Marissa Gitler W'14

What did you study at Penn and when did you graduate?

I graduated from Wharton in 2014 with concentrations in Finance and OPIM (now known as OIDD).

What were you involved in at Penn?

I was in a sorority (Sigma Delta Tau), Kite and Key, and of course, Wharton Women. I was also on the committee for Wharton Leadership Lectures, which is an awesome speaker series where you get to hear directly from influential leaders like policymakers and C-suite executives. I would highly recommend checking them out.

What was your favorite part of Penn / Wharton?

I really enjoyed the entire Penn experience and would say that it’s the people at Penn that make it so amazing. I got to meet so many different types of people and built long-lasting friendships. Even now, I’m still meeting Penn alumni that I didn’t know. It’s truly a network of cool, interesting, and successful people.

What advice do you wish you had known when you were an undergraduate?

I think that it’s so important not to fall under the pressure of the pre-professional environment at Wharton and to pursue and explore what you are passionate about. Penn is such a culturally diverse place, and I’d recommend taking advantage of all the different art, acapella, and dance shows. I would also recommend exploring Philly earlier on in your Penn career because there are so many amazing restaurants and things to do in the city.

Could you tell me a little bit about your career journey so far?

I’ve always been interested in Sales & Trading, and I did a couple of internships in college. I interned at The Motley Fool after freshman year and Dataminr, a start-up, after sophomore year. The summer after junior year, I interned at RBC Capital Markets and worked at their internal hedge fund. I accepted their return offer and continued working at RBC after graduating from Wharton. I did a couple of rotations on their sell-side Sales & Trading desks as part of the analyst program and ended up working on the high yield desk for two years before moving to the futures desk. I was on the fixed-income futures desk for a couple of years and learned a lot about macro strategy. At that point, given my diverse background, Morgan Stanley reached out to me about a role on their Macro Futures desk in the Institutional Equity Division, and I ended up working there for three years. I recently moved to JP Morgan in June and love it so far. I wasn’t originally planning on leaving MS, but JP was such a great opportunity and I loved the team that I would be working with. I think that who you work with is so important and something to always keep in mind.

What have you learned?

As I mentioned before, I think that who you work with and for is so important, especially within a larger organization. Your manager has a lot of influence on your day-to-day work and overall career path, while your coworkers are who you interact with during most of your waking hours. Having a strong advocate is necessary because a lot of pivotal conversations happen without you in the room. I also think that it never hurts to continue to grow your marketable skillset, and, in general, to be a good person that people want to work with. Industries are often much smaller than you think and having integrity at work will always win in the long run.

What is your favorite part of your job?

Definitely the people and the social aspect of the job. You meet a bunch of very outgoing people in Sales & Trading, and a lot of people have the same work hard, play hard mentality. The trading floor is never quiet, which I love. There are always people talking and having intellectual conversations around you. I personally also enjoy keeping up with the news and the market – I would do it in my free time anyways. My days go by pretty fast; I’m always working on a million different things and initiatives at the same time and love that every single day is different.

What has been the biggest challenge of your career?

I would say that I’m not naturally a salesperson at heart but have learned how to be assertive and put myself out there. I’ve gotten a lot more comfortable with talking to clients over the years and feel much more relaxed in my role.

 What’s your favorite thing to do for fun?

 I love running- I recently ran a marathon in 2019! I usually run along the East River or West Side Highway and love running in Central Park on the weekends. I also really enjoy hanging out with my friends and going out to restaurants.