- 4 months ago
Alisa Wood, a partner at KKR, and Lizzie Reed, a partner at Goldman Sachs, share insider tips on standing out, building a long-term career, and what it really takes to make it on Wall Street.
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00:00I just get told to sit up straighter. I won't lounge.
00:02Where am I looking?
00:03I won't curse, I promise.
00:06I'm Elisa Wood. I'm a partner at KKR,
00:09a large asset manager managing almost $700 billion of assets.
00:14I'm Lizzie Reed, and I'm a partner at Goldman Sachs,
00:16and I lead a team who has priced over 50% of global IPOs in the past five years.
00:21This is what it takes to rise to the top on Wall Street.
00:27I had no intention of going into business.
00:29I was a poli-sci major.
00:30I thought I was going into government and help change the world.
00:33I had two dreams when I was graduating from Notre Dame.
00:36One was to move to New York City,
00:39and two was to start in the world of finance.
00:42I realized pretty quickly that I had a lot of student loans,
00:46and I was going to have to pay those off.
00:47So I went into the career services department at my school,
00:50and I said, what is the one profession I can get into
00:54that will pay these loans off by the time I'm 30?
00:56And they said, there's this thing called investment banking.
00:59And I said, great, I'm going to be great at it.
01:00They said, but you've never even taken a business class.
01:03And I said, don't you worry about it.
01:04So I interned in 2006.
01:07I remember so distinctly that I had wrote that my career desire
01:10was to be a managing director at Goldman,
01:12and then I crossed it out, and I put partner at Goldman.
01:16That's actually a really true story.
01:17Isn't that really?
01:18I'm really cute.
01:19My mom has the page, and she sent it to me after I made partner.
01:25It's like the one thing that I am going to frame for my office.
01:29I started looking at different firms that I can join.
01:32One of those was KKR.
01:34I actually sent in a blind resume and a pitch book,
01:38which said, here's why you should hire me,
01:41and here's how you can think about private equity differently.
01:44Henry Kravis, though, did send me a letter back saying,
01:47thank you for your recent note and expressing your interest in KKR.
01:51I regret that there are no executive positions available.
01:54I can't even imagine why I saved this,
01:56but it's not every day I get a letter from Henry Kravis,
01:58even if it's a rejection letter.
02:00Within about 24 to 48 hours, another partner called me and said to me,
02:04I received the same pitch book.
02:06I clearly sent it to a few people.
02:08Why don't you come on in and let's have a conversation?
02:11I was part of a soccer team, a very, very strong soccer team.
02:15I always knew that I wanted to be a leader.
02:19Before I went to college, I was actually a ballerina.
02:22I danced professionally.
02:24You were told no 100 times.
02:25Each one of those times where someone said no,
02:27the letter, case in point, it was almost a challenge.
02:30It was like, no, I got this.
02:31I'll figure it out, right?
02:32The harder it was, the better it was going to be in the end.
02:35You have to kind of, you know, be resilient through it.
02:37Do you want my old ID badge?
02:39I love this picture.
02:41So this is my first, oh, I'll do this one.
02:44So this is my first ID card at Goldman, and I got it in 2007.
02:50Honestly, best picture of my entire life.
02:52I just steal it out of my kid's wallet.
02:55It was probably one of our first firm headshots when we actually created a website.
03:01It was our second day of analyst training,
03:04and where I was meeting a whole bunch of new people.
03:07I actually don't really know why I'm so happy,
03:10but it really does.
03:12This person was in her mid-20s at best,
03:17who was really just figuring it out,
03:19believing in the best of everything,
03:21because you haven't been proven wrong yet.
03:23I remember so distinctly being a bit, quite frankly, intimidated.
03:26You know it's just the beginning.
03:28They're going to figure out that I might not know as much as they think I know.
03:32I think most people who are highly driven and successful in whatever they're pursuing
03:37probably have some type of fear of the traditional imposter syndrome.
03:41Are you good enough?
03:42Do you deserve to be here?
03:43Did you earn this?
03:45How are you going to do in a whole new environment?
03:47I think if I had to go back 18 years or 19 years where I am today,
03:51I probably would think in the very beginning of your career to think less
03:54and probably just to be very present and just to really enjoy the experience more,
03:59which was a very important transaction for me.
04:01But in reality, you know, you're there for a reason.
04:04You worked really hard to earn what you've gotten so far.
04:06Now you've got to make sure this works.
04:10You have to be scrappy.
04:11You have to have grit.
04:13Fear couldn't be an option because there was no other path through.
04:16Everyone deals with stressors differently in life.
04:20Some people might need extra sleep.
04:22For me, dealing with stress is actually working more.
04:25I said, you know what?
04:26I'm very confident that I will at work anyone
04:28and I will make sure that I will give them 150% and I'm here to learn.
04:32I was more of a canvas than anything else.
04:34That's actually really important to hold on to.
04:36And you have to remember that lack of being jaded.
04:39And I do think I hold on to it.
04:41I think if I could redo anything, one would be to be less anxious.
04:46Being a woman in finance in the late 90s and the early 2000s, it was lonely.
04:52It was really lonely.
04:52So I wish if I went back in time, I wish that I was more confident when I started
04:56versus having to work through, you know, building out that confidence the first couple of years.
05:01There were not people that looked like you.
05:03I actually spent more time on Monday mornings and on Sunday nights reviewing the sports
05:08scores from the weekend than I was actually understanding what was going on in business
05:12because all I wanted to do was be relevant and to be a part of the conversation on Monday
05:17morning, right?
05:18So if all the guys were talking about the football games on Sunday, well, guess what?
05:21That's what I needed to know.
05:23But I wish I would have told my younger self not to spend the time on that.
05:27It's going to be okay.
05:28You'll find the right home.
05:30It might take you a little while, but you will find the right home.
05:33And there are people who are going to value you for you and you don't have to try to be
05:37somebody else.
05:37And if they don't like you for you, then you're probably in the wrong place and life's too
05:41short.
05:41There's plenty of opportunities when I'm the only woman in the room.
05:46It doesn't necessarily feel any different than when there's other women in the room.
05:50Don't necessarily get in your own way.
05:52One of our founders loves to say, if you don't like change, you're going to like irrelevance
05:57even less.
05:58Be confident and just kind of go at it.
05:59But it's not necessarily like a female thing.
06:02I'm no different than anyone else.
06:04That's where I think the tide turns.
06:06You could be anything.
06:07It doesn't matter.
06:08You're good at what you do.
06:09And that's the qualifier.
06:11It's the good.
06:12I think a lot of younger individuals when they start their professional career have very,
06:17very defined milestones.
06:18Sometimes, you know, we'll have someone intern and they say, well, I really want to move to
06:23you and insert a very exotic, specific, very niche part of the market.
06:27And then the first question I ask that individual is, like, can you explain to me what that is?
06:33I've never heard of that before.
06:34It doesn't have to be so strictly defined.
06:37I actually think taking a step back and starting your career in terms of building skill sets
06:41at their most broad applicability for your future.
06:45Think about, you know, what is the future goal?
06:47Not in a two-year time period, but in a 15-year time period.
06:51And everything that you do as you build in your career has to be additive to your skill set.
06:56Don't try to avoid the failure.
06:58I wish someone would have taught me how to fail faster because I think sometimes the speed
07:02to failure is actually one of the most important things.
07:05Not everyone's going to like everything that you do all the time.
07:07Having a great family growing up always reminded me that my parents said, you always have a
07:14place, you always have a voice, you always have a chance, a shot, you always have a team.
07:19I remember when I made a mistake and I was working on something that didn't go well, one
07:24of the folks who was working on that deal with me said to me, it's not the mistake, just
07:28don't make the same mistake twice.
07:29Go find a new one because you will make another one.
07:32If you never make a mistake again, it probably means that you're not pushing it enough or you're
07:36not trying enough.
07:37What's the worst that happens?
07:38You fail?
07:39Okay.
07:39Failing actually could lead into the next biggest, best idea that you've ever had.
07:44It happens all the time.
07:45I don't think it hurts less.
07:47I think the recovery time is faster.
07:49I think there's a lot of merit in just having more experiences.
07:54I've been 18 years at Goldman.
07:55Probably how I felt 12 years ago when we lost a pitch is different than how I feel today.
08:00If someone wants to work at Goldman, what is one thing they should never do?
08:06Wow.
08:08Oh, I don't know.
08:09Insider trade?
08:11Be a jerk.
08:13You know, if you want to work at KKR, don't be a jerk.
08:16Don't be rude.
08:17We're big believers in the taxi driver test.
08:19How do you treat people that you interact with every day?
08:24How do you act to them?
08:25Do you ask them how their day is?
08:27Workplace etiquette, I don't think that actually has changed ever in my 18 years at the firm.
08:33It's important to connect with people.
08:34Being prepared for the interview in terms of what is like the culture of the firm.
08:40Knowing why you want to work there and being prepared of whether or not you're a fit.
08:45Some of our best folks at KKR are the English majors or the comparative lit majors or the
08:51poli-sci or the history or whatnot.
08:53They were taught how to think, right?
08:55How can you be inquisitive?
08:57Intellectually curious, confident in yourself that you can learn new things and be challenged.
09:02How can you debate issues?
09:04How can you think outside the box?
09:06Continue to grow as an individual and be helpful and impactful for the firm.
09:09How do you make sure that you're going to leave the world a better place than you found it?
09:13It's not just learning the art of whatever it is you're doing.
09:16How do you build relationships with people?
09:18It's the who, it's not the what.
09:19A lot of people are going to help you along the way to get to where you want to be.
09:22I had a mentor of mine say to me, you know, always pick whatever the role is or the job is
09:27because you like the people and you feel like you can learn from them.
09:30When I was much younger in my career, I was so focused on being very good at what I was
09:34doing in front of me that I would choose to, for example, finish this project versus go
09:39to, you know, a half an hour networking event.
09:41But actually taking that moment to recharge and to meet someone new and learn something
09:45else about the firm, I probably would have benefited more over time doing something like that.
09:50You've got to be in the moment where you're trying to get out from behind your desk to go
09:55spend time with people.
09:56That's something that I wish I did more of when I was younger.
09:58We've become a world where a lot of it's a Zoom culture.
10:01And I think that's the biggest failure in the society today.
10:04You learn by sitting next to someone.
10:06Sometimes the hard work feels heavy.
10:12I obviously went to business school while I was at KKR.
10:14That was not easy, to say the least.
10:17I had three kids in three years.
10:19That was not easy.
10:21There are days maybe I'm tired.
10:22There are days where I wish I, you know, maybe was doing something with my kids or whatnot
10:27instead when you think through, how am I going to do this?
10:31How am I going to navigate this?
10:32Is this really worth it?
10:34Like most things in life, taking care of a newborn is a little bit more trial and error
10:38and adaptation.
10:40Instead of becoming insular, I actually try to look to source more input to a problem.
10:46I think becoming a parent actually opens up like a whole new community of people.
10:51Like you think you're in it by yourself, but in reality, there's people who've done it
10:54before you and people who are coming behind you as new parents.
10:57I definitely asked a lot of my friends for some advice and some tips.
11:01There were going to be days that I was a great KKR partner.
11:04And there were going to be days that I was a great mom.
11:06And most likely those two things never happened on the same day.
11:09And that was okay.
11:10So I never really viewed it as a cost.
11:13I really viewed it as a prioritization of opportunities.
11:16Sometimes you need to kind of prioritize work because you have a stretch of really,
11:21really important projects that you're working on.
11:23Or you need to prioritize your family because maybe your kids start in kindergarten,
11:26you have to, you want to be there for that.
11:28And that makes you happier, you know, being there.
11:30I travel a lot for work.
11:32My daughter was two years old and she was playing dress up.
11:35We were FaceTiming.
11:36Thank the Lord for FaceTime, right?
11:38And I said to her, I was like, you know, what are you doing?
11:41Where are you going?
11:41And she's like, oh, I'm going on a work trip today.
11:44I'm going to China.
11:45I'm looking at buying pink companies.
11:47And I had a laugh.
11:48Like the little girl in her was still there because they were pink.
11:51But the fact that that was something that she could go play,
11:55I could never have imagined playing that when I was two or five.
11:58That's the exciting part of this.
12:00It's not just what you're doing, it's who you're doing it for.
12:03Those hard moments that your kids can see you, it builds a little bit of who they are.
12:08And that also means creating some boundaries for yourself.
12:10Time is limited.
12:12While I love what I do, I do love my family the most.
12:15So finding your balance and finding what makes you happier, what's sacred to you.
12:18Don't make your career your life.
12:21When did it start to feel real to you that you would become a partner at Goldman?
12:27Not until after you make it.
12:28I knew I had a goal that I wanted to accomplish.
12:35I was working towards it.
12:36I've never really wanted to give up.
12:38Every now and then I take a step back.
12:40I'm landing in Singapore.
12:42I'm stepping off a plane somewhere else in the world.
12:45You have a bit of that pinch me moment that you're like, is this actually what I do?
12:49My father worked for the New York City Police Department.
12:52We had a great life, but I really never saw any of the world.
12:55Even the most successful people in business are the ones who keep working at it.
12:59In business, it's very much a marathon, not a sprint.
13:02There are days I feel like I'm sprinting the marathon.
13:0425 years in now, it's been a long journey.
13:07But I wish someone would have said to me, stop to realize the specialness of the moments that you're in.
13:12Because I do think in those moments, it's hard to enjoy it.
13:15You've got to love what you do.
13:16That's what keeps you going.
13:18And if you don't, then life's too short for you to be doing it.
13:21It moves really, really fast.
13:23It's less around what success have you achieved, but have you built a big enough stage to bring the people along with you?
13:29It's not about you.
13:31It's about the we.
13:32It's about the people around you.
13:33I'm actually incredibly optimistic about our young workforce.
13:38The, you know, intern version of you.
13:41Who was watching this interview, what would you like her to take away from it?
13:49Probably that hard work pays off.
13:51That's it.
13:51All the angst, right?
13:53All the time that she spent worrying about what people thought and what the perception was.
13:58I hope she would take a look at this and say, okay, it is going to be okay.
14:01Obviously, don't take the foot off the gas, but just know down deep that she could take a little bit of a deep breath that it was going to work out.
14:08I think she'd think it's pretty cool.
14:11Is that good?
14:12Yes.
14:13Awesome.
14:15I hope that was all good.
14:16Also, now that you know me well enough, I'm definitively an affirmation-seeking person.
14:20So, in reality, my report card, how was it?
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