11/5/2020 10:41:00 AM | Field Hockey, Student Athlete, Features, Flight 45, Intellectual Development
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By: Justin Lafleur, Lehigh Sports Communications
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Enter as engineers. Leave as businesswomen.
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That's the story of Lehigh field hockey seniors Anna Lehman and Maddie Monahan, who both interned with Citi this past summer and both secured a full-time position post-graduation.
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Their academic beginnings were similar, and their endings were the same, but each features a unique and valuable story in between.
 Lehman's Road to the Internship
Lehman entered Lehigh in biomechanical engineering, but quickly shifted to business. And by the spring of her sophomore year, the seed was planted for a future with Citi.
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"I applied for an internship through Handshake and had an on-campus interview," she said. "A couple Lehigh alumni, who now work at Citi in their investment banking healthcare group, came to Lehigh for a day for on-campus interviews."
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Citi typically conducts numerous interviews before narrowing its pool to approximately 10.
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"Then, you have around a month to study for something called Super Day where you basically have four different 30-minute interviews," said Lehman. "There was a case study, behavioral interview, leadership interview and technical interview. I was studying corporate finance topics, and also accounting."
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Lehman impressed in her Super Day interviews in New York, utilizing her Lehigh field hockey experience to her advantage.
Monahan and Lehman with Lehigh President John D. Simon at LehighSilicon Valley
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"During one of my interviews, the man who was interviewing me asked about the importance of working on a team and how being part of a sports team at Lehigh helped me grow as a person and how I can relate that to the working world," she said. "I said that my team has done a really good job talking about giving and receiving feedback. Not only do we try to actively do it well during practice, in games and off the field, but we also work on it.
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"As a team, we have meetings about the importance of giving and receiving feedback and how much it can change a team dynamic if people learn to do it well and in a receptive way," Lehman continued. "The interviewer was really impressed, said it was something he had never heard before and thought it could be translated over into the working world and be a good attribute of a Citi employee."
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Citi was clearly a good fit for Lehman. She had secured her post-junior year summer internship before her sophomore year was even finished.
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Flash forward and heading into this summer, Lehman and Monahan were excited to live and intern together in New York, but then the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Even though the internship couldn't be in person, they were grateful for a virtual opportunity.
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"It turned out to be a five-week remote internship (down from the 10 weeks it would have been)," said Lehman. "It started on July 6. We didn't have access to non-public information. We were assigned an intern project that ended up being four weeks after training. Maddie and I were in the global health care group, so a health care company was assigned to us and we created a presentation that evaluated its financials."
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At the end of the program, Lehman, Monahan and the global health care group presented their findings to upper management.
 Monahan's Internship Road
Monahan's road has featured a lot of exploration, which is what the college years are all about.
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She entered Lehigh specifically with engineering in mind.
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"I started and captained the first engineering team at my all-girls high school," said Monahan. "After this experience, I was drawn to pursue a major and career in this field. Following my internship at Lockheed Martin-Sikorsky freshman year, I found that I really enjoyed the computer science part of the job more than the mechanical engineering aspects. I designed an acoustic measurement tool that was – and is still – being utilized in flight tests for the Black Hawk helicopter."
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During fall of her sophomore year, Monahan switched her major to Computer Science and Business (CSB)… and she loved it.
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"Although extremely demanding, I was happy I made the change; being in this program has been a great fit," she said. "During my sophomore year, I realized that I wanted to see how I could potentially combine my overlapping interests in technology and business into an internship the following summer. I was very fortunate to have been given an opportunity to intern at Morgan Stanley in Manhattan within an extremely reputable technology group.
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"I made so many valuable relationships, ones I know I'll have for the rest of my life, but at the end of the day, I was drawn more to the business/banking sides of what I was doing in the internship (as opposed to the technology aspects)."
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Monahan was presented a return offer to return to Morgan Stanley for this past summer, but decided to keep exploring.
Monahan and Lehman in San Francisco during LehighinSiliconValley
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"My last couple weeks at the bank, I connected with a myriad of people all over Wall Street," she said. "I pulled on every connection I could, including Lehigh alumni I had never heard of, but found on LinkedIn, and took in all the advice that was given to me. I decided to start casting a wide net and apply to pretty much every group of every bank in Manhattan. This was actually around the same time I received an opportunity to go into Citigroup and interview for a position through a Lehigh Athletics connection."
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The opportunity at Citi immediately felt right.
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"There are so many former Lehigh student-athletes at Citi, most of whom I already have relationships with," said Monahan. "For this reason, I genuinely felt comfortable when I walked in for the interview and throughout the experience. I was very fortunate to have been offered a position.
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"It was a challenging decision to shift my focus into an entirely new sector for the third time in as many years," Monahan continued. "I honestly could not have asked for a more amazing experience at Morgan Stanley. The day I sat down to tell the CIO and Head of the Technology group I was working in – who I was lucky enough to have formed a relationship with – that I was not coming back, it was definitely bittersweet. However, I was ecstatic about this opportunity at Citi to try something so different from what I had been used to and step far outside my comfort zone.
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"I was ready for the challenge."
 Stepping Up to the Challenge
Lehman and Monahan certainly stepped up to the challenge this summer.
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"We had access to a virtual desktop that Citi set up for us," said Lehman. "We had a lot of Zoom meetings. Citi did a really great job of having us interact with upper-level management. We had Lunch and Learn type programs with managing directors, two or three times a week. We got to communicate with senior bankers and learn about their experiences."
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No surprise, the internship was a significant change for Monahan, but in a positive way.
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"My biggest takeaway was that I felt like I found a company and position that best suited my personality and strengths," she said. "I'm in a spot where I feel really challenged, and also really enjoy."
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Monahan found the atmosphere extremely fulfilling, which tied in perfectly with her personality.
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"At the end of the day, it just comes down to the fact that I'm a people person," she said. "I get energy from other people. This is a client-facing role and it's a very different environment than engineering.
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"This summer took me out of my comfort zone," Monahan continued. "I was uncomfortable and I've learned throughout my athletic and academic careers that when you're uncomfortable is when you really grow."
 Earning Offers
Not only did Monahan and Lehman grow this summer, but they also secured their all-important first full-time positions out of college.
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"When Citi had to make these changes due to COVID, they said if you filled the minimum requirements, you actually got a full-time offer," said Lehman. "In the beginning, we didn't know what minimum requirements were – not that we would ever not work as hard because of that."
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Like they do as Lehigh field hockey student-athletes, Lehman and Monahan brought a strong work ethic to the internship.
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It paid off.
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"Throughout the summer, our supervisor gave us feedback and continued to tell us what we could work on, and how we were doing and communicating with our mentors," said Lehman. "We got offers at the end."
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Both Lehman and Monahan accepted, and will be part of Citi's full-time analyst class next year.
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As investment banking analysts, Monahan and Lehman will provide strategic advisory to the companies they're working for, debt and equity capital markets, IPOs, mergers and acquisitions.
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First-year banking analysts are also referred to as junior-level bankers.
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"As a senior-level banker, you have really good relationships with your clients (such as health care companies)," said Lehman. "Junior bankers support these senior bankers. Investment bankers are known for having very long work days, because not only do they create financial models, but they also create presentations that their senior bankers present to their clients."
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That's the role Lehman and Monahan will enter next year.
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"What I've heard is although being a junior-level banker is a lot of grunt work, it's important work and you have a lot of opportunities to interact with the companies your senior bankers are working with," said Lehman. "You get to meet a lot of important people and sit in on a lot of interesting meetings. Â
"That's exciting."
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Monahan couldn't be more excited and ready, either.
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"From an engineering background, I've developed a lot of strong analytical skills and that's very important [in the business world too]," she said.
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"In investment banking, you have to wake up every day and be on your game, honestly just like Anna and I have throughout the past three years as athletes here," Monahan continued. "My dad happens to have been a banker his entire career and ever since I was little, I've seen and admired the kind of work I will need to put in to be successful in this field. He's my biggest role model and one thing he's taught me is that if I want to be successful at something, I have to work for it and make sacrifices.
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"I plan on carrying this mindset with me when I hit the desk full-time next summer."
 Good Fits
Lehman and Monahan are good fits for investment banking due in large part to the high-pressure atmosphere.
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"I'm a very competitive person, which is why I really like sports," said Lehman. "I don't think I'd be satisfied doing something that doesn't really challenge me. I need a purpose and something to work towards and investment banking is a fast-paced environment; it has a reputation for being very hard."
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Lehman is at her best when there's structure.
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"My grades are always better when we have a lot of field hockey going on," she said.
"When I switched to the business school, I had a lot of course work to catch up on and wasn't really sure what I wanted to do, but I realized after my financial technology experience (business solutions internship at Envestnet) that I wanted a fast-paced competitive environment.
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"I believe I've found that in banking."
 Growing As Student-Athletes, and People
Throughout their experience with Citi, and their entire Lehigh student-athlete experiences, Lehman and Monahan have grown in many more ways than one.
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"This summer, I believe I grew because of the different (virtual) environment we were in," said Lehman. "You really had to learn to reach out to people in different ways, to get in contact with them and network. Mentors throughout college have always stressed the importance of mentorship, and we were very fortunate to have both a senior and junior mentor during the internship." Â
These times amidst the pandemic have forced everyone to adapt, which is something Lehman and Monahan both feel prepared to do, due in large part to their student-athlete experience.
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"Inherently, student-athletes are hard-working, diligent and have really strong time management skills," said Monahan. "Those are all very important in investment banking and any career. With Lehigh field hockey in particular, we've gone through tremendous adversity and come out on the other side.
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"Maybe this season happens in the spring, maybe it doesn't, but I'm proud of what our class has done," she continued. "I believe we've learned a lot about ourselves, about leadership and what it means to be a team player."
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Monahan echoed Lehman's sentiments on mentorship. Both have benefited from mentorship, and have mentored younger student-athletes themselves, too.
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"As a student-athlete mentor for two years, I learned the importance of mentorship and what it can do in an academic setting, athletic setting and now career," said Monahan.
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"When we had mentors this summer, it was so much easier to reach out. I put myself in the shoes of my mentor and how I approached being a student-athlete mentor because it's very similar."
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Lehigh has taught Lehman to be on her toes at all times and ready to adapt to any situation.
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"Don't be afraid to change and admit when you don't know how to do something," she said. "The people who have more experience than you're willing to help in so many areas – in work, in sports and in life."
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Life brought Lehman and Monahan to a rewarding internship followed by exciting full-time opportunities, which they are grateful for, especially given the current state of the economy amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
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"I'm really lucky to have Maddie with me," said Lehman. "It's comforting to know I have not only her, but also a couple other Lehigh students who are joining the first-year analyst class. It's nice to feel comforted by the people around you.
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"I feel like we're ready."
 
 
