Introduction
My name is Adam Reisfield, and this past summer I was fortunate enough to have visited Portland, Seattle, and the Bay Area. I am a sophomore Accounting and Finance major at the University of Maryland who had previously never been farther west than Wisconsin. Last summer, I interned at a hedge fund in Midtown Manhattan, and there I was immersed in a quintessential East Coast business environment. I saw men who sat down at their desk at six a.m. and went home at eight p.m., only to get out of their desk to run (literally) to the bathroom. I learned a lot over the course of that summer, but my most valuable takeaway was discovering that a career in intense trading is not for me.
While I knew that this was not the path that I wanted to take, I could not tell a soul what I actually did want to do. I knew from an early age that I loved business and that is why I am in the Smith School, but the only reason that I was a finance and accounting major after all was because my dad told me that it was the best major combination career wise. By being able to gain entirely new insight on Silicon Valley and businesses that are setting the pace for innovation, I hoped that this experience would give me some guidance on my career path.
Never having been to the West Coast, I could only expect what I had heard and read. After taking a high school course dedicated to Design Thinking, I had some expectations regarding what an innovative workspace looked like, and what type of mindset it takes to succeed in the Valley. Design Thinking aside, I expected a very laid-back environment full of brilliant people who would not gloat it for a second, along with open, collaborative workplaces. After growing up a train ride away from New York City, I also expected the cities to be very opposite of New York regarding the pace and culture, going from a fast-paced, cut-throat, environment in NYC to a more helpful, communal, relaxed environment. I was not at all disappointed in what I would find on the other coast.
For more information on me, visit my LinkedIn account: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-reisfield