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Becker Business
Leadership, Learning, and Building a Career with Jack Gordon & Olivia Gordon 6-8-26
00:21:06
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- [00:00]
A
This is Scott Becker with the Becker Business and Private Equity podcast. I'm thrilled today to have one of my favorite episodes. We get a chance to visit today with two brilliant people who are in college and going to college and looking at careers. They're two of the brightest young people that I know, and I could say that because they're not my own children, so I could brag about how bright they are. One's a student at Vanderbilt, one's a student at University of Pennsylvania or an incoming student at University of Pennsylvania. That we're talking today with Olivia and Jack Gordon. Olivia's completed her first year or two of college. Jack is starting college at the University of Pennsylvania. Olivia's at Vanderbilt. I'm going to ask each of you to take a second. Both of you are enterprising young people. You've been leaders of organizations. You've done great in school. You've been involved in other extracurricular activities. You've really done a tremendous job of growing and developing as young leaders. Olivia and Jack, let me ask you to take a moment to each introduce yourself. Olivia, if we could start with you. Just give us a quick introduction of what you're doing today and so forth, and then, Jack, I'll ask you to do the same thing.
- [01:10]
B
Hi. So my name is Olivia Gordon. I'm a rising junior at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, and I actually leave tomorrow to move in to New York City to intern the summer at Bally Asney Asset Management as a business development summer associate and majoring in Human and Organizational Development and then minoring in business and Generative AI.
- [01:31]
A
Thank you. What was it like as a college sophomore trying to get an internship between the semesters or between after second year? Between third year? Was it hard to get internships right now? What does that look like and how excited are you about that?
- [01:47]
B
I think at my age to have an internship, it relies a lot on your networking skills and abilities. Because a lot of people are looking to hire somebody who's a rising senior who can work the next, like, the following year after when they graduate. But I think that just reaching out to people and showing how I could add value at the place that I wanted to intern at. I think that's what really got me the job and got me there, because typically that's not something they want. They want someone a little older. But if you really just make sure that you're reaching out to as many people as you can, you're working hard, and you know what you're talking about, then you can, like, Pave a way through. Like, for example, I'm going to be doing a lot of AI work because I'm an AI minor, and I'm going to be helping them with AI for their work flows on the business development team. So by doing that, I was able to show them that, like, this is something I know and this is where I can add value to the team.
- [02:36]
A
But I think that's. I think that's so important. Olivia, this concept of we always talk about young professionals. You want to make sure you're valuable to somebody. There's so many things that you. That you said there that resonate so well. We think it's critical as you're developing a career that you realize your job is to be invaluable in some ways to either a client or someone you're working with or trying to give value to the organization. And I think your point there, the two points you made is people think they could apply for jobs online where thousands of people might be applying, but so much of it actually comes from using a network, networking. If you don't have a network, interacting with people, direct messaging people, trying to develop relationships. So I think that networking is so critical to finding that job. And then the second point, which is so well stated, is you actually have to add value. You're not playing business. You're actually trying to go out there and add value to what somebody is doing. And I love those two points. Jack, can you take a second and introduce yourself? I know you're just recently out of the state tennis tournament. A phenomenal, phenomenal tennis career, but also a brilliant career going to the Wharton School of Business at Pennsylvania. Tell us a bit about yourself.
- [03:48]
C
Thank you, Scott. I'm a recent high school graduate from Highland Park High School and an incoming freshman at the University of Pennsylvania, where I plan to study mathematical, economics and a lot of the things that I do. I'm a tennis player, very involved in my school community, and I love hanging out with my friends as well. And I'm really excited that this summer I'll be going back to camp, Camp Horseshoe in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, for my second year on staff.
- [04:13]
A
Fantastic. And Chad, you were involved from an early age in clubs like deca, business clubs, things like that. I think Olivia was as well. What drew you to that interest? What, what, what did you have to nurture those interests? Did those come naturally to you? How did you sort of get yourself involved and become a leader in some of those things?
- [04:35]
C
Yeah, I mean, I've always been very interested in numbers and how that really applies to finance, finances. And so when I heard about investment club at our school, that was something that I really wanted to get involved in, to kind of really understand the market, especially at a younger age, because I. And we do in that club, we do teach about 401ks Roth IRAs and really kind of helping people learn knowledge that they need for when they're post college, when they're in the workplace. And so I think that, you know, it's been really great to actually like get a head start on things like that, especially with DECA as well, has been amazing. I mean that DECA especially is something where you're sitting down in front one on one in front of a judge and you know, solving critical business problems. And I think that's something that every student should, should be able to learn is not only public speaking, but also problem solving on a larger scale. So that's what really drew me to deca. And I think throughout my four years there, I really did, you know, want to become more of a leader so that I could pass down what I've learned, my skills and knowledge to other students, especially younger ones, that they could succeed in the future.
- [05:41]
A
Thank you. And I'll ask you, I'll start with Olivia here. Olivia, in addition to being involved in sort of things like deca or business oriented clubs, ones I've been so impressed by the two of you is your involvement in charitable efforts as well. Can you talk about that and what was the inspiration for doing so? What drove you to that? I know it's not resume building. I know it's truly giving and being involved in the community and learning leadership. And I've loved watching it talk about how, how you got drawn to that. Did your parents push that? Were they, were they inspiring in that or what drove you to be involved in both? You've been involved in charitable leadership activities as well. Olivia, could you give us a moment on what drove you to some of that?
- [06:23]
B
Yeah, I think we were always just raised with the ideals placed in our heads that it is so important to always give back and always be aware outside of your bubble and into the community. In high school I did a ton of different charitable clubs. I ended up being co president of Highland Park High School's charity drive where we raised over 160,000 DOL my senior year. And that was just one of many things that I really just thought was really important because you need to think of something larger than yourself. That's what keeps you grounded and that's what keeps you a well rounded Human being and just being involved in things like that have really taken me through and just made me a more full person. And in terms of college, a lot of the clubs I do at school are very academic. I'm a TAMID consultant manager, so I manage a consulting team across the sea in Israel, and I manage a team at Vanderbilt. We consult for a client. I'm the programming board manager for Women in Business. I am the marketing and PR chair for my sorority. And between everything I do at school, a lot of it is very career based, and that's what goes on my resume. But another thing I do at school is every Wednesday I participate in this program called TAP, which is the after school program where we drive 30 minutes into Nashville and we go to an old church and we tutor children who go to the local public schools in the area. And we help them with math, we help them with English, we help them with all their different subjects, we help them with all of their homeworks every day. And by doing that, I've been able to really connect with people and feel like I am using what I have learned in my life for something better. That's not something that goes in my resume, but that's something that's really important to me that I show up for every week and that I participate in because it makes me who I am.
- [08:03]
A
No, I think that's fantastic. And Jack, similarly, I've seen you be involved in constant charitable efforts. Take a second on what drove you to that, too.
- [08:12]
C
Yeah. One thing I just wanted to add is that I would definitely credit my Jewish roots as well, and the idea of Sedaka and, you know, how that's really been implanted into us at a young age, giving back to our community, valuing others before yourself. And so I think that's. That's something that I really would credit with my. My charitable work today. And so I. I give back in my temple. Obviously, our Mitzvah days are usually extremely, extremely popular. And we do very well. I know this past Thanksgiving, we packed over 300 meals for underprivileged families in our area for Thanksgiving to put. To put food on the table. And that's something that I started as my Mitchell Project. And now every single year, I brought my 12. My group of 12 friends and more to come and help out every year and donate and carry the baskets and deliver them. And so that's just something that, for me, is not something that I put on my resume or that, you know, I'm really, you know, talking about a lot, but it's something that really does mean a lot to me to help out those in the community. And that's really something that I think has stemmed not only from our parents, but also from our Jewish roots.
- [09:18]
A
Thank you. And I love that. I want to talk about your generation, artificial intelligence, the job market and so forth. And Olivia, I'll start with you because you're, you're already going into your third year of college and stuff like that. And then Jack will come to you on this question. Artificial intelligence in the job market, is this leaving people in college scared, apprehensive, excited? A whole mix of things. What do you see from people as they think about artificial intelligence in the business world and careers going forward?
- [09:48]
B
I think a common misconception on campus is that AI is going to take all entry level jobs and nobody's going to be able to get a job. I do not believe that is true. I just believe it comes with a shift in society. For example, when the Internet came, everyone said the Internet's going to take everyone's jobs and it's going to uproot society. People just had to learn to use the Internet effectively. It's the same thing with AI and it's just going to be a new way of life, a new way. It's becoming just natural that every large business, every large corporation uses AI. They have internal AI systems. And to get a job out of college, we're just going to have to learn different skills. We're going to shift from what you had learned before to recruit to now learning how to use AI properly, how to implement AI, how to use it most effectively. And that's what's going to land a job job for a student that's coming out of college.
- [10:35]
A
And Jack, your thoughts as you start college, you enter a business career. I mean, certainly, you know, there's still this huge number of investment banking analysts, young consultants working these incredible hours. But there is a shift going on where so much of that work is now done in different ways. Like one investment bank said to me that they'll have a third as many analysts as they do today because of more and more done through artificial intelligence and so forth. What are people saying about that? As you enter sort of one of the great business schools in the country at Wharton University of Pennsylvania, what are you hearing? What are people thinking? What do you think?
- [11:10]
C
Yeah, definitely, I would say the artificial intelligence is definitely a tool that we can use to, you know, help, help work. And it definitely accelerates things, you know, makes things easier and go faster. And I think that's the one thing that people really do value. And that's probably why, you know, they've cut down the amount of analysts to one third of what they, they had in the past, is because the work can be done faster. But I don't know if necessarily at this point in time, if the work can be done better. And that's where I still think that, you know, having a human behind their computer double checking everything is still so important in today's world. And also I think a lot of times when people talk about artificial intelligence with academia, they really focus on, on the idea that people are using it to cheat or using it to do their work for them. And, and I would say that's a really common misconception. I think that a lot of times, especially in higher academia, people are really using artificial intelligence as a tool to help them, you know, do do better work. But also it's really important to double check everything that comes out of a chat bot or something that is generated through artificial intelligence.
- [12:16]
B
Yeah. Adding on to Jack, AI has definitely been a resource. When I have a lot of terms I need to understand for an exam, chat can make me literally an incredible study guide that would have taken me hours to make in second. And it's really important to make sure to check these larger language models, especially with how common hallucinations are. But it's such just a vital tool. And I think that's what's going to be applied for those investment makers and consultants. They're going to have to know how to optimize AI for their job and use it correctly with prompt engineering so that AI is spitting out accurate information they can use effectively.
- [12:49]
C
Yeah. And it's definitely so vital right now. And I think Olivia has done a great job of this by minoring in AI, is that you have to take AI courses and you have to learn AI because you do need that edge over other applicants. As you said, it's getting more and more competitive each year to go into different areas of finance. And having that edge by understanding and knowing how to use artificial intelligence is definitely going to be something that is extremely valuable to employers.
- [13:14]
A
No, I think that's right on. And I love that. I'll ask you a question. Both of you have this tremendous work ethic, this tremendous focus. What advice would you give to emerging leaders, evolving students about capturing that discipline, that drive, that motivation to go with terrific personal skills? You're both nice, nice people. But, but how do you, anything you could teach about nurturing that work ethic, nurturing that discipline Is that something that just comes naturally to you, is something that was taught to you and any advice you would give to emerging students on or emerging leaders on sort of that work ethic and discipline. Olivia, let me start with you and then we'll go back to Jack.
- [13:56]
B
Yeah. In my opinion, I think you need to find something you're passionate about and that will give you discipline. I think when you look at Jack and I and our high school experiences, we did, we were involved in very different clubs where I did Model un, he did deca, I did a charity drive, he did a ton of Israel focused clubs. Like, I think you just need to find the people you want to work with and the type of work you want to do. And once you're enjoying what you're doing, you can really like submerge yourself into it. Like, I've always had an art business, designs by OSG alongside all of my schoolwork because it's something that I've loved. It was an outlet for me to design things for people. It was an outlet for me to paint, to draw. And I think if you find something like that that you can couple along with, I guess school with your academic clubs and you can really be a well rounded person and strive for, just strive for success in all different areas. I think there's definitely values that our parents implemented in us, but also I know that Jack and I both always like had high expectations of ourselves. You never saw our parents like yelling at us for grades. I don't think they ever even checked our grades. Like the two of us wanted to get good grades because we wanted to do that for ourselves. So I think it's wanting the best for yourself, not feeling like you're doing it for someone else, but really wanting that because you want it is what's going to drive success.
- [15:13]
C
I think that was very well said, Olivia. I guess the only thing I would add is that I think it's all about motivation and where your motivation is. And specifically what I mean by that is I've been a tennis player my whole life. I love playing tennis and then getting to be a part of the Israel Tennis and Education center by kind of building bridges between Jewish and Arab communities through the sport of tennis. That's just one example of something that I do that I take a passion of mine and I implement it into something that does change lives and does better our community. And so different things like that. Finding your passion and then applying it to the real world, I would definitely say helps you with that motivation aspect and really does drive you to be the best version of yourself.
- [15:54]
B
Yeah. And understanding when something's not your thing. Like I played tennis all four years and I really enjoyed playing tennis, but I played for fun. I was never going to sectionals, I was never going to state. What I really enjoyed was doing my art on the side. That was my big passion on the side. Tennis was more something to stay active and it was just this fun social thing for me versus for Jack. He really put his all into it. I think you have to pick and choose what you're really interested in and what you really love and that will drive you forward.
- [16:19]
A
And Olivia, I'm going to start with you with one of our final wrap up questions and let me know if you're ready for the wrap up question.
- [16:26]
B
Whatever you think.
- [16:27]
A
Okay. Well, we're going to give it a try. We're going to. And you don't have to answer this if you're uncomfortable answering it. But who today is the best tennis player in the Gordon family? Could you, could you. Do you want to rank them or would you tell us who's the best today without offending your mother?
- [16:42]
B
Yes. So I think that honestly, Jack is number one. I think my mom thinks she's number one. But she will not play him in a set. I think until she plays him in a set, there's a reason she's avoiding it and that's because she knows Jack's gotten better than her. So Jack's number one. My mom's number two. My dad's definitely number three. He works very hard. He plays a lot. I am number four. I think I picked up a racket maybe twice this year. I don't know. I'm not as good as I used to be.
- [17:12]
A
That's okay. I love the family ranking of tennis and hopefully it doesn't cause any trouble at home. Hopefully you still have dinner tonight. I know you're going off to New York tomorrow, but hopefully Terry will still make sure you get you get fed today. We'll see how it goes. Jack, I've got a final wrap up question for you. Let me know if you're ready.
- [17:28]
C
I'm ready.
- [17:29]
A
So here is the question. I'll actually give you two questions. The first question is, will the Minnesota Vikings ever return to greatness or is their time passed? Is that time just well past? Where are your thoughts there? And is JJ McCarthy, can he be a franchise quarterback?
- [17:45]
C
I'll start with the first part there. I like the, that concept of returning to greatness. I don't know if we've ever been at such a level of greatness. I think we but I will say the run in 2017, I mean at least in my lifetime was the best I've ever seen. The Minnesota Vikings and I do hope that before I pass away we will be hoisting up the Lombardi Trophy at least once. That might be wishful thinking, but I do hope that does happen in my lifetime. I will say J.J. mcCarthy it's gonna be interesting situation this year seeing as he's going to be behind Kyla Murray in the QB in the QB room and I do think that Kyler Murray is going to be the starting QB this year and I hope that he does lead us to a winning record. I think it'll be great for J.J. mcCarthy to learn from Kyler Murray, who's a former first round draft pick, actually former 11 in the draft and so I think it'll be very good for him so that in the future JJ can take up that franchise job.
- [18:41]
A
One more question for you. Is, is Anthony Edwards the best athlete, the best Minnesota athlete right now or is there somebody else who's the top player in Minnesota sports?
- [18:50]
C
I definitely think there's, there's a very strong argument for that and I definitely think you could also put Justin Jefferson's name into the mix there. I would say those two are like the modern day version of Randy Moss and Kevin Garnett, but definitely, definitely those two.
- [19:06]
A
My favorite Kevin Garnett thing is the sports fan at the at the Minnesota Timberwolf Stadium that used to dance when Kevin Garnett would play the older middle aged guy. My favorite thing to watch of all time. I'll ask you each one more question. Your parents have lots of friends, some that are smart, some that are athletic. Olivia, I'll ask you this first of your friend, your parents friends that are overrated athletes. Do you put Jim Field at the very top of that list of overrated athletes or not?
- [19:40]
C
Before she answers that, I will say when you started formulating that question, that's the name that was popping into my head. But I'll let Olivia take this one.
- [19:47]
B
Not gonna lie, I haven't played a lot of sports at Jim field. I can tell you right now Sydney Field is a better athlete than me. I think Stephanie and I are probably along the same level. It has been a long time since I've seen Jim play, but if that's what you believe, that he's number one, then I'm going to agree with you.
- [20:01]
A
Well, I think it's healthy for your own teachable moments that you've not watched him play that much. I think I would agree with you if we were to rank the athletes in the field family. Sidney is for sure number one. Jim probably a distant second in tennis, but really tries hard. You got to give him credit for trying hard. Jack, any quick comments there on the Jim Field mastery of sports?
- [20:23]
C
I mean, that. That forehand, just incredible.
- [20:27]
A
That's way too generous. Jim is never going to hire you for a job. He's a tax lawyer in the city. You're never going to be doing what he does. You don't have to compliment his forehead. He's fine. I do want to compliment Jack and Olivia Gordon, wonderful emerging leaders. Just absolutely fantastic. And I'll actually give a shout out to their parents, TJ Gordon and Terry Gordon, two of the best, best people that we know. And I hate to give Jim Field a hard time, but it's. It's what we do on the Becker Business and Private Equity Podcast when we're not being serious about all subjects. Jack and Olivia, thank you so much for joining us today on the Becker Business and the Becker Private Equity Podcast. Such a pleasure to get to visit with the two of you.
- [21:09]
B
Thank you for having us.
- [21:10]
C
Thank you. It's been an honor.