This year, two UVM alums, Jim Craige ’89 and David Strine ’90, delivered the annual Hoffman Family Business Lecture Series, hosted by the Grossman School of Business.

Their talk covered both their individual journeys from UVM to Wall Street and beyond, answering a wide variety of career and industry questions posed by the audience.

A native of Barre, Vermont, Jim Craige’s finance career specializing in emerging market debt, has currently taken him to more than 70 countries. He stressed the need to “come in early and stay late” and the importance of building relationships. “However you get your foot in the door, after the first hour, the rest is on merit.”

For David Strine, whose career path started in grad and then law school, and whose international experience in S.E. Asia ultimately led him away in 2007—with hindsight somewhat fortuitously—from his then employer Bear Sterns, advised students. “Don’t be afraid to take a calculated risk. Think like an entrepreneur and invest in yourself.”

Further career advice centered around several themes; your career path will change and is not permanent, think of it as a launching pad, it’s ok to figure out what you don’t like, don’t wait to build your network, don’t discount early work experiences such as manual labor or working in a restaurant as these still give you important life skills and contribute to you being a well-rounded person, internships open doors, get involved in clubs, case competitions and other avenues that feed your passion, and never underestimate the value of an education from UVM; you learn something here in addition to the technical skills that will be an asset for employers.

Student Mary Redmond ‘24 said. “The speakers seemed as though they were genuinely glad to be here talking to students. They spoke very highly of UVM and how appreciative they are of the professors and classes here. I learned that some of the biggest values an employer look for in an applicant are not merit or academic based, but rather are based on one’s work ethic and spirit, which was very assuring to hear from two successful businessmen.”  

Her comments were echoed by Omar Boukhriss ’24. “David and Jim emphasized the importance of working hard in the office to prove yourself. Their hard work and dedication has taken them far in their careers, and it is proof that it does pay off to show up early and stay late.”

Christian Penkrat ‘24 stated. “The Hoffman Lecture was extremely beneficial because the speakers told us about how to succeed in Wall Street. There are a lot of finance experts that will talk about different hard skills that are necessary for working on Wall Street, but not a lot that will discuss the fact that upholding a positive attitude and strong work ethic are factors that will ultimately lead us down the ‘road to success’, which is often portrayed as complicated and overly-challenging. Our guest speakers relieved this worry and made me feel that it is entirely possible for GSB students to attain a similar high-achieving status as many others.”

From all of us at the UVM Grossman School of Business, we'd like to thank Jim and David for taking the time out of their busy schedules to share their insights and experiences with our students.