Dean’s Dialogues: Get to Know Poole Alum Michael Andreasen

Poole College Dean Frank Buckless has been sitting down with students and recent grads to learn more about their experiences in the college. This is the latest installment in the series.

Michael Andreasen is an Investment Officer at the SC Retirement System Investment Commission, managing private equity and hedge fund portfolios. He also co-manages the internship program. He graduated from Poole College of Management in 2019 with a degree in business administration and a concentration in finance. Michael is an active CFA charterholder and serves on the board for the State of SC CFA Society.

Read on to learn more about Andreasen and his Poole College journey. Please note: This interview has been edited from the audio recording for length and clarity.

Please tell us a little about your career path so far.

I graduated from Poole College in 2019 with a degree in business administration and a concentration in finance. I was part of the Business Analytics Honors Program while at Poole. I went to work for Ally Financial for a year following graduation in their rotational program. That job was focused on commercial finance but I was interested in asset management, which led to my role now. I moved into institutional investment management at the South Carolina Pension Fund. I began in a rotational program and was promoted to an investment officer role. Today I specialize more in private equity and hedge funds. I also co-manage our internship program.

What impacted you most at Poole College?

Poole was a really good experience for me. Now that I’ve worked several places, I think what helped most centered around work ethic. I think the professors do a good job of instilling that discipline. I feel that, at least from my experience now in hiring people, students from Poole are excellent job prospects. I’ve noticed NC State students don’t feel entitled and they’re willing to work hard. I think that’s the biggest takeaway for me.

Did you know what you wanted to do going in to college?

I began in the First Year College. I didn’t know if I would do engineering or business. I ultimately decided after my first year that I wanted to be in business. The job and the long-term career prospects looked better to me. Even when I got into Poole, I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do. I was between different majors – sales, economics, finance – and one point, I was considering statistics. But I found and enrolled in the analytics program, which was a happy medium. I paired that with the finance concentration and really enjoyed my junior and senior year in the more advanced classes.

What would you say is your most memorable experience while at Poole?

The most memorable experience was in (associate professor of finance) Srini Krishnamurthy’s class in financial analytics. I wish I had taken this class earlier. I think even as I accepted a job at Ally as a senior, I didn’t feel I knew what options were out there. I was just getting into the portfolio management and investment management classes. Srini brought in a few speakers in asset management and private equity and it just opened my eyes to available career prospects. Opportunities where practitioners visited were probably the most memorable experiences in my mind.

Which class was most helpful to you?

I would say Srini’s class and the business analytics practicum course. I worked with a few other classmates with First Citizens Bank for the semester. That was good real life experience. We had an opportunity to present to the people at the bank. It was an experience I could talk about when I was going through interviews.

What advice would you give a prospective student?

Get involved early and try different things. Sit in on experiences where you can hear from people in different industries until you settle on what’s most meaningful to you. That’s one thing I wish I had done earlier. I took my most meaningful courses during my senior year, and I wish I had taken more of the in-depth courses earlier because I think it would have impacted the direction of my career search. I also tell our interns to get involved in activities so you’re able to demonstrate your interests outside the classroom. Being able to speak to that helps differentiate you from others as you’re looking for jobs.

What advice would you give a recent graduate?

Be open to different possibilities and don’t settle immediately on one path. Even if you’re in a situation that you don’t really like, there’s always an opportunity to learn. It’s more about the long run. I think things will work out if you just do a good job – do the little things right, and you’ll get more and more responsibility over time. So if things aren’t working out initially, just keep your head down and keep pushing. Things will eventually work out. Be patient.