Sean Gallagher '01
Vice President
Merrill Lynch

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"Part of what keeps me heavily involved with recruiting is thinking about how alumni helped me and, in some sense, trying to continue that tradition." — Sean Gallagher '01

I was a commodities trader who switched to investment banking. As a career switcher, I definitely took advantage of SOM alumni and older students, both when I was deciding to get an MBA and while I was at SOM, because I wanted to figure out where my abilities would best be used. The alumni were great, taking an active interest in helping me and talking about their love of the school from the bottom of their hearts and how they thought it was a great place to start the next part of my career. Part of what keeps me heavily involved with recruiting is thinking about how those people helped me and, in some sense, trying to continue that tradition. Volunteering is my small way of being able to give back, by being helpful to students who are going through the same type of process that I did.

When I think back to those first SOM alumni that I talked to, part of what attracted me to SOM was that they seemed to have a bigger sense of the world around them and the importance of taking a more global view. I appreciate that this perspective is one of SOM’s core tenets — both then and now — and it helps SOM attract a certain type of person who is smart, interesting, and usually has a unique background. This also means that it is fun interacting with the students as a recruiter. Another part of the fun of recruiting is meeting up with classmates who are doing the same thing as recruiters for other companies. At the recruiting events I usually will see a few classmates and we catch up on the latest happenings. We truly enjoy each other’s company and our interaction brings a human touch to the whole recruiting process. We find that students enjoy hearing our stories and meeting down-to-earth people who have been through the process themselves.