Leondre Quallo
- Vice President
- Goldman Sachs
School Information
School: Michigan State University
College Major: Business
Years at College Works: 2014
Career Information
Working For: Goldman Sachs
Title: Vice President
Industry: Finance
College Works Career Impact
In one sentence, what has CW meant to you?
College Works Painting has helped me learn who I am, through the development of my emotional intelligence, communication skills, and leadership, which I believe is very important to be successful.
How did your CW experience impact your career? Immediately after graduation? Now?
College Works Painting helped put me in a position to be a very competitive candidate for a wide variety of internships.
What do you want to tell your clients about what it meant to work with them and how it has helped you get to where you are today?
Katherine was my favorite client. It was nice to be able to see recent Michigan State grads doing very well and hear about their college experiences compared to mine. They were very friendly and definitely wanted to support students from their alma mater.
What was the greatest lesson you learned from your CW experience?
You only get out what you put into something and that the customer always comes first.
How have the friendships and networks you built during CW affected you?
I still stay in contact with a few of the friends I made in College Works Painting, however I have not taken any trips with them, etc.
If you had to come up with a one line slogan for CW, what would it be?
“We sell more than just a paint job. We sell a pathway to success.
Advice
What advice do you have for potential CW participants? Current CW participants?
Don’t slack off and give it your all. There will be times (several) where you want to give up or feel like you aren’t getting results. If you stick to it, it will pay considerable dividends.
Many college students struggle to choose between an internship specific to their target industry or doing CW. What advice would you give them on this subject if they wanted to enter your career field?
College Works Painting is definitely a good place to start your freshman year. Generally, companies will not hire a freshman for a meaningful internship in a target industry (for business at least). Your sophomore and junior years are when you should definitely focus on a target industry internship, so that you can leverage that into a full-time offer that same summer.
What’s your best advice for someone interested in entering your career field?
Network as early as possible and independently study concepts for interviews. If you are coming from a non-target school, networking is virtually the only we you are going to get an interview at an investment bank – on top of that you expected to be able to concisely and intellectually navigate concepts that are not taught in school and form opinions on whats going on in the markets.
What’s your favorite memory from CW?
Everyone Payroll Friday could be a favorite memory, but if I had to choose one it would be the trip to Windsor. This is partially because it was the same day as my birthday, but primarily because it was nice to be able to recap the summer with all of the other colleagues and meet interns from states outside of our division.