William Lederer

Discovering Career Aspirations

During my senior year of high school, I knew that I wanted to study business, but I did not quite have professional aims yet.  I had the opportunity to attend Notre Dame’s Reilly Visitation Program and immediately knew that ND would be my home for the next four years.

Coming into Notre Dame, I thought my studies would lead to a legal profession as a criminal prosecutor.  However, after interning at a law firm after my freshman summer, I found that my interests did not fully align with law.

During my sophomore year, I thoroughly enjoyed learning finance from Carl Ackermann and became involved with SIBC and Wall Street Club.  Through these organizations, I found that my academic and professional interests mostly aligned with an investing career.

The Value of Mentorship

Although my professional development began before the establishment of the Institute, the principles inherent in the programs offered by the Institute defined most of my undergraduate work.  The most important pillar is mentorship. By working on extracurricular projects, I was able to form strong relationships with upperclassmen who taught me skills critical to professional success.  Their hard work in answering my questions relating to finance, jobs, networking and professional development highlighted the power of the Notre Dame network. Additionally, professors, University officials, Institute Leadership and alumni showed a genuine interest in my education, and these relationships only furthered my growth.

Since completing a few internships, I had the opportunity to work with underclassmen through the Institute and forged similar relationships.  The peer-to-peer mentorship aspect of the Institute is the strongest feature. Students can rely on upperclassmen and recent alumni to answer all questions related to internship and full-time work experiences.  By leveraging the resources of the alumni network and students’ work experiences, underclassmen can become exposed to professional situations early in their college careers. This will provide Notre Dame students an advantage when landing internships and jobs.