Madison Faller graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 2015, majoring in economics and political science with a minor in the Hesburgh Program in Public Service. She currently works as a global investment strategist at J.P. Morgan Private Bank in London.
Faller’s multidisciplinary experience in the College of Arts & Letters prepared her to solve difficult problems. In order to look at the big picture, she says, you need to explore and understand a range of perspectives.
Video transcription:
Madison Faller: I think I was always really interested in the way the world worked.
That originally led me to wanting to study economics. And then it was during my study abroad program in London that I really fell in love with political science.I think it added a really interesting humanities component.
I had two internships within finance, both after my sophomore and my junior years at Notre Dame. One of those internships led into a full-time job offer.
What I really honed in on was having a broader world view, and I really focused on the interdisciplinary approach through my experience within Arts & Letters.
My next role at the firm — an investment strategy role — was even more closely tied to my Arts & Letters experience and my understanding in my studies of economics and political science. I was very fortunate that they needed someone in London — I was asked to come here — and I’ve been in London now for about five and a half years.
I think that there’s something to be said about recognizing the strengths in different types of disciplines. Being able to take really large, big-picture topics that have a plethora of research and study on it — being able to view all of those different perspectives and then break it down and simplify it in order to communicate a thoughtful viewpoint, but also a persuasive one as well.
There are so many different things that can open up in terms of how you view the world and different ways of approaching problems. And it doesn’t necessarily have to be that job at a bank. It can be a job helping to develop thoughtful policy within a government organization or perhaps within a think tank, thinking about how to solve different really difficult world problems and providing advice for policy makers.
It really becomes more rooted in, “What did you learn in terms of how you view the world, and then how do you break down those problems and think about them differently from the person next to you?”
