Summer Interns Set the Jefferies Tone for August

Every August, we use our monthly letter to highlight the ideas and perspectives of our global summer interns and use this time to reset and listen to what is on their minds. This year, we asked all 345 summer interns to take their best shot at setting the tone for our firm by sharing an idea, thought, perspective, observation, theme or objective for all of us to ponder/debate/achieve/avoid. It could be about the current state of the world, the state of the markets, thoughts about culture, diversity, and what it means to be a part of Jefferies, or it could just be about life in general. As they found out, this is no easy task, but they rose to the challenge.

The Jefferies senior leaders (including the two of us) read each letter, and we choose winners without knowing the names of any authors to ensure complete objectivity. This process is never easy, as the submissions are all honest, thoughtful, and inspiring. However, each year we diligently select a handful of the ones that we find most resonant to share with all of you.

The four winners this year come from across our Firm: Fixed Income Sales and Trading, Equity Sales and Trading, Jefferies Finance, and Investment Banking. We’re delighted to share with all of you today 2024’s winning letters from Constandino Christodoulou, William Collins, Camille Croft, and Kaitlyn Kreth.

Thank you to all our interns for your dedication this summer and for all the thought you put into crafting these letters. You all presented letters that embody Jefferies’ values: originality, quality, creativity, honesty, and directness – which is pleasantly surprising to us that our Summer Intern class can pick up our culture in such a short window.

Reading your letters is the perfect way for us to complete the wonderful summer we experienced with each of you. You should feel proud of your hard work, dedication, talent, perseverance, and integrity. Thank you for being a part of Jefferies this summer!

And to the rest of the Firm, thank you for mentoring our future leaders, making sure they got to see what makes Jefferies so special, and walked away understanding our full culture and capabilities.

Rich and Brian

Constandino Christodoulou
Division: Fixed Income Sales & Trading Summer Analyst – New York
School: Dartmouth College

Pursuing the Ubuntu dream – “I am because we are”

Community has always been an integral part of my life. Growing up in a fractured South Africa emerging from Apartheid, I quickly learned that community can transcend racial, economic, and cultural lines.

Whether I was on the soccer field surrounded by teammates from the country’s most rural areas or amongst the privileged few who enjoyed the comfort of a classroom on a cold winter morning, Ubuntu was the foundation of my existence.

Ubuntu is commonly described as the plain and simple idea that “I am because you are.” A Zulu proverb, “umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu,” clearly describes the world, “a person is a person through people.” As a philosophy, Ubuntu has been etched into African societies for generations, shaping communities, cultures, and individual lives in the process.

When South Africa faced a crossroads following the end of the Apartheid regime in 1994, two of the country’s founding fathers, Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, championed the idea of Ubuntu. Mandela, with his characteristic wisdom, explains Ubuntu as a traveler through a country would stop at a village and he didn’t have to ask for food or for water. Once he stops, the people give him food, entertain him. Ubuntu does not mean that people should not enrich themselves. The question is: “Are you going to do so in order to enable the community around you?”

I started the summer as a stranger in this Jefferies “village,” however, my internship experience has since shown me that Jefferies has Ubuntu. The Jefferies village has a chief, senior elders, and proud tribes each with their own coat of arms. Every day, I walk through the gates of this Midtown village and take the elevator up to the Fixed Income trading floor. Here, I am engulfed by a collective of individuals eager to pass on their knowledge, enrich the seemingly directionless traveler and share the fruits of their labor. I am not alone in experiencing Jefferies’ Ubuntu. Every year, hundreds of interns come to this village in Manhattan and across the world to grow and to learn together. They do so to better themselves so that they one day may enrich their broader communities too.

As you continue to navigate this ever-evolving world, I challenge you to keep Ubuntu at the center of all your pursuits:

1. When we generate profit, may the community share in that profit
2. When we champion justice, may that justice serve all equally
3. When we engineer and innovate, may our breakthroughs bring us all closer together
4. When we measure success, may we measure the success of our community and that of all our neighbors

Regardless of our backgrounds, abilities, and ambitions, we can only achieve greatness working with others. I came to Jefferies to continue the pursuit of my American Dream; I return to Dartmouth with the understanding that this dream is much like that of my nation’s fathers, the Dream of Ubuntu.

---

William Collins
Division: Equity Sales & Trading Summer Analyst
School: Providence College

As I come to the halfway point of my internship at Jefferies, I have started reflecting on my journey thus far at the firm. Although I did not know what to expect, I knew the experience would be challenging and enriching. From what I have gathered, I would like to share a few insights I have observed that are integral to success at Jefferies.

• Control What You Can Control – Your Attitude and Your Effort: Every day, there is someone you will interact with, whether it be in the workplace or elsewhere, in which that given day will be the most important day of their lives. It would be shameful to not be the best version of yourself that day. Your energy is contagious, for better or for worse, and you never know how much someone yearns for your positive energy in any given moment.
• Embrace Your Dearth of Knowledge: It is human nature when joining an environment filled with exceptional people to be insecure about what you do and do not know. However, being secure in oneself allows you to have the humility to accept what you do not know, and that is when you can truly start learning. You cannot learn if you are not in the right frame of mind to be taught.
• Embrace Being Uncomfortable: Being in an environment where intelligence is in abundance, it is human nature to feel uncomfortable. However, surrounding yourself with smart people will allow you to feel challenged and grow as a person. That moment where it feels uncomfortable to ask a question or introduce yourself to a new colleague is the time where you must do so. Opportunities multiply as they are seized, and hesitation can lead to missed opportunities.
• Confidence Comes from Preparation: It is certainly challenging to consistently have confidence in one’s own abilities while being in intense surroundings filled with immensely knowledgeable people. When it comes to a project, presentation, or whatever endeavor you encounter, one must be humble enough to prepare, and confident enough to perform. These two things are not mutually exclusive— having the humility to understand that one needs to prepare for their endeavors will inevitably be the foundation of that confidence needed to perform when the time comes to present.
• Understand the Privilege in Being Here: All of us at Jefferies are immensely lucky to be a part of this firm, yet at times, all of us are guilty of forgetting this. Jefferies gives us the opportunity and privilege to have an impact on people, and that is not something we should take lightly. There are people across the world that want to be a part of Jefferies. Us being the lucky few that are, it would be dishonorable to not take full advantage of the opportunity we have.

I would like to thank the leadership group at Jefferies for giving their interns the platform to express their thoughts to the firm, as it is truly one of the many aspects of Jefferies that sets it apart. I am abundantly proud to be a part of a firm that has cultivated a culture where practices like these are mainstays. I appreciate everyone at the firm who has celebrated my growth, understood my failures, and allowed me to feel as though I belong here thus far.

---

Camille Croft
Division: Jefferies Finance Private Credit Analyst – New York
School: Tulane University

Picture yourself on a morning run. The first few steps are often the hardest, as you shake off the stiffness and find your rhythm. But soon, as you warm up, your strides lengthen, your pace quickens, and you find yourself gliding with a sense of ease and purpose. This is the beauty of momentum.

Those first few steps are where I am in my career right now, where every movement feels deliberate and effortful. As I progressively accumulate knowledge, skills, and experiences, I notice how projects start to flow more smoothly, ideas come more readily, and opportunities seem to arise almost serendipitously. Momentum propels all of us forward, making each step feel more natural and less laborious. It’s the driving force that helps us achieve our goals and exceed our own expectations.

However, just like in running, momentum can also be the reason we fall flat on our faces. While it can drive us to incredible heights, it also demands vigilance and awareness. There are several steps each of us can take to avoid losing our footing, both on the West Side Highway trail and in our careers.

1. Double knot your laces. Your shoes are the foundation of every step you take. Imagine running at full speed but suddenly stepping on your shoelaces. Our hasty decisions, ignorance of details, or reluctance to slow down and observe our surroundings unravel the laces we previously made sure to double knot. When we’re moving fast, it’s easy to miss the untied shoelaces – the small yet significant details that require our attention. Consequently, the very force that which once propelled us forward now causes us to stumble, perhaps even fall. Moments of introspection are like stopping to tie your shoelaces—they may seem like small pauses, but they prevent bigger mishaps down the road.
2. Plan your route with a sense of direction. The faster you run, the more exhilarating it feels, and the harder it can be to slow down. This excitement can sometimes cloud our judgment, leading us to take risks without fully assessing the consequences. It’s important to balance drive with caution, ensuring that speed doesn’t compromise direction. A successful career isn’t just about how fast we can run, but also about how well we navigate the course. Embrace the momentum but do so with mindfulness. Take pride in your achievements but stay humble and aware. Celebrate your progress but keep an eye on the path ahead.
3. Cue a good playlist. The beat of a song can determine the pace of your run. Just like a good pump-up song, it’s important to have good pump-up people in your life too. However, not every song, or impactful voice in our lives, must be positive all the time. What makes a good playlist is a variety. We need songs and people that instigate us to push for the extra mile. Mentors and leaders throughout our careers will humble our confidence and criticize our work, but often times, we are better for it. The important distinction to make when curating the playlist of life is choosing between the songs we like and the songs that set us in motion. As we each continue our professional journeys, may we all find the perfect balance of speed and steadiness, ambition and reflection. Let momentum be our guide, but let intention be our compass, and may the rhythm of life’s chorus paint a clear image of the road ahead.

As we each continue our professional journeys, may we all find the perfect balance of speed and steadiness, ambition and reflection. Let momentum be our guide, but let intention be our compass, and may the rhythm of life’s chorus paint a clear image of the road ahead.

---

Kaitlyn Kreth
Division: Investment Banking Summer Analyst – Charlotte, Consumer & Retail Group
School: University of Virginia

I truly believe that the most significant decision in my life so far was choosing to be a summer camp counselor before entering the corporate world. For ten weeks, I lived in the mountains of North Carolina in a tiny cabin with ten silly, joyful, crazy and wonderful campers. While I can promise that no one was there for the paycheck, this job built my personality in more ways than I can count. I was suddenly in charge of keeping the peace, leading the fun, and choosing to have a great day every day because a great day attitude really can fix a rainy day.

Throughout these past few weeks at Jefferies, I have found myself calling upon my infinite camp counselor wisdom in many situations:

1. The best part about elementary schoolers is how many questions they can ask in an hour, and it’s okay to be that person when you are learning something new.
2. Listening to directions the first time can save everyone from a long process of cleaning up your mess, and listening carefully shows that you care.
3. Asking how you can help someone with a tedious task of theirs will likely help you later when they save the day and return the favor. Kindness is never wasted.
4. Write things down! There are a million things flying at you every day, and the details matter.
5. Doing your very best at what you can control is worth the extra energy, and being proud of your work is key to growth.
6. Lastly, remember people’s names. It matters.

I don’t know if I will be an investment banker forever, but I do know that if I consistently put my best effort forward, then this will be a summer well spent. This job has tested me and pushed me in new ways and approaching it with gratitude to learn something new and hopefully add value to a group effort has kept me excited to come to the office every day. In turn, I also recognize that while this job comes with significant responsibilities, my wellbeing, family, and friends are the true keys to my happiness, and it’s important to prioritize them whenever possible.

As I write this letter on Saturday, July 6th, from a plane delayed over four hours due to storms, I am reminded of the importance of finding joy in every situation. Much to my exhausted and complaint-filled surprise, fireworks illuminated the city as we finally took off. Whether it’s literal fireworks or an accomplishment at work, these moments of joy are my greatest motivators.

I have been inspired, challenged, and supported by every person I have had the privilege of interacting with during this internship so far, and if I were to set the tone of Jefferies for the month, it would simply be to put your camp counselor hat on. Find joy in the little things every day and strive to make an impact in your corner, no matter how far reaching.