Robert Forler
- Quantitative Strategist
- Citadel Investment Group
School Information
School: Universe of Illinois Champaign-Urbana
College Major: Engineering
Years at College Works: 2006
Career Information
Working For: Citadel Investment Group
Title: Quantitative Strategist
Industry: Finance
Brief Description of Duties / Responsibilities:
Develop and research models for trading
What Has Been Your Proudest Accomplishment Post-CWP?Switching careers from engineering into finance required me to set an endless number of short term and long term goals. I’ve been hitting each goal to the point that where I am today is my proudest accomplishment.
College Works Career Impact
In one sentence, what has CW meant to you?
College Works Painting taught me that if I can run my own business successfully, I can easily work within someone else’s business successfully.
How did your CW experience impact your career? Immediately after graduation? Now?
My College Works Painting experience gave me confidence to strive towards finding a very challenging job. I was confident that I could rise to any challenge.
What was the greatest lesson you learned from your CW experience?
Just because something has a steep learning curve, it doesn’t mean you won’t get there. Just looking at how many sales calls I did before I had a decent sales rate.
Advice
What advice do you have for potential CW participants? Current CW participants?
If you aren’t the type of person who likes to continually learn and push yourself, you either need to really take a look at yourself or enjoy a series of dead end jobs.
What’s your favorite memory from CW?
My favorite memory involved going to a sales call with my DM Steve Bauer. The people loved him, but me… not so much. I’m certain he would have sold the job if I wasn’t there. It really motivated me to work on my sales.
Last words of wisdom?
Take some risks when you are young. You have a lot more support than you think.