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How this senior interactive multimedia major scored a full-time job at a Wall Street powerhouse.

Ask Jamie Ling about her dream job and she’ll quip: “Katy Perry’s manager.”

But it’s not the glam lifestyle she’s after. For Ling, the logistics and operations behind big business operations are what ignite her light.

“I’m interested in what goes on behind the scenes,” she says. “I have a strong interest in the business, branding, and production side of different companies.”

Enter Goldman Sachs, a world-class financial powerhouse. Ling, an interactive multimedia major with a finance minor, spent her summer interning at GS offices in New York City, learning about their complex investment products, analyzing the operational structures of the company, and brainstorming ways to make its processes more efficient.

She sought experience at the firm for its reputation, and she says that Goldman Sachs was looking for hard-working problem solvers with a willingness to learn — a role for which she says TCNJ’s interactive multimedia program prepared her well, right down to helping her prep for the interview.

“Being an IMM major has made me so well-rounded and has provided me the ability to constantly learn new things at a quick pace,” she says.

Before coming to TCNJ, Ling says she was the quietest person you’d ever meet. “TCNJ really helped me open up!” she says, crediting on-campus jobs and clubs, TCNJ’s Career Center, and especially her peers and professors in her major, as nurturing her growth.

“Jamie has a special quality of courageousness,” says Teresa Nakra, chair of the interactive multimedia department and Ling’s academic advisor. “She used this to excellent effect during the preparation phase for her Goldman Sachs interview, when she reached out to IMM faculty for mock interviews.”

With interview prep help and mentorship from John Kuiphoff, associate professor of IMM, and Brett Ratner ’16, the department’s technical coordinator, she sailed through three rounds of interviews and landed the gig.

Little did she know that what started as a summer internship would turn into a full-time job offer in her hand nearly a year in advance of her May 2020 graduation.

“I wouldn’t be where I am today if I hadn’t met all the right people here at TCNJ,” she says. “I’m grateful for my advisor, my professors, and for my colleagues at Goldman Sachs for letting me prove that I have what it takes to excel there.”

In July 2020, she’ll start her job as a Securities Division analyst at GS. Until then, she says she plans to spend her senior year soaking in the college she’s grown to love — totally worry-free.

“TCNJ is an absolutely amazing place to be,” she says. “I am just so excited and happy that I will be able to really experience the campus culture and community life in full before I graduate.”

Jamie’s Pro Tips:

  • Network. Reach out, keep in touch, and ask how someone’s day is.
  • Do things! Get involved on campus. Trying new things = learning new things.
  • Be a sponge. Soak up as much knowledge and experience as you can.
  • Run toward challenges and think how you can make things better.
  • Keep an open mind. You never know what can happen. “Working at Goldman Sachs is the last thing I thought I’d be doing with an IMM major, yet here I am!”

Emily W. Dodd ’03, with reporting by Sarah Voorhees ’20

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