IBKR’s Interns – Liberal Arts Majors Thrive in the FinTech Sector

IBKR’s internship program is a critical path for aspiring professionals, eager to start building successful careers. Join us, as IBKR’s human resources, and marketing leaders engage in a lively discussion with a unique group of interns – those who have thrived at our financial services firm with liberal arts-related goals. Find out more, as we dive into IBKR’s culture and recruitment process, and hear candid, first-hand accounts from interns and their mentors! This is a ‘must-listen’ for anyone seeking an internship or applying to work at IBKR.

Summary – Cents of Security Ep. 1

The following is a summary of a live audio recording and may contain errors in spelling or grammar. Although IBKR has edited for clarity no material changes have been made.

Steven Levine

Hello, and welcome to IBKR Podcasts.  I’m Steven Levine, senior market analyst at Interactive Brokers, and your host for today’s program, where we have something of a treat for our listeners today. IBKR’s Internship Program for 2023 – that’s our topic, and here with us is a fairly large group of interns, some of their managers and mentors, and representatives from our HR [human resources] department – all of whom are going to share their experiences this year, and it’s been quite a time.

But before we get into it, I just wanted to point out that – for those listeners interested in financial podcasts, we have a lot of really ahead-of-the-curve discussions at ibkrpodcasts.com [IBKR Podcasts] – it’s part of our IBKR Campus. And there you’ll find everything about current trends in the global financial markets, including advancements in AI, along with deep dives into the latest economic data, including food inflation and related agricultural commodities, prescient Fed analysis – all of which have been covered by this gentleman, here, standing next to me – he’s our director of trading education: Andrew Wilkinson. So, welcome, Andrew!

Andrew Wilkinson

Thank you very much, Steve, it’s a pleasure to be here.

Steven Levine

It’s a pleasure to have you. Thank you so much. And now that we’re into the introductions … Kristen Deegan, who runs our HR’s Operations and Information systems, is also here with us, as well as Barbara Olander, who manages our Total Rewards, or benefits, program – very excited to have you both here. Thank you!

Kristen Deegan

Thank you, Steve. Nice to be here.

Barbara Olander

Very nice to be here.

Steven Levine

So, that’s not all! We also have a group of interns with us, as well – from just about every part of the U.S., I think, right? We’ve got Grace Fitzgibbon, and Lucas Puech – out of Boston – you’re joining us from BC [Boston College]; I understand you graduated?

Grace Fitzgibbon, Lucas Puech

Yes.

Steven Levine

Congratulations.

Grace Fitzgibbon, Lucas Puech

Thank you.

Steven Levine

Kelly Clark – from UC [University of California at] Santa Barbara – all the way out from California?

Kelly Clark

Yup.

Steven Levine

Yeah. It’s great. It’s great. Thank you so much. Rebecca Degter – and she’s up from Wake Forest in North Carolina.

Rebecca Degter

Yeah. Happy to be here.

Steven Levine

Happy to have you here. And, so, thank you all for taking the time to do this! I think it’s going to be quite a conversation … and just because your manager or mentor may be in the room … I encourage you all to be as candid as possible about your experience, which, I have a feeling is not going to be such a problem…..

For those listeners who may not be fully aware – Interactive Brokers really is a technology company that operates in the financial space – and, at the core, we create innovative trading platforms and tools for traders and investors, worldwide. But what is it about our company that makes our resources, and, ultimately its operations, successful?

Part of that is our internship program, I would say – it’s highly competitive. But let’s start with you, Kristen. I know you have an intern, and she’s here with us today – that’s Kelly.  Hi, Kelly!

Kelly Clark

Hi.

Steven Levine

We introduced you earlier on. So, [Kristen], how do you see our interns this year, or in general, contributing to IBKR’s success? Talk about what projects you assigned to Kelly, and how that’s contributed as well.

Kristen Deegan

Well, I’ll start with the interns, overall. I think what this year’s intern class has brought to IB [Interactive Brokers] is a broad spectrum of skill sets and interests and abilities, and they’ve worked in various departments around the company, adding those skills and interests to our day-to-day work – projects as well, I’m sure … production support and other kinds of initiatives. But Kelly came in … and we had a number of ideas for projects that interns could work on … and what actually happened rather organically was Kelly’s skill and interest in community building kind of grew out of some initial early conversations that we had. And we sort of ran with that. So, she’s been involved with driving the internship program this summer … with some guidance and support from the HR team. But she’s really done a lot to organically build community among the very large intern group that we had.

Steven Levine

That’s really great. And community is so important. I mean, is that going to fall apart when she leaves, or will we still have that community?

Kristen Deegan

We do, we do. Although the internship program will be closing for the summer.

Steven Levine

Yes, but its memory will live on, I’m sure.

Kristen Deegan

It will.

Steven Levine

It will live on. So, we’ll turn to you, Kelly … for your experience—  Well, before we do that, I know you’re going into, what, your junior year at UC Santa Barbara?

Kelly Clark

Yeah, I’m a rising junior.

Steven Levine

Okay, okay. And that’s a pretty long trip you’ve taken to come out here to Connecticut.

Kelly Clark

Yeah.

Steven Levine

So, our headquarters are in Greenwich, Connecticut. So, what made you decide to come all the way out here to do it? Did you have any other options? Any other programs that you could have taken that were closer to home, say?

Kelly Clark

Yeah, so I did. I interviewed with a lot of possible internships, but I found Interactive Brokers to be the most attractive one. I interviewed with Barbara [Olander], and after hearing about what my day-to-day work life would be, and the projects I’d be working on, I found it to be the best fit.

Steven Levine

It’s great to hear. What can you say are the practical skills that you can take with you from the projects that you’ve done here, something that might be aligned with your personal / professional goals? What would that be?

Kelly Clark

Similar to what Kristen [Deegan] said … the communication skills, definitely. I’ve been interested in growing those, and here I’ve had the opportunity to do so; that, and just my analytical skills with organizing data and my research skills as well.

Steven Levine

I’m going to throw that question out there to all the interns now. I’d be really curious to know where you see yourself—What does your future self look like? What ideally would you be doing – personally, professionally? Let’s start with you, Lucas.

Lucas Puech

Yeah, sure. Although I don’t have the most developed idea of exactly what it is that I want to do, you know, 10 years from now, I’d ideally like to live abroad working in intergovernmental organizations for the sake of environmental work. So, I studied environmental science and political science in school. And my goal sort of is to work in the space between the public and private sector and try to stimulate environmental policy and sustainability in the private sector.

Steven Levine

Grace?

Grace Fitzgibbon

Yeah, similar to Lucas, I’m not necessarily sure where I’m going to end up, but this internship was a stepping stone for me, because I’m headed down to UVA [University of Virginia] in a few weeks for my masters [degree] in marketing, and just the experience I’ve gained here is unimaginable, and I’ve learned so much, and it’s definitely given me a lot of hope and excitement for what’s in the future in marketing.

Steven Levine

And then you’re going to Virginia. So, you’re basically state hopping.

Grace Fitzgibbon

Exactly.

Steven Levine

Rebecca, I’ll ask the same of you. Where do you see yourself going in, say, the next five to 10 years? What does it look like, ideally, if you have to imagine yourself out there?

Rebecca Degter

Similar to Grace and Lucas, I’m heading into my junior at college, so I’m not too sure where I will exactly end up. I have a major in psychology, but this summer my marketing internship has been amazing. I’ve learned so much. Before this internship, I’ve never even used a Windows computer, quite candidly. And

now, I’m very proficient in [Adobe] Audition. I’m proficient at using it. So, I’m really excited to see where my marketing career can take me. But regardless, it’s a great experience for future work, regardless of what job opportunity I choose.

Steven Levine

That’s awesome. And we’ll get more specifically into your projects as well. I imagined myself exactly where I am now, 10 years prior. I’m sure Andrew did as well. Andrew, how long have you been here with the company?

Andrew Wilkinson

So, on and off about 20 years. I started in 2007, Steve.

Steven Levine

Okay, so, 20 years.  So, so I’d like to ask you this, because I think you’ve been here, perhaps, longer in tenure than others.  And you’re also Rebecca’s mentor?

Andrew Wilkinson

Yes.

Steven Levine

Yes. Okay. So, I’d like to know, in your view, what is behind Interactive Brokers’ ongoing competitiveness and success in the broker industry? What drives that?

Andrew Wilkinson

Well, Interactive Brokers is a very tech-centric company. It’s got a long history within financial markets, and it’s got a very dominant global presence – and specifically for professional investors. And when I mean professional investors, it’s those people who can think of volatility as an asset class. So, it’s

the ability to scale up when markets go up, and to scale up when markets go down. We’re a very lean company – I think about 2,800 employees, globally, and that ability to enable clients around the world in all those different countries to facilitate their training when they need it, that’s really critical.

Steven Levine

So, within this context, what kind of projects did you, say, assign to Rebecca that helps to support that kind of success for this company?

Andrew Wilkinson

Well, back in back in November last year, we were asked by our HR colleagues if we could put together an internship task for the summer. So, I wrote down some requirements of what ‘the podcast producer’ would potentially add to the team. So, we asked Rebecca to schedule podcasts for the summer, work with guests, and then produce each event. So, that means taking a raw recording, removing all the ‘umms’ and the ‘aahs’, and the pregnant pauses that I often create, and then structuring the events so that it’s easy on the ear for the audience. And it means working with audio software, as Rebecca mentioned, and editing software, coordinating with the compliance team, and dealing with a hectic publishing schedule to ensure that we’ve got a great flow of weekly content. And my team also set their task for Rebecca … which we can go into later … to create a brand new channel while she was here. We wanted to create a series of episodes that would appeal to people of her age that wanted to learn more about financial matters, whether it was credit scores, the buying versus renting decision for homes or autos, as well as investing basics.

Steven Levine

That’s a lot of work that you ended up having to do for the training education area. Rebecca! Can you tell us a little bit more about what you took away from it, practically, that you’ll have your hands on?

Rebecca Degter

Yeah, of course. So, I think, practically, overall, the biggest thing I took away is seeing something come from … just nothing, really, to a big production. And I think that just seeing the process of something translating into a really great podcast, or a really great transcript, or even a brand new channel, as Andrew was talking about, is really great to see, because really nothing can turn into something super great as long as you work hard at it. So, I think, overall, that’s where my mind is at.

Steven Levine

That’s awesome. I think that speaks volumes, actually, to the kind of culture that we have here at the company. And for this, I’d like to get your feedback, Barbara. Would you agree that working hard at this company is important? It’s a part of its culture. And I understand you also had an intern in your department: Dahlia [Pepe]. Is that right?

Barbara Olander

That is correct.

Steven Levine

Okay. And in your view, what are some of the traits or the attributes or characteristics that a resource at this company would need, say, to fit in with the culture … to adapt to the culture … to thrive in the culture, to do well here?

Barbara Olander

So, I think you’ve touched on a very good, sort of, baseline of the type of personality or characteristics or traits that we are looking for in our employees, whether that be the intern class or employees. Broadly, we want individuals who are driven … who are eager to succeed … who are able to take, you know, a nebulous idea and make it a reality. You know, ensure that all of the necessary steps are followed and followed up on, and are really able to sort of manage the occasional disappointments that may come with that process. As we all know that not everything goes as smoothly as maybe you intend it to, but in order to succeed at Interactive Brokers, you have to have a little bit of a resilience and a little bit of a desire to succeed as well.

Steven Levine

Yeah, and it really creates dedication towards your own work, and towards the results that I think Rebecca was talking about – seeing those results are just … really are amazing … and what you contribute to those results, at the end of the day, really makes it all worthwhile, doesn’t it?

Barbara Olander

Absolutely. I think with Dahlia, who, as you mentioned, was my intern … I think she had been able to show that working through a project, or a set of tasks, diligently … or sort of sticking with it … yielded the results that we had sort of agreed on, or imagined to be, at the end of that process.

Steven Levine

You can’t ask for more than that. That’s really great.  So, I think this is a nice segue back to Lucas and Grace and talking a little bit more specifically about the projects that you had and how they’re going to align with those career goals that you mentioned earlier. I know intergovernmental operations was part of that, Lucas.

Lucas Puech

Yeah, of course. I’d say my two most relevant projects, or what I’ve spent the most amount of my personal time on, is building out our Scope Three emissions data on—

Steven Levine

What is Scope Three? Scope Three is like a derivative of emissions or—?

Lucas Puech

So, yeah, another term for it is ‘associated emissions’. So, while we produce carbon emissions in our offices – those are more Scope One and Two, because they’re more direct and indirect emissions.

Steven Levine

Okay.

Lucas Puech

Associated carbon emissions are those that you’re responsible for throughout your supply chain. So, if … you know … to give an example, we use a lot of data centers and, you know, the racks that we are purchasing from these data centers also produce carbon emissions, and we’re more responsible for those than the company itself, necessarily. So, we have to be able to document exactly what it is that we’re responsible for to have an accurate picture of our global carbon footprint.

Steven Levine

I think he’s going to be a guest on our future podcast.

Andrew Wilkinson

I’d say.

Steven Levine

Yeah, I’d say so, too.

Lucas Puech

And that ties directly to what it is that I want to do, because it’s, at the end of the day, environmental work. It’s sustainability. And although my future aspirations might be more politically centered, it certainly has that environmental aspect to it; but then that ties to my second project, which is regulatory analysis. And so, legislative bodies around the world, whether that’s the EU or Australian Parliament … or whatever it may be … they’re passing sustainability laws that require companies to adapt and implement whatever sustainability requirements, or disclosure requirements, that that specific law might be asking for. And, so, we need to be able to know exactly what it is that we qualify for within those requirements and develop the plans of abiding by them.

Steven Levine

So, where we have a presence around the world … in different places within the EU, we have to abide by certain regulations that are different from the U.S., obviously, depending on what policy is there.

Lucas Puech

Precisely.

Steven Levine

And you’re in the ESG and Sustainability group under Cecile Fleckten. She was your mentor, yes?

Lucas Puech

Correct, yes.

Steven Levine

Awesome. Grace … and you were in marketing with Anthony Catino?

Grace Fitzgibbon

Yes, I’m marketing.

Steven Levine

Okay.

Grace Fitzgibbon

So, a little bit different than Rebecca. I had a vast difference of jobs than Rebecca. My path this summer wasn’t linear, but I think that that has given me a lot of insight into what I want to do in the future. And I came into marketing because I’ve always been really interested in the way that companies, you know, put themselves out there and get customers. So, I was really excited to learn about the intricacies of that. And, this summer, I worked on updating our website – the Hedge Fund Marketplace – and working on some of the text, because I was an English major. So, reading through some of that was very interesting. I also was researching software for our social media, which was really cool. But, overall, I learned so much with the different projects, and I’m really grateful that I was able to, you know, kind of dip my toes in a little bit of everything to gain that understanding.

Steven Levine

It’s great. It sounds to me like there’s a far more substantial experience through the internship here –

something that is substantial enough to take with you after this internship ends.

Grace Fitzgibbon

Definitely.

Steven Levine

Oh, I don’t think we understood exactly where you’re going to go in the future, Kelly?

Kelly Clark

Oh, that question. I’m not too exactly sure where it’s going to take me, but I am lucky to have gained the skills I have here, and I’m hoping to grow those, and bounce off those, once I finish school. Like Grace, I’m studying English, and I have a passion for literature, reading, and writing, and I want to hopefully do something with that in the future.

Steven Levine

There were great posts that I remember y’all put up through Yammer, which is now, I understand, ‘Viva Engage’.

Kelly Clark

Yes.

Steven Levine

It keeps changing names. I hope that community stays around, too, for long after this internship is over. But, anyways, this is incredibly informative. This is all really, really great. I want to just open the floor to anybody who’d like to say anything. Andrew?

Andrew Wilkinson

I have a question. Did anybody have any interaction with other department heads that would help them in their future careers?

Kelly Clark

Yes, I actually did. Thanks to Andrew Wilkinson for allowing me to meet with the technical writing team here. I was asked to work on an intern piece for the company magazine, and through the magazine outlet, I met a bunch of people I admire. And Andrew was so kind and set me up with a couple of the technical writers here, and I had a few meetings with them, where they told me about their career path, their school experience, their day-to-day work life…. So, it’s definitely very helpful. Thank you, Andrew.

Steven Levine

Did you relate to any of their experiences as well?

Kelly Clark

I totally did, yeah.

Steven Levine

So, it sounds pervasive. And how many interns did we have in this group this year?

Kristen Deegan

We had 55 globally, but I think there were 39 in the U.S.

Steven Levine

Wow, okay.

Kelly Clark

Twenty-eight at Greenwich.

Andrew Wilkinson

And where else in around the company were they?

Kristen Deegan

We have an intern still located in London. We had interns, I believe, in Hungary, Singapore, Hong Kong, Chicago…..

Kelly Clark

Fort Lauderdale as well.

Steven Levine

That’s a whole country itself. This has been really, really terrific. Does anybody else want to say anything last minute?

Kelly Clark

I do.  If there’s one thing you guys are going to take out of this podcast, it should be to never say ‘no’ to any opportunity that comes your way. Moving out here was very scary for me, but I am so grateful that I chose to do it. So, I hope you guys can take advantage of the same opportunity that I did.

Steven Levine

Excellent. I want to thank you all very, very much for coming, for participating, for being open and candid about the experience. My experience, personally, with this whole internship group this year has been really, really phenomenal, as it was last year as well.

For our listeners, you can hear more of IBKR Podcasts at the IBKR Campus, and they’re also available on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, and anywhere you listen to your favorite shows, and wherever you might tune in, please rate and review us. We also have an entire financial literacy series, as Andrew had mentioned earlier, for those of you interested in learning all about, say, credit scores or managing a 401K or seeking auto financing … a lot of really great topics. And for a full list of financial education offerings, visit the IBKR Campus, where as always, all of our educational material is provided to the public at no cost.

And until next time, I’m Steven Levine with Interactive Brokers.

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• Careers at Interactive Brokers
• IBKR Podcasts Ep. 37 – Keys to Success – Part 1
• IBKR Podcasts Ep. 38 – Keys to Success – Part 2
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