Jillian Friel

I would say I have two parents that made it clear that working isn't necessarily, like, in general, maybe not anybody's dream, but work hard to be able to do everything else you want in life. So, I attribute all my determination and all of that to them. They really set the standard for excellence.

Lean on your mentors. Coming in out of college, your mentor can be somebody that's only got one year of experience, but it's one more year than you, and then as you meet people, you'll find more and more people that, you know, oh, I liked that career move they had, or they were just really kind to me, I'd love to keep in touch, and they're the people with the wisdom, and might see a situation in a different perspective than you. I've now had 4 managers within JP Morgan, and each one was just wonderful. My most recent manager and I are still on a touchstone basis, and we'll send restaurant recommendations and catch up.

I would say, outreach. There's a number of weird ways to get a job that I think it's becoming more and more common as the world kind of gets smaller with technology. I do know many people within my firm that have gotten jobs on different teams just by networking, just by meeting people. Lean on your network in terms of friends, in terms of friends of friends, and all of that, just going back to taking yourself out of your comfort zone and force yourself to meet new people. Your network is your net worth.

I think the biggest challenge forever and always is just going to be personalities, and I mean that in the best way. We're a very diverse group of people, whether that's background, upbringing, all of that, or just see things truly differently based on a lot or a little knowledge on a specific topic. You've got to learn how to work with the people around you in the most effective and efficient way. As for opportunities, the AI boom is huge. I'm finding myself not only doing things quicker, because actually, in my role, I use it as almost just an auto-check on everything that I send out, getting rid of those little errors, maybe it's a typo, maybe it's something that could possibly be a communication lapse later on. The biggest opportunity is utilizing AI and all of our technology. My team is really dedicated also to learning to code in SQL, breaking that barrier between finance and tech, and kind of understanding that they're just hand-in-hand going forward.

I would say staying true to yourself. Being so early into my career, I find myself just kind of going along with some things, or I'd say my first years, I would go along with things, and now, with a little more professional confidence, I can say, you know, I'm not that comfortable sending this right now, or let me run this by so-and-so, and I'll get back to you, and just putting that kind of space between you and the other person to make sure that you're the most comfortable with it. It's about having boundaries.