Many students in liberal arts wonder what they'll be able to do with their degrees and how will they ever compete with those in pre-professional majors. Alumni are now helping to answer such questions via the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S) Career Services and its new A&S Career Connections Committee.

A kickoff event Jan. 12 in New York City brought 20 students and 12 alumni together to discuss careers on Wall Street. Students learned the difference between private equity and venture capital jobs, courses to take to prepare for quantitative jobs in sales, trading or hedge funds, and what books to read if they want to learn about Wall Street.

"History is great training for investment banking," said Mike Millette '87, who was a history major and now a managing director of investment banking at Goldman Sachs. "In studying history, you are trying to figure out why people made decisions and did the things they did. You must sort through facts, theories, claims and missing information and draw conclusions. Investment banking also involves similar efforts to analyze and weigh information and then to draw conclusions that result in client recommendations."

Marc Rothenberg '87, a history and government major, said that to make the switch from law to a career on Wall Street, he sought out friends of friends in the industry and offered to buy them lunch in exchange for career advice. He then took a few days off from his legal practice to create his own "externship," shadowing several of these contacts at work. Some eight months later, he had a new career as a managing director for Global Securities Services at Goldman Sachs.

At a Jan. 13 Careers in Media event, Randee Mia Berman '74, a college scholar at Cornell and now a writer and actor, said that she's learned to become comfortable with creative approaches to seeking employment. At one point, she said she asked people in an elevator on each floor of the General Motors Building about job openings. In a New York skyscraper, this was bound to lead to something, she said, and it did: she became a copywriter for Revlon.

No matter how you find a job opening or a networking contact, you need to articulate what you are looking for and why, said Amy Becker '89, a former government major. She reminded the group to "Help the person make the leap so they can think of additional resources" or see you in the position. And make sure to research a contact or interviewer before the first meeting, said Scott Schiller '81, who majored in economics at Cornell and now is senior vice president of advertising sales at Comcast Interactive Media. To prepare for the meeting, "you should know five things about the person and have one or two intelligent questions to ask," he said.

Michael Finn '11, an economics major, said that he learned from the Jan. 12 event that "many finance employers will teach you the "hard skills" needed to perform tasks for the job. The event, he added, "reaffirmed my confidence to perform in the financial sector as well as actively pursue a career in finance."

The A&S Career Connections Committee will sponsor "Thinking about a Career in the Law?" in April, among other events being planned.

Christa Downey is assistant dean and director of career services in the College of Arts and Sciences.