company knows what type of people it wants to hire to preserve its culture, knows what direction it wants to go in (only one direction and that is up!) and has a plan on how to achieve its goals.  Yes, there are some flaws within Jefferies, like within any company, but what makes Jefferies different is that the people at Jefferies realize this and want to have conversations on the ways to improve.  The Company knows its strengths, but is also mindful of its shortcomings.

Yes, at Jefferies, you are going to work hard. There will be long nights and long weeks. There will be clients you dislike dealing with, and tasks you must suck-up and grind through. However, much like Teddy Roosevelt is referencing in the quote above, at Jefferies you will be spending yourself for a worthy cause. You are in an arena that many people would die to have the chance to be in. It is a chance to use your talents for something you can build or influence. 

Jefferies is a Bank ready to take the next step and on the path to accomplishing great things. Seems to me like a perfect new team. 

Conor Coleman 

What Is Your Edge?

It was halfway through my summer internship when I learned the simplest, yet most valuable lesson that I will take away from this summer. Forget the technicals I’ve learned throughout this summer, forget the trading jargon I have picked up on. My biggest takeaway from this summer internship will be from one conversation, or rather one simple question a trader asked me: What is your edge?

In the immediate moments that followed the question, I gave him your safe, cookie-cutter answer referencing some sort of highlight from my resume. In the moment that sounded like a fine answer and I went on with my day as normal. However, I thought about it later that day and rest of that week, and realized that my answer did not mean anything of substance. So, I spent the next few days self-reflecting what my edge was, and ever since I figured it out (for now at least, it is an ongoing process) it has given me tremendous confidence in what I was doing to succeed in my internship.

In this business, having an edge is the only way to be successful. We are competing with over twenty other primary dealers on any given trade or deal. Our customers can call any other bank and get close to if not the same exact prices as us. That is how the industry has evolved and it is something that is here to stay. So the real question is, how do you get the customers to choose to call you versus twenty other banks that can provide the same service? And the answer is having an edge and utilizing that edge to its fullest potential.

Everybody has their own, unique edge. For some, it could be their savvy conversation skills over the phone to lock in trades and deals, or getting the best color on the market even when trades are not executed. For others, it can be their pure ingenuity, consistently developing the best solutions for clients and outwitting their opponents. An edge can even be as simple as being a person who a client wants to golf with, because if that is the one thing that drives a client to interact with you and execute trades and deals, you are adding unique value and bringing business to Jefferies.

The great thing about Jefferies is that nearly everybody I have interacted with has their own entrepreneurial way to use their edge to attract business to the firm. I am able to learn from junior through senior employees all the different ways they add value to customers, and I can use these methods to absorb and develop my own edge that works for me. It does not matter what your skills are, what your resume says, or what anyone else says about you, if you know your edge and leverage it to add value for customers, you will ultimately bring lots of business to Jefferies and have a highly successful career. I urge everyone to take a step back and have an honest self-evaluation to think about what your edge is and how you can leverage it for your career.

Ryan Coughlin

The Jefferies Family

Family has always been a pivotal part of my life. I personally feel that family can extend beyond my kin. To me, family is a group of people that you want to celebrate with, lean on when things get tough, and learn from. With family by your side you can always face the challenges of the future with great confidence.

I look back on my first day back in May and remember the knot in my stomach wondering if Jefferies would ever become another family of mine. Not everyone is able to have that experience at work, but it was important to me that I did. Investment Banking can be tough and I knew I wanted to work somewhere that I would have a family surrounding me through the highs and the lows and who fully understood everything I was going through. That first morning I sat with my peers and listened to some of Jefferies’ top leadership explain to us each of their personal stories and special pieces of advice. What stuck out to me was that each one suggested we make ourselves comfortable and get to know the people we work with on a deeper level. Back then it seemed daunting to ever ask someone to grab a coffee and chat, but over and over again we were told to do just that.

It hasn’t taken very long for me to figure out that the Jefferies culture is most definitely one of a family. I should have never been afraid to reach out to anyone here. The people at Jefferies care about much more than themselves and instead look at the bigger picture of collective successes and goals. They want you to learn and succeed just as much as you do. Even as an intern I am not afraid to talk to anyone I am working with, ask any type of question, or make a mistake. I especially am no longer worried about asking anyone to grab a coffee.

At Jefferies, you quickly learn that everyone is here to help each other grow as people as well as investment bankers. People always say that the best way to learn is through experience and after these past eight weeks I can confirm that belief. Each person I have worked with has taught me something new. I learned to push myself out of my comfort zone and not be afraid to make a mistake. I also learned that after you make one mistake you should be careful to not make the same mistake again. I learned to take pride in my work. I learned to always be positive as attitude makes a big difference. The list of things I have learned this past summer could go on forever and the Jefferies culture is what fosters this endless learning.

When my projects this summer have pushed me out of my comfort zone, the Jefferies family has never ceased to help me persevere. This place has a special culture that makes it stand out from many of its competitors and I am grateful to say that I had the chance to spend a summer here.

Molly Hurlbut