Finance Major Interns Year-Round at J.P. Morgan
Since her sophomore year, Isjana Dizdari ’12 has interned at J.P. Morgan where she has been able to apply her classroom studies to the corporate world.
Isjana Dizdari ’12 has practically been interning since she graduated from high school.
While in high school, she participated in Virtual Enterprises International, an in-school entrepreneurship program and global business simulation in which students create and manage business ventures. Through the program, she landed a summer internship in corporate operations at J.P. Morgan.
Afterward, Dizdari stayed in touch with her manager, whom she asked about any other internship opportunities throughout the company. Her manager was able to set Dizdari up with an internship in the commercial banking global funds group, and the Bronx senior has been at J.P. Morgan, part time throughout the school year and full time in the summers, since her sophomore year.
As an operations intern in the company’s Park Avenue office, Dizdari’s work goes above and beyond the simple tasks typically associated with internships. She does a lot of the group’s auditing and manages her own projects.
“I now house a system, and I basically check on every single one of our clients,” she says. “About now, I think I have about 3,000 clients. I talk to auditors, brokers and attorneys sometimes for hedge fundadministrative companies.”
Being a year-round intern takes a considerable amount of dedicationand effort, but it has been worth it for Dizdari.
It has been eye-opening. It is interesting to work in business and then sit down in a business course and learn everything.
“It has been eye-opening. It is interesting to work in business and then sit down in a business course and learn everything,” she says.“What I have learned at my job isn’t necessarily what I am learningin my finance courses, but it is what I am learning in my management courses or in my advertising courses. So I am getting a feel for everything, but I think it’s great to really get the real-world experience while still learning everything in school.”
After graduation, Dizdari is keeping her options open and is thinking of moving into more of a finance-based position, preferably as an analyst. She likes being on the client side, but would like to work more with numbers.
“I think it has given me perspective that I really want to be more finance-based,” she says. “It is great to have the background that I have because I’m dealing with clients, and not a lot of people can say that.”