The fourth person I interviewed for my networking component was a Wellesley alumna who works for a credit rating agency in Tokyo. She was incredibly inspiring and helpful and was one of the most interesting insights into the finance industry that I have gotten so far. She was extremely nice and a role model for me as a current Wellesley student.

While at Wellesley she studied East Asian Studies and she mentioned how taking classes in different disciplines through her liberal arts education really helped her in her career. Upon graduating she went to New York to work for a Japanese company. She said that while she learned a lot during her time there, she felt like that wasn’t the right thing for her. While looking to change jobs she came across a position at a credit rating agency looking for someone fluent in both Japanese and English and decided to apply. With very little experience in finance and credit rating, she got the job and found herself enjoying it a lot and stayed for the rest of her career, even now, with that company.

Credit rating agencies are in charge of giving a “Credit score” to companies and projects and have a lot of influence on how people, companies, and governments invest their money. They can move markets, and she told me that she enjoyed the challenging part of her job and the rewards that came with it. She was a part of the oil, natural resource, and infrastructure division while in New York. She then got an offer to move into the Tokyo branch and moved into the Corporate Finance department. She told me that she enjoyed how every day at work was a little bit different since the job’s scope is so wide, and recommended that if I wanted to follow this line of work that I studied to get the CFA certification as well. It is very reasonable since the CFA certification is a good gateway to hands-on-knowledge of finance and how the markets work.

I came across credit ratings and agencies outside of class for the first time during my internship at JOIN and came to know how important they were for investing not only in companies but in infrastructure projects and government projects as well. Having looked at credit ratings in a professional environment really sparked my interest in working in one. I think I will try to apply for credit rating jobs once I go back to my senior year at Wellesley. Since a lot of it is research and working directly with people, companies, and governments, I think it is a career that combines a lot of my interests into one job.

I really enjoyed talking with a Wellesley alumn and about her career in a credit rating agency. I am very thankful for her help and support since she has been helping me out a lot during this trip.