Three students from the E. J. Ourso College of Business represented the University at the TD Ameritrade Institutional’s National LINC 2017 conference in San Diego, California, Jan. 31 through Feb. 3.
The event is the firm’s annual investment advisor conference. Keynote speakers, industry professionals and various workshops provide information about cyber security, industry trends, personal investment and other financial services in the industry.
One keynote speaker included David Cameron, the United Kingdom’s former prime minister.
Fifty college students across the nation attended the conference. LSU and Texas A&M University were the only two SEC schools in attendance, said finance senior Rachel LeMaire.
LeMaire said she was invited to attend via email from instructor Mark Fry from the University’s Department of Finance.
She also said there were no big banks in attendance, only independent people with independent practices.
Some of the things LeMaire said she enjoyed included learning new trading strategies, the Department of Labor’s rules and how to build a business as a young advisor.
Marlen Breve, a finance senior, said she was invited by TD Ameritrade personally after receiving the TD Ameritrade NextGen Scholarship.
Breve said the workshop regarding cyber security gave her awareness to the possibilities of what could happen if fraudulent activity occurred.
Breve said she was interested in a workshop discussing how to simplify situations people in the industry deal with in life, especially since they are expected to have a large workload.
Accounting junior Megan Manno was another recipient of the TD Ameritrade NextGen Scholarship and was invited to attend.
Manno said she enjoyed the seminar given by Lisa Bodell, chief executive officer of futurethink. She said the seminar discussed how to be efficient and think “outside the box” with certain situations.
“We got to just get some insight from people within the industry on how we can prepare ourselves to really put our best foot forward as we enter the workforce,” Manno said. “I took away from the conference a renewed sense of excitement.”
Breve said she thought the conference was a great opportunity to network and build her brand. She said she made business cards to hand out during the conference.
“The conference honestly opened up a lot of doors for college students because you’re able to network with different people from different companies who are recruiting,” Breve said, “so you have a good percentage of getting an internship after or getting full-time employment.”
For LeMaire, the conference provided a job opportunity. She said she met the son of one of the general partners for Edward Jones Investments, and his father reached out to her to offer advice on pursuing an opportunity with the firm. She said she later received and accepted a full-time offer with the firm.
LeMaire said she was fearful going into the industry, due to the prominence of successful older men instead of women. However, she said going to the conference gave her confidence in combating that fear.
“But going there and hearing other women talk who have either been in the industry for forty years or three years, it really boosted my confidence,” LeMaire said. “It made me realize that if I put the hard work into it, which I will, then I’ll reap the rewards in the future like they are. I can’t pay attention to the stigmas, I just have to go in it and be bold and follow the examples that the women at that conference set for me.”