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English grad Michael Singh lets liberal-arts students explore careers in finance

During his undergraduate years at Indiana University, Mike Singh knew that he wanted to go into finance after graduation. But rather than tread the well-worn path to business school, the Providence, Rhode Island-native decided to major in English (BA ’98).

“When I was in high school, my parents always preached this: Being well-rounded, taking English classes and language classes, economics, history, and what have you, serves you well later in life,” Singh says. “Having a good understanding of things outside of finance is critical, because it makes you think in a variety of different ways.”

Singh was inspired and encouraged by his liberal-arts classes at IU—particularly those taught by the late Dr. Albert Wertheim. “I had a great four years at Indiana University,” he says. “I think Professor Wertheim had a great effect on me and where I am today. He challenged me more than any other professor that I ever had in high school and in life.”

After college, Singh headed back east to enter the financial industry, but found that placement services were less than enthusiastic about his choice of profession. “If you wanted to be an English major and go into business, that was sort of frowned upon,” he says. “They said, ‘No, you probably want to be an English teacher, or you want to go to law school.’ But that was never my intent—my goal was to get into business come hell or high water, and I wasn’t going to let somebody in the placement office tell me that.”

With his IU education and plenty of determination, Singh found a foothold in the world of Wall Street business: Today he lives in Manhattan and works for one of the world’s leading financial firms. Several years ago, when he sought a way to give back to his alma mater, he recalled his placement office frustration, and wanted to encourage those qualified liberal-arts students who were considering a career in business. The result was an internship at his firm for students in the Liberal Arts and Management Program(LAMP), the honors-level interdisciplinary program in the College of Arts and Sciences in cooperation with the Kelley School of Business. The internship has been a win-win arrangement for his firm and the students.

“The interns seem to be the best and brightest of what IU has to offer,” he says. “And one thing that is also nice to see is that they hold Professor Madison, LAMP’s director, in the highest of regard. Everyone that has been a part of LAMP has praised it, and it seems like a great program that Professor Madison runs.”

With several former interns now in various positions on and off Wall Street, Singh is happy to help an IU student achieve his or her goals each summer. And he’s also pleased to note that the LAMP students compete at his firm on an equal basis with interns from business programs at other schools.

“The thing is, at major financial firms, you can be a marketing major, you can go to law school—there are so many different areas in which you can work,” Singh says. “You can be in our legal counsel, you can be in marketing, you can be in event planning, you can be an investment banker, you can be a trader, you can be a number of things. So I think there’s a misnomer that you have to go to business school to do that, and that’s absolutely not the case. There’s a million ways you can end up on Wall Street.”