Nicki LiTrenta knew she wanted to work at Bloomberg from the moment she visited the organization’s New York City headquarters with the STAC Business Club last year. While it took some serious perseverance, she has since made the jump from being a Finance major at STAC to an Accounting Operations Representative at Bloomberg, and she’s loving every minute.
“It was something I wanted but kept being told it was too competitive and I most likely wouldn’t get a job there,” Nicki says. But she didn’t listen to the naysayers. Instead, she focused on evaluating the company, seeing where she could fit in best, and submitting applications. “I was rejected a total of three times by Bloomberg and never let it discourage me,” she says. “I kept trying until I was able to show the company that I would be a great asset to their team.”
Nicki attributes her confidence to many of the experiences she had during her college years at St. Thomas Aquinas College. For example, she participated in the College Fed Challenge with classmates Isabella Diaz ’20 and Alexander Bruzzi ’19. The trio co-wrote an economics research paper and then presented it at the EEA Conference in New York City. Also, while studying abroad in Italy during her junior year, she took an international business class that helped her understand how differently other countries function compared to U.S. business and economics.
Throughout her senior year, Nicki interned at a law firm in Manhattan—an experience that she says further expanded her international view. She communicated regularly with employees in Hong Kong, Beijing, and São Paulo which taught her a thing or two about work-life balance.
To be sure, Nicki knows that life shouldn’t be all work and no play, but she managed to do both in her job as a children’s entertainer through her college years. Working for a company called Patsy the Clown, she says she became quite skilled at making balloon animals. Another fun fact about her? She can say the alphabet backward in English and in American Sign Language.
Originally from Queens, Nicki learned about STAC from her cousin who graduated the year before she started. “I wanted to dorm at college but still be able to go home, and STAC was the perfect place,” she says. “I especially loved the idea of a smaller college because having the professors know me personally helped me thrive as a student.” Two of her favorite mentors are Dr. Mihal and Dr. Trendafilov who showed her the benefits of working hard. “I drastically improved as a student and as a person from their lessons inside and outside of the classroom.”
Looking ahead, Nicki sees herself moving up at Bloomberg, a company she says is supportive of helping its employees grow and advance. Given her own success in landing her dream job, it seems perfectly fitting that her advice to soon-to-be graduates is to “look at the company before applying because it is important to like the company you work for, it will make you a proud employee.”