William Tearse
- Vice President, Financial Consultant
- Fidelity Investments
School Information
School: University of Wisconsin-Madison
College Major: Other
Years at College Works: 2011 to 2012
Career Information
Working For: Fidelity Investments
Title: Vice President, Financial Consultant
Industry: Finance
College Works Career Impact
In one sentence, what has CW meant to you?
College Works Painting showed me that differentiating myself – my skills, motivation, trustworthiness, and knowledge – means a lot more to a client than pointing out differences between your products and what another company offers.
How did your CW experience impact your career? Immediately after graduation? Now?
I had a distinct advantage over other college applicants because I had direct sales, marketing, and production experience to leverage in my interviews. Anybody pursuing a career in sales would benefit from working with College Works Painting.
What was the greatest lesson you learned from your CW experience?
Knock on more doors. You will go through many ups and downs, but the only thing thing that will keep you moving forward is to be aware of the factors you can control and spending as much time as you can focused on them.
Advice
What advice do you have for potential CW participants? Current CW participants?
Always be able to answer the question “why am I doing this?” Write the answer down and keep it close to you. Work hard. Raise your hand. Control what you can control. Start saving for retirement. Call your mom. Knock on more doors.
What’s your best advice for someone interested in entering your career field?
Be interested, not interesting. Take every opportunity you have to learn something about somebody else.
What’s your favorite memory from CW?
We had a marketing competition where branch managers paired up, put a strategy together, and then took out some painters. Most leads gets a free steak dinner. It was a lot of fun putting that together and running through neighborhoods keeping everybody motivated. Lots of leads, too.
Last words of wisdom?
Focus on the people around you and weed out the negative ones. They are usually the loudest and will only drag you down.