Chapel Intern applies economics education on Citi trading floor

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — For Penn State student Jake Pausley, concepts he had studied in the classroom took on new meaning this summer as he applied them on a trading floor in New York City.

Pausley, a fourth-year student dual majoring in economics and finance who is expected to graduate in December, spent the summer as a sales and trading summer analyst with Citi. He also was selected as a Chapel Executive Intern through the College of the Liberal Arts and received enrichment funding to support his internship experience.

Pausley’s interest in financial markets began with a high school teacher, but he did not discover sales and trading as a potential career until arriving at Penn State. Through the Asset Management Group at Penn State, a student-run investment organization in the Smeal College of Business, he connected with alumni working in the field and became drawn to its fast pace.

His dual majors also gave him complementary ways of understanding the work, he said.

“Finance gives you the technical side, like knowing how a bond is actually priced, and economics gives you the macro side, like understanding how a global event moves different markets,” Pausley said. “On a desk you need both at once.”

At Citi, Pausley rotated across three areas of the company’s sales and trading business, gaining exposure to securitized products, foreign exchange and rates.

His responsibilities ranged from building commercial mortgage-backed securities cash-flow models and pitching a bond to an insurance-buyer audience to managing a four-position macroeconomic portfolio and analyzing its performance. During his rates rotation, he also helped develop and deliver a client-facing presentation outlining potential interest-rate strategies based on expectations for Federal Reserve policy.

Pausley said the rates rotation was the most challenging because many of the concepts were unfamiliar to him, but that also made it particularly interesting. He was surprised by how much the work varied across the different areas of the business.

“I had imagined sales and trading as fast paced and macro facing, and that first rotation was slower and much more project based,” Pausley said. “The processes and the flow are not the same from one desk to the next.”

The experience gave Pausley a chance to put concepts from his Penn State economics courses to work on real financial questions.

“It gave my coursework a reason to exist,” Pausley said.

In particular, he drew on skills developed in ECON 483 Econometric Techniques while examining the relationship between oil prices and inflation for one of his desk projects. Rather than completing an analysis for a grade, Pausley had to consider how different statistical approaches affected his findings and be prepared to explain and defend his conclusions.

“The econometrics I learned in ECON 483 stopped being homework once I was running real regressions to test whether oil price moves actually pass through to core inflation,” he said. “I read more carefully now, and I am much quicker to question a number instead of accepting it.”

Other concepts that had once seemed abstract became more tangible as well. Pausley said theories related to fixed-income securities took on greater significance when seemingly small details could change the price produced by a financial model.

His finance education complemented that economic perspective. Pausley said FIN 407 International Finance introduced him to concepts related to foreign exchange, including how foreign exchange swaps work, which proved immediately useful during his rotation with the foreign exchange institutional sales desk.

He also credited the Asset Management Group at Penn State with giving him experience understanding complex financial products and presenting to audiences familiar with Wall Street. Although the organization is housed in Smeal, Pausley noted that it is open to students from all majors and encouraged other Liberal Arts students interested in financial careers to get involved.

Beyond applying his coursework, Pausley said moving among three different areas helped him better understand how financial professionals approach risk and make decisions.

The rotations also gave him greater clarity about where he hopes to take his career after graduating from Penn State.

“It confirmed that I want to work on a trading floor and sharpened what kind of seat I want,” Pausley said.

While he gained experience in structured credit, foreign exchange and rates, Pausley said the rotations helped him see how differently each area approaches risk and decision-making. He found himself particularly drawn to foreign exchange, where economic conditions and expectations can inform investment strategies.

One of the most rewarding experiences of the summer, he said, was developing two different investment strategies based on the same view of where Federal Reserve policy was headed and then presenting and defending those ideas.

Pausley said enrichment funding through the Chapel Executive Internship Program helped make it possible for him to focus fully on those opportunities. He used the funding to help cover the cost of summer housing at New York University, one of his largest expenses associated with interning in New York City.

“Housing is the biggest cost of taking an internship in New York, and having that covered meant I was not spending the summer thinking about what it cost me to be there,” Pausley said. “Every rotation is essentially a short audition in front of new people, so having my full attention on the work instead of split between the work and my expenses mattered more than I expected.”

As a Chapel Intern, Pausley also enrolled in LA 495 Undergraduate Field Experience, a half-credit course offered through the Liberal Arts Career Enrichment Network. The course is designed to help students reflect on and build upon their internship experiences through career-development activities.

Pausley said the course encouraged him to reflect on what he was learning throughout each rotation rather than waiting until the internship was over.

He also received guidance from Danielle Liddic, a career coach in the Liberal Arts Career Enrichment Network. Liddic encouraged him to keep a weekly record of his accomplishments, the people he met, and what was going well throughout the internship. She also advised him to use his final week to ask important questions while he still had access to colleagues on each desk.

“That changed how I closed out the summer,” Pausley said.

Following his internship, Pausley accepted a full-time position as a sales and trading analyst with Citi in New York City. He will begin the role next summer.

After graduating from Penn State in December, he plans to spend the months before returning to Citi working part time, traveling and spending time with friends at Penn State.