My three-day Princeternship at Alpha Capital Management was an amazing experience that has given me some very valuable insight into my future career goals. Before Princeton, I was fairly set on going into the field of advertising. After coming to Princeton and taking an economics course, however, I became fascinated by the world of financial markets and began to consider going into investment banking/management. This Princternship allowed me to experience the investment management world first-hand. While I’m still not sure if I want to take the leap and become an investment banker or investment management professional, I am now in a better position to weigh my options.

The moment I arrived at Alpha Capital Management I was immersed in the world of investment management. I had the opportunity to explore various papers on potential funds for the firm. Initially, the jargon was borderline overwhelming; my head was swimming with Sharpe ratios, Sortino ratios, arbitrage strategies, and soft closed investments, among others. The alumna at the firm, Anna Dunn ’07, was very helpful and assured me that most people pick it up as they go along. I breathed a sigh of relief.

The aspect of the Princeternship that I enjoyed the most was listening to conference calls. As I listened to firm representatives detailing the composition of their holdings and relating it to current global events, it instantly reminded me of my macroeconomics class and why I first fell in love with economics. It was really interesting to see concepts I had learned in class applied to real life situations. On the last day, I worked with Ms. Dunn to gather data and create a hypothetical portfolio that projected returns and potential risk. This hands-on portion of the Princeternship was very rewarding. This was a great experience and I urge anyone who is considering a career in finance to take part in this internship.