This blog post is on Dominick Wells, aka A Finance Bro whose side powers include being a mindset guru and a retired TA. Besides his finance gig, he also enjoys quantum mechanics, quantum physics, french disco and jogging … a slight bit of a nerd. But in all honesty, Dominick is an amazing guy with so much perspective to share.
This year I got the honour of being a part of Dominick's TA class for COMM 101, a first-year UBC Sauder course. To be honest, Dominick was an excellent TA because he made the class very exciting, even the week on accounting was somehow bearable. For any of my COMM 101 friends reading, a cool memory Dominick shared during my lengthy list of questions included that our COMM 101 lecture room (room 491/492) was the first and last classroom Dominick stood foot in. That's pretty full circle in my opinion.
Anyways, to continue on, I knew that after Dominick's class on Thursday, I would walk out with lots of practical knowledge and a few weird stories from Dominick's time at Sauder. Dominick has so much advice to share, from investing to internships. So this post is for any business student who may catch themselves stressing from time to time.
Dominick On Investing:
Since Dominick is a pretty wise individual, I asked him for advice on how to get started with investing. I have decided to be nice and not gate keep the information for myself. To begin, Dominick shares “81 percent of the time you cannot outperform the market by trying to time your investments”. He recommends following the “keep it stupid simple” method. If you are young, just buy the market, the S&P 500 index, and that's it, just leave your money there. He emphasizes, “don't start thinking you know what's gonna happen, because you don’t. Investing is like meditation, if you don’t think you need to meditate that just means you need to meditate twice as long, as someone who knows they need to meditate. That is why hedge funds exist, you hedge against having no clue on what's going to happen.” So basically, to sum it up don’t gamble the stocks, and shift your mindset from wanting to make money, to the simple goal of not losing any money instead. And in Dominick's words “that's when your financial choices change and get better.”
As an individual who still doesn't completely understand NFTs, I sure enjoy talking about it. After having all my Sauder friends give me their NFT opinions, I had to get Dominick's take. To break down our conversation, Dominick advises not to buy NFTs, despite the success stories involved, there are also so many L’s. He suggests that better use of your time and money is to grab a coding and marketing friend, and start up your own business, it will probably have a higher chance of getting you some coin. So any coders or marketing baddies, my LinkedIn is always open for you to reach out.
Dominick On Career Advice:
Through reading so far, you can probably tell Dominick is a finance major, and his interest sparked from wanting a challenge in his post-secondary education. After grinding all his second-year classes, finance caught his eye. And after taking a look at some of the 4th-year finance courses including “topics in investment theory” and “financial engineering and risk management”, Dominick thought finance seemed pretty interesting, and something that wouldn’t have bored him. In my personal opinion, Dominick is kinda crazy for that one. So, being a graduate, Dominick has some insights to share with anyone interested in the finance specialization.
To jump right in, the first upside Dominick shares is the clout associated with being a finance major, a very valid reason to join the finance gang…
All jokes aside, one word Dominick would use to describe the finance industry is “influence”. He states “you have a lot of influence when you are in finance, because you gain so much decision when handling other people's money, deciding the trajectory of money in business analysis, or deciding if someone can take out a loan. You have complete influence if the business gets money or not.” To go even deeper this influence also comes with authority and responsibility, he states ‘if you're deciding the interest rate for Canada, raising the rate by one single point results in everyone going crazy. If you introduce a trade tariff, a company can have immense growth or go bankrupt, so the industry as a whole has so much influence”. I think Dominick has a very thought-out way to explain finance. Dealing with money, something that has so much control over the economy definitely involves immense influence, and all decisions are so impactful. With this influence, Dominick has all the right intentions on how he wants to utilize his finance knowledge. Besides his ideal dream job being “no job”, Dominick wants to help people manage their money to make decisions that will help their future. Not only to help rich people get richer, but also to help small businesses whose goal is to provide for their families. Moreover, to give people peace of mind with their money.
So, y’all might be wondering what Dominick is up to. Well, he just recently finished an internship with RBC, where a typical day looked like:
Wake up
Have coffee
Pet the dog
Go walk dog
Pet dog and cat
Join the meeting at 9
Start tasks for the day until noon
After noon lots of meetings
Emails
Lunch and youtube
After lunch send more emails
Daily 3 o'clock meeting
Pat the dog and go outside
Catch up with international teams
Check email once again
End around 7.
Clearly, the internship was pretty variable and included lots of patting dog, but it was a good challenge and came with lots of learning opportunities. Seeking out internships can be a stressful and lengthy process, with continuous rejections. Speaking with Dominick about his experience with applying to internships was very helpful, and I think everyone can benefit from his advice.
To start off Dominick's RBC internship fell into his lap, probably not what a lot of business students want to hear. His GPA stood out and his knowledge and hard work spoke volumes when asked to learn a new coding language and database python in a week and a half. But of course, we can’t just leave it up to chance, so here is some actual advice from Dominick, if you don’t just happen to get lucky like him. Basically, “don’t be desperate”. He says, “as soon as you surrender the idea that I need an internship, that's when you get the call.” It will come when it comes. And in Dominick's case, his attitude has taken him from a Sauder TA all the way to being headhunted by some of the top finance departments in North America. So, the mindset seems to come in clutch, this is what I mean by Dominick being a mindset guru.
I hope that anyone reading this article is now feeling more relaxed and less stressed out. I also hope you all enjoyed Dominick's teaching moments, as much as I did. I guess the main theme is to work hard, but also take it easy, and stuff will typically fall into place. Also, avoid NFTs! Dominick also doesn't like Bonds but that's a conversation for another time. Enjoy the rest of your day :)
Dominicks Instagram: dominickwells_
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