To say that my career has changed since the beginning of the global pandemic is a gigantic understatement.
It was spring 2020. I was a senior at Belmont University in Nashville majoring in music business. After a tremendous amount of work, the career I had been dreaming of since I was in middle school — one in live music and event production — was about to begin.
In my junior year, I had gotten the chance to intern at Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival — aka my favorite place on Earth and the reason I first fell in love with live music. There, I got behind-the-scenes experience. As graduation approached in March 2020, I scored an interview with Superfly Productions, the company that used to produce Bonnaroo. The stars were aligned for me to fulfill my dream.
And then I lost everything in a matter of days.
Live events stopped. At the interview, they told me they had halted their hiring process for the foreseeable future. I went home to finish my college career looking at a screen and didn’t get the graduation ceremony and celebration that I desperately wanted.
As for my future career, it seemed like everything had fallen through the cracks. No one knew when live events would return and if they would ever return in their former capacity. I felt lost and hopeless with no tangible solution in sight.
After months of staring into the abyss, I reached out to a mentor whom I’d known since I was a freshman in high school. I told Land Bridgers, CEO of
Outside of a few accounting and finance classes I had taken in college, I had no experience with anything in the financial sector, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me from seizing the incredible opportunity. I accepted the invitation to interview and within a month I was hired as the new trading assistant. In March 2021 — a full year after my world had devolved into chaos — I began working at the firm.
Executing under pressure
My primary responsibilities in my current role as a trading assistant all revolve around executing trades for a number of financial advisors so they can focus on growing their business and managing client relationships without all the stress that comes with day-to-day trading.
And the stress and intensity that come with executing hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of trades with 100% accuracy all while beating the closing bell — sometimes with seconds to spare — can be intense! It forced me to ramp up my adaptability skills significantly, which in turn allowed me to process a great deal of information in a short amount of time. Ultimately, this has allowed me to thrive in my new environment.
An aspect of the job that I didn’t expect to appreciate was the satisfaction I feel at the end of every day knowing that I’ve helped people and made a difference. I am proud to make trades with peoples’ hard-earned money, which in some cases they have worked their entire lives to accrue. If I make a mistake, there could be serious repercussions, so I pride myself on being diligent, thorough and heavily detail-oriented with every trade so I can give our advisors and their clients the peace of mind in knowing that their money is being handled the right way.
The adrenaline rush and gratification that comes with knowing I am doing something important and executing correctly under pressure keeps me coming back to work each and every day. I could not be happier with the decision to take myself way out of my comfort zone and change my life. I love my team at IFG, which was so welcoming and patient and helped me dig myself out of a hole that I saw no way of getting out of.
Now, two years later, I can honestly say that I am glad my life got turned upside down. I am a better person because of it. I am more driven than ever, and although it is baffling to think about, the pandemic actually saved my life and my career.
