Growing confidence leads Lee Rwema to his dream job in finance

By Vicki Christian
Fisher College of Business

A bit of confidence and a great presentation landed Lee Rwema a full-time job at one of the country’s largest financial services companies. Strength, courage and a winning personality also helped.

Lee’s journey to becoming an analyst at JPMorganChase upon graduation started back in 2003, when he was born in Rwanda. A few years after his birth, Lee’s parents began looking for better opportunities for their family. Their chance came in 2010 when the family received a green card and moved to the United States.

“My parents felt it was imperative to bring me, my brothers and sister here to give us a life they did not have when they were growing up,” said Lee, a fourth-year finance student.

At first he found it difficult to fit in and let his personality shine through.

“I came to the U.S. when I was in second grade,” said Lee. “It was tough making new friends, as I was reserved and didn’t have a lot of confidence. I was really shy and would stand by myself.”

After attending several different schools, he said he “built a tougher skin,” began opening up and discovered that he could be himself around the people he met. On the road to Ohio State, Lee also found that with a little courage and confidence he could find his true path.

The road to becoming an analyst

Lee’s Ohio State experience began at the university’s Newark campus, where he took general education classes like business calculus, computer science engineering and spreadsheets and databases. He enjoyed the smaller class size and time he got to spend with friends.

“What was great about Newark was that I was able to build my GPA to a 4.0, allowing me to transfer to main campus for my second year,” Lee said.

In Columbus, he participated in the Second-year Transformational Experience Program (STEP) where he explored his academic, personal and professional goals. He engaged in small-group cohort meetings and developed skills in financial literacy, career exploration and wellness.

After STEP he became a member of Fisher’s Honors Cohort program which helped him transform his business and presentation skills.

Lee credits the Cohort’s organizational behavior class with Charles Buchanan, a senior lecturer in management and human resources, with preparing him for his role at JPMorganChase.

“Professor Buchanan’s probing, hard questions simulate real-life working situations,” Lee said. “We would be prompted with a question, like build a human resources program for a high-potential employee, that required us to develop solutions-based presentations. His projects were very open-ended, allowing us to be very creative.”

Lee built on that creativity during a year-long Honors Cohort Impact Challenge. His team chose to focus on entrepreneurship.

“We noticed there are a lot of resources for students wanting to be entrepreneurs, just not a lot of awareness about them,” Lee said. “In response, we created the Buckeye Made Market that hosts student vendors with unique products and/or concepts.”

Held at the Keenan Center for Entrepreneurship, the market allows student entrepreneurs the opportunity to market and sell their products to a diverse audience while broadening their networks with partners and fellow business leaders.

Beyond Fisher, Lee was also making professional connections as a front desk attendant at the New Albany Country Club. It’s where he met Matt Lord, executive director of JPMorganChase asset management.

“I saw Matt Lord come into the country club wearing a JPMorgan hat and I thought, ‘I’ve always wanted to work for the bank,’” Lee said. “I worked up the courage to say something to him and gave him my elevator pitch: ‘My name is Lee. I’m a finance major at Ohio State and I’d love to work at JPMorganChase.’ He connected me with the hiring and managing director in New York. A few interviews and Zoom calls later, I was offered an internship.”

This past summer, Lee worked at the bank in New York City as an analyst on the client skills training team. His role was to teach sales staff members how to sell the bank’s products, create presentations and set up training sessions.

“I gained valuable experience on the client side,” Lee said. “It was a great way to broaden my abilities, see the different roles everyone plays and to understand what I like about finance.”

As part of the internship, Lee had to do a capstone project: to come up with a new product — an exchange-traded fund (ETF) or a mutual fund — that doesn’t already exist in JPMorganChase’s line.

“That capstone assignment was very difficult because JPMorgan has been in the ETF business for so long, that you think ‘How can I, as an intern, come in and create an idea that is unique.’”

His project and client skills team presentations earned him a spot as one of only six individuals on the company’s intern-led “Friday morning call” on his last day at work. The “call” put him in front of CEOs and managing directors of asset management live in New York City as well as virtually across the country.

“It's kind of intimidating because there are 40 to 60 managing directors in the room, plus all the other cities tune in as well on a Zoom call.”

While he said it was kind of scary, he enjoyed showing off his Buckeye spirit.

“They encourage you to show your personality during the intern-led Friday morning call to get to know you better,” said Lee. “So when it was my turn, I said, ‘Hello everybody. My name is Lee. I go to THE.’ I paused after that and let it sink in for a bit before saying ‘Ohio State University.’”

He got a huge roar of laughter and followed up with, “Shout out to everybody tuning in from Columbus. O-H.” There was a big reaction from the Ohio State alumni in the NYC office, who shouted back with an “I-O.”

“My connection in the Columbus office, Colette Jakubow, who's also an Honors Cohort alum, let me know afterward that everyone there was shouting and screaming 'I-O' back," Lee said. “That was very fun to hear.”

When asked about his success at the bank, he credits his seminar and organizational behavioral classes for his ability to think quickly and creatively, have confidence and be open to change and different perspectives.

“That was important going through the internship with JPMorgan,” said Lee. “If you’re not able to hear different perspectives then you might lead the company down the wrong path.”

The capstone project and presentation landed him a full-time job with JPMorganChase. After graduation, he will participate in a 2 ½-year rotational program as an asset management analyst in customer support and technical roles.

“Without Professor Buchanan’s organizational behavior class, I don't think I would have received the return offer at JPMorgan,” Lee said. “His classroom experiences transition so perfectly into the real world. Being in a sales job, we're going out to institutions like advisors and doing the exact same structure of those class presentations. It definitely gave me the skills and confidence I needed for success at JPMorgan.”