Any young professional making their career on Wall Street will tell you that building skills means a ton of learning on the job. For Madison Crutchfield, one element of her background gave her a head start in mastering the busy trading floor: Being a Division I lacrosse player at Duke University.
Crutchfield started out as a sophomore summer intern at Goldman Sachs in 2016, and has worked her way up the firm for the last seven years as a full-timer. Today, she’s a vice president in equity derivative sales, and attributes a lot of her success to the skills she gained from playing lacrosse.
She’s one of many athletes who have joined the Wall Street behemoth over the years, as BI previously reported. In an interview, she told us how her days on the field have helped prepare her for the trading floor, including words of wisdom from her coach and what she expects from student-athlete job candidates.
The questions and answers below have been edited for length and clarity.
BI: What was life as a student athlete like? How did your background as a student athlete help you get to Goldman?
MC: It required a lot of discipline, a lot of time management, but also provided the reward of such an incredible network and camaraderie of teammates and girls who I got to see day in and day out.
Lacrosse conditioned in me a mindset and temperament that I leaned on throughout the networking, the application, and when it came to it, the interviewing stages. I draw on these intangibles — such as the need to think quickly on my feet, to stay resourceful, and to be a self-starter — every day.
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BI: What about life as a student athlete is similar to life on Wall Street?
MC: My coach would always say: ‘Play fast, not hurried.’ And that’s really transferable in the world of sales and trading, where there’s usually some ‘game clock’ ticking — be it you’re executing an order, showing pricing for an order, answering a client, meeting a project deadline, whatever it might be. Having the ability to be efficient but not rushed is a critical edge.
BI: What other lessons from sports do you use in your job now?
MC: I think sports teach you how to win and lose. Seasons are marathons, not sprints, and you quickly learn not to get too high or too low — staying even keeled and patient is a must in order to stay focused.
Missed calls by officials, inclement weather, showing up late to a game because of bus engine problems (which did happen), a rowdy crowd — I can’t do anything about those things. Similarly, in corporate America, you have to battle back. Success is so often found in how you respond to situations — to shortcomings, to failed attempts. It really rewards those who are resilient, who, rather than shutting down, become a quick study and turn it into a learning experience. Adjust and be ready for the next opportunity, the next rep, the next play.
BI: When you see an applicant who’s a student athlete, how does that help you assess that person?
MC: If someone was a student athlete, it tells me that they’re accustomed to collaborating and know how to approach work with that ‘we’ mindset. When you’re on a team, there’s a commitment to each other and to a common goal, and it tells me that they likely understand and value the importance of doing their job in order for the team to succeed.
It tells me that they’ve had to hone some level of emotional IQ to navigate diverse teammates and communication styles, that they’ve been forced to fail and learn to rebound from it, and that at some point they’ve been asked to sacrifice comfort for progress.
BI: What advice would you give to student athletes eyeing Wall Street careers?
MC: Just as you did when evaluating sports programs, it’s important to not only assess the caliber but the culture of the company. Oftentimes, I’ve found that the two go hand in hand.
My advice would be to focus on the culture of your target workplace and how that firm operates. Not only on its deliverables, its achievements, and its awards, but how that firm operates, but the camaraderie and the fellowship of its people. It’s important to ask yourself, ‘Will this firm develop me, not only as a professional, but as a person?’
