"It's much more important to get a broad background and not get zeroed in," George Putnam III told students interested in careers in finance Thursday.
Putnam, the founder of New Generation Advisers, which specializes in corporate bankruptcies, was the keynote speaker at the financial careers symposium hosted by the Tufts Financial Group and Career Services.
He gave three suggestions to students. "One: Always be flexible and open-minded in looking for opportunities. Two: Be sure that you cast your net widely, and be persistent in following up. You should also network widely. Three: Use connections you have."
After Putnam's speech, Economics Professor Christopher McHugh moderated a discussion and question and answer session with Jonathan Sloane (LA '80), the co-president and co-CEO of Century Bank and Trust, Robert Ryan of Resolute Financial, a financial planning firm, John Harper (F '85), a principal of Birch Tree Capital, and Bruce Revzin, the CFO of IDG Ventures Boston, which specializes in information and healthcare technology start-ups.
Education - in the classroom and on-the-job - is essential for success, the panelists said. "I don't think you can get enough of it," Sloane said.
"It's curiosity, and it's doing reading and writing," Harper said. "My educational background didn't really prepare me for what I do. I learned along the way."
Harper also said good writing skills were important. "If you can write well and concisely, that's a real pleasure to see," he said. "There's too much information so concise writing is valued."
The Tufts name has improved in standing in the business world, Revzin said. "Tufts was always a prestigious school," he said, "but more so now."
The panelists were deliberately chosen from diverse fields - not just investment banking. "College focus on finance is very driven by 'I-banking,'" junior Shikha Gupta, the vice president and director of programming for the Tufts Financial Group, said.
After the discussion, the panelists and students stayed for a catered networking reception of cookies, cheese, crackers and drinks. They discussed their careers and the steps it took to get to those positions. "People are building networks," Gupta said.
"I think the event went well," the Tufts Financial Group's president, Sam Baris, a junior, said. "Students that attended learned a lot from the experiences the panelists had to share."
The group, founded last spring as the Tufts Investment Club, now has over 150 members, Baris said. It organizes a stock market competition and educational events on the financial industry.
