News

“I’ll do whatever it takes,” Jaime Cahill said at the end of each interview with National Bank executives in the past few months. Cahill, a Corporate Residency MBA student at the Rowe School of Business, was competing for a National Bank Women in Financial Markets Scholarship. Evidently, Cahill did do “whatever it takes”—last month she was named one of three students from across Canada to win the scholarship.

With an undergraduate degree in chemistry and one finance class under her belt, Cahill did not at first see herself as a prime candidate for the $10,000 scholarship, which National Bank created to encourage women to pursue postgraduate studies in finance. “When I applied, I thought, they’re going to take one look at my undergraduate degree and say, ‘what was she thinking?’” recalls Cahill. She began to pursue the scholarship—and a career in finance—largely because of the encouragement of Dr. Rick Nason, her finance professor. “I confided in him that I didn’t know if I could be successful in finance considering my background, because it’s so competitive,” says Cahill. “And he said that I have what it takes and urged me to pursue it. Shortly after, a former student told him about the scholarship and asked if he had any women in his classes who would be interested in a career in finance, so he asked if I wanted to apply.”

After completing her chemistry degree at St. Francis Xavier University, Cahill arrived at Dalhousie and was encouraged to see the diverse interests of her peers. “That’s what’s so great about the MBA program here,” she says. “There are so many people with different backgrounds.” During the first year of her degree, Cahill discovered an interest in finance, capital markets and the banking industry. “When people come into the MBA program, they think ‘I don’t want to work at a bank. That would be so boring,’” she says. “But you quickly learn how interesting the markets are. A bomb goes off on the other side of the world, or there’s a political dilemma in Europe, and it immediately affects the markets here. Everything feeds into them!”

It turns out that National Bank also appreciates diverse knowledge. “I went through five rounds of interviews and right from the first round they said how much they liked that I had a different background,” says Cahill. “They mentioned that many feel that the 2008 crash had a lot to do with people in finance being from the same mould and thinking the same way, so they appreciate diverse backgrounds and different ways of thinking.” Indeed, one of the other women who won the scholarship, originally from Thailand, has an engineering degree, to which she is adding an MBA at the Ivey Business School. The other, who hails from Kenya, is completing a Master of Financial Economics at Western University.

Jaime Cahill (front, left) with the other scholarship winners and National Bank personnel (Photo: National Bank press release)

“National Bank founded this scholarship partly because of their stance on diversity,” says Cahill. “I think bringing women in is part of that.” Cahill reflects on the past and present of women’s roles in the finance and capital markets industry: “Especially years ago Wall St. was kind of a boys’ club,” she says. “When people think of finance and Wall St., some still picture all the guys on the trading floor yelling at each other. But it’s just not like that anymore. Women are just as capable as men and this belief that finance is a male-dominated industry needs to end.” Cahill herself is already pursuing leadership in the field—next year she will be co-chairing the Rowe School’s student Hedge Fund Society.

The Women in Financial Markets scholarship normally brings with it the opportunity to intern at National Bank. However, Cahill is already doing a residency at Stantec, where she works to improve sustainability. “I said that with my lack of experience I don’t mind doing an internship after I graduate,” explains Cahill. “But I don’t think that’s what will happen.” National Bank, like many other banks, has a “rotational program” in which new employees spend a year in different areas of the bank to find a good fit. Winning the scholarship means Cahill will automatically head to the final round of interviews for one of these positions. She is hoping for news about this job before the end of 2016—“That would be really lovely to know going into my last term,” she notes. For now, Cahill is keeping her options open as she continues to network and explore different areas of finance such as energy trading. She recently accepted a partner position at a student-run consulting company, Coburg Consultants, to hone her sales skills and gain experience in the field.

Cahill is grateful for having options. “I came into the MBA program without any knowledge of finance, and now I’m interviewing for jobs at these incredible institutions,” she says. “This program allows you to keep a lot of options open. What’s really gotten me here is being open to new opportunities and staying flexible and open-minded.” Clearly, Cahill’s doing whatever it takes.