Devan

Growing up, I was always interested in finance. When I heard that Goldman Sachs was opening a new office in Salt Lake City and was actively recruiting, I was not actually looking for a new job. However, I knew I wanted to work for an organization of excellence, so I could not pass up the chance to at least look at what was available. I didn’t have any contacts at the time so I applied through the Web. Eight interviews later, I got an offer.

I can recall on my first day, thinking to myself, “When are these guys going to eat lunch?” Even though people arrived at 6:30 am, they didn’t eat lunch until around 12:00 pm. To make matters worse, I learned that most people brought their lunch in and ate it at their desk. After that lesson, I quickly realized I needed to spend some time understanding the environment. I began to understand that I was not going to be hand-held and it was up to me to immerse myself in the culture, ask questions and take things as far as I wanted. It was an important realization derived from a very simple issue.