They say you never know when your big break will come. For one Wall Street executive, the path to Goldman Sachs started at a sleepaway camp in New Hampshire.
In the summer of 2001, rising college junior Jennifer Roth didn’t intend to be a counselor at Camp Wicosuta, the camp she’d been going to since childhood. She was a triple major in finance, international business, and Spanish at Washington University in St. Louis. Her heart was set on a banking internship in New York, but despite having sent out countless résumés, her in-box remained empty.
The networking breakthrough she needed to get to Wall Street, however, turned out to be right under her nose. At the end of the summer, a conversation with one of her 10-year-old campers revealed that the girl’s mother was both a Goldman exec and an alumni of Roth’s school.
“I love camp, but I want to get a job in finance,” Roth told the girl when she begged Roth to return the following year.
“Is Goldman Sachs finance?” the girl replied.
Roth’s résumé got reviewed for the next year’s cycle, and she interned in Goldman’s private wealth division in 2002 — before ultimately returning for what would become a 20-plus-year career at the firm. Today, Roth is the bank’s global cohead of emerging markets and foreign exchange sales. She’s had a busy year.
“The markets have been volatile, so it’s exciting to be on the trading floor,” she told Business Insider in a recent interview.
Roth originally shared this story three years ago on Goldman’s website via a “letter to my younger self,” but it came up again during an interview with Business Insider about her advice for the bank’s 2025 summer interns. We were so taken with the anecdote and the lessons that could be gleaned from it that we decided to break it out into its own article with fresh commentary from Roth.
A full-circle story
Roth’s camp story, funny as it is, stands as a good reminder that the world is small and every relationship counts — even the littlest ones.
“It is essential to invest in your relationships because you never know where they will take you. For me, a 10-year-old changed the trajectory of my career, and ultimately my life,” Roth told Business Insider. “It’s a powerful reminder that every interaction, no matter how small, can have a huge impact whether you realize it at the time or not.”
Roth also met her husband at Goldman, when they were both analysts. And if the story weren’t full-circle enough — the 10-year-old who helped her get an “in” at the firm? She went on to intern and work at Goldman, too.
“In a relationship-driven business like ours, this lesson has become critical,” said Roth, adding, “The connections you forge can open doors for you throughout your journey, so invest in your relationships and be thoughtful and present with the people that cross your path — whether it’s a quick chat on the phone, a meeting, a chance encounter in the elevator or for me, picking up a 10-year-old from Logan Airport to take her to her first summer at sleepover camp.”
Today, she plays her part in giving back to the young upstarts at the firm via involvement with her team’s internship program. Roth helps with hiring decisions and leads a “summer council,” which are groups set up to ensure interns are having a meaningful experience.
“On the rare occasions we feel like they’re not really connecting with the desk, we pivot and gear them towards other desks,” she said. “We deliver feedback to them and offer networking and social events throughout the summer.”
Roth advises young upstarts on Wall Street to take one step at a time in their careers.
“Focus on what’s in front of you because you want to do what’s in front of you really well, and the next step in your career will come naturally,” said Roth. “Some people will come to me and say, how can I become a partner at Goldman? And I say, I never thought of that when I started at the firm. I wanted to be a great analyst.”
As was the case with her summer camp story, your career path isn’t necessarily going to go the way you plan or expect — just embrace what comes your way.
“Your career is not one-dimensional, it’s not going to be a straight line,” she said, “and I think you just need to play the long game and be okay with that.”
Read the full article here
