{"id":4325,"date":"2011-08-31T11:14:31","date_gmt":"2011-08-31T18:14:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/?p=4325"},"modified":"2014-01-25T18:10:29","modified_gmt":"2014-01-25T23:10:29","slug":"finance-grad-is-guiding-the-countrys-largest-bankruptcy-filing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/?p=4325","title":{"rendered":"Finance grad is guiding the country\u2019s largest bankruptcy filing"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Tejal Joshi is a vice president at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

During her first two years at TCNJ, Tejal Joshi \u201901<\/strong>, currently a vice president at Lehman Brothers Holdings, wasn\u2019t sure about a major, let alone a career choice.\u201cI was interested in art history, women\u2019s studies, business\u2026. I was all over the place,\u201d she said. She credits a TCNJ professor with her decision to major in finance.<\/p>\n

During her junior year, Joshi took a finance class with Clare Bohnett<\/strong>, adjunct professor of finance, and something clicked. The professor was so enthusiastic about the field and her earlier career in the industry that she ignited Joshi\u2019s interest.<\/p>\n

Job-hunting in 2001 presented challenges for graduates as it has the last few years, but on the advice of friends, Joshi had started her job search early and asserted herself in interviews. She had set her sights on Goldman Sachs. \u201cThe idea of working for Goldman, the number one investment bank, put a gleam in your eye,\u201d she said. Her efforts paid off; she got a plum job as an analyst with the firm and started in July of that year.<\/p>\n

Two other business professors also inspired the executive. \u201cDr. [Thomas] Patrick<\/strong> painted a realistic picture of the business world. When I told him about the Goldman job, he jokingly replied, \u2018Well, don\u2019t take Goldman, you\u2019ll never make it\u2019,\u201d she said. She felt he was pushing her to take on something that would prove challenging as well as rewarding. The alumna also recalled Professor Herbert Mayo<\/strong>, who set up the Student Investment Fund<\/a>. \u201cHe\u2019s passionate about helping students and preparing them for the future,\u201d she said. The two are still in touch.<\/p>\n

Joshi supported Goldman\u2019s trading desk on the fixed income side, monitoring daily trading activity, assisting with regulatory filings, managing balance sheets, and providing commentary for annual reports. Then she moved into investment banking, to a global finance group responsible for the company\u2019s equity underwriting business. It was a great training ground, she said. \u201cRegardless of your age or experience, the fact that you\u2019re there means that you\u2019re qualified to be there. They just throw you into the fire and let you figure it out,\u201d she noted.<\/p>\n

In the fall of 2004, Joshi left for new challenges, spending several months supporting an interest rate derivatives trading desk for a financial services firm. It wasn\u2019t a good fit, however, so in 2005 she left to join Lehman Brothers in its fixed income group. Three years later, in September 2008, the company filed for what would be the largest bankruptcy in history. Joshi still remembers her shock on hearing the news and watching colleagues on TV leaving the building with boxes in their arms one weekend.<\/p>\n

Shortly afterward she moved to her current position at Lehman\u2019s parent company, where she is helping to unwind Lehman Brothers. Her group works with the \u201ccounter parties\u201d in the bankruptcy, organizations that had derivative trading relationships with Lehman, to close out their accounts. \u201cThese organizations include everyone from large banks and global conglomerates to small municipalities and not-for-profits such as churches and nursing homes,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n

Joshi isn\u2019t sure what the future holds when her group completes its work\u2014 she may find herself without a job. But that\u2019s okay, she said. In the last 10 years, she has learned that you can\u2019t plan for anything, and no matter what happens, she\u2019ll \u201cdeal with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finance still intrigues her, so she\u2019s in no rush to leave. \u201cI like working with brilliant people. It challenges you to think differently, to think on your feet and outside the box,\u201d she said. She may explore other areas of business at that point, however. Either way, she\u2019ll continue to work while raising her twin girls, a year old in November.<\/p>\n

When Joshi spoke at a Finance Forum sponsored by Guy Chiarello \u201981<\/strong><\/a>, chief information officer for JPMorgan Chase, last March, the moderator asked how employees rebuild after something like Lehman. \u201cYou do it through your relationships,\u201d she said. \u201cA lot of people found themselves in a holding pattern that day. Your network keeps you going.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tejal Joshi could find herself without a job when she completes work on Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy filing, but her years in the business world have shown her that you can\u2019t plan for anything. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":4326,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-corner","category-september-2011"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}