On October 5th, WIN hosted a Fireside Chat with BC alum Alexis Teixera, who spoke on a variety of topics from her time at BC to goal setting and career pathing. Alexis shared plenty of insights and advice that I think others would appreciate, and so I wanted to include a recap of the event with you all!
For a bit of background on our guest speaker…
Alexis currently serves as the Deputy Chief of Staff to the CEO at Carta, which is an equity management FinTech company looking to create more owners in the world. Prior to Carta, she worked in the Core Management Team at Bridgewater and previously was an analyst at UBS Wealth Management. Alexis graduated from the Boston College Carroll School of Management in 2017 with a double concentration in Finance and Entrepreneurship. Cultivating community and driving positive impact are at the core of everything she pursues. During her Boston College experience, she founded the Boston College Women’s Summit and was the president of Women in Business. Currently, outside of work, Alexis also advises early-stage consumer startups, serves on the junior board of Robin Hood and Pencils of Promise and enjoys traveling to new places and running around Central Park.
Now for some highlights of the event…
“Had I not been able to keep those warm connections for a while through those random outreaches, I don’t think that I would be where I am today.”
When asked about the skills that have been most meaningful and useful for her success, Alexis shared that the most important element of her pre-professional toolkit is her network. Though the idea of networking originally felt really uncomfortable, she discovered her strength in networking one-on-one rather than in group settings and maintaining those relationships over time. Alexis therefore keeps a Personal CRM of every person she meets and reaches out to about 70% of them with “Happy Holidays” notes and random updates to keep those connections warm. Through this CRM system, whenever Alexis needed advice she was able to reach out to her warm connections and ask for help.
"Absolutely do not do what I did… I applied to every bank and every job.”
After interning as a venture capital analyst the summer after her sophomore year, Alexis’s mentor suggested she gain a foundational level of understanding of working at a bank. She then cast a (really) wide net and ended up with 40 internship interviews in a wide variety of roles during her junior fall. Her advice to her past self and to anyone now starting recruiting is to be really honest with yourself about the things that you value. For example, Alexis really values networking, a work-life balance and time to attend events and enjoy Manhattan. In considering where her skills, natural abilities, and desires actually lie, for Alexis these were more in relationship manager-type roles than as an analytical thinker. She thus interned in wealth management after her junior year and was an analyst at UBS in wealth management after graduation.
“So if I had to distill that whole crazy story into three key learnings…”
One of my favorite parts of the event with Alexis was when she dove into the twists and turns of her career path after graduation. After leaving UBS to work at Bridgewater for two years, Alexis sought a new job that she was passionate about at a firm whose mission she aligned with, which she found in her current job as Deputy Chief of Staff at Carta. Though she faced some forks in the road, Alexis shared three key learnings from her path to Carta. First, as cheesy as it sounds, it really is important to be true to yourself, trust your gut, and think about what’s important to you and the culture you want to be a part of. Second, cold outreaches are everything, as Alexis has built some of her strongest professional relationships with individuals that she had no mutual connections with. Third, you never know who is going to help you - always keep your connections warm!
I am so grateful that Alexis was able to speak with WIN about her undergrad and post-grad life so far, and I hope this blog post includes some advice that you might find helpful! Thanks for reading!
- Annette Matyszczyk, BC ‘22