By Sydney Chakalos
Ari Katz (’18) spent his summer interning at Barclays in New York City as an investment banking summer associate on the Natural Resources team. Katz, who was born in Israel and grew up in Canada, came to Darden with a strong sense of what he wanted to do next in his career and how he wanted to leverage the Darden MBA. Katz took some time to share what drew him to Darden and how his experience has helped him take his career to the next level.
Prior to Darden, Katz worked for an executive search firm in Toronto and wanted to switch careers into banking. He always knew he wanted to pursue his MBA. When he began looking at programs, he wanted a diverse international experience. “Darden held a great reputation for banking recruiting, and I knew that was what I wanted to go into,” said Katz.
He worked to get a jump-start on preparing for recruiting early. “I spoke with the Career Development Center (CDC) over the summer in my career kickoff meeting, and got tips for what I could be doing in the summer to get prepared,” Katz recalls. Once he arrived on Grounds in the fall, he continued to receive support from his CDC Second Year Coach and the Darden Finance Club. “The banking recruiting process is a very structured and proven path at Darden, and with the Second Years and the Finance Club guiding you through it, it was pretty easy to pick up on what we needed to be successful.”
Training sessions from the Finance Club on skills that are valuable to have for banking and the rigor of academics at Darden, helped Katz feel prepared to tackle his internship.
Katz offered a few pieces of advice to the incoming First Years, after going through the recruiting process this past year. “If you’re not sure what you want to do early on, go to the industry briefings, as there are a lot of common misconceptions about what it’s like to work in different industries. Also there are Second Years, CDC Second Year coaches, student clubs and the CDC that are all valuable resources and here to help you.”
Learn more about the career support offered at Darden here.
