DAVIS, Calif. - Brandyn Lee once helped his Chaminade High School football team to a state title game at the StubHub Center. He was a member of UC Davis' Big Sky Conference champion team in 2018, playing in front of a hostile crowd at Montana's Washington-Grizzly Stadium, then later in the program's first two Division I FCS playoff appearances. Lee also served as the treasurer for Kappa Alpha Psi for two years, then was elevated to the role of fraternity president as a senior. He even helped launch two exciting student events through a pair of on-campus internships.
With all of that experience in high-pressure situations and positions of leadership, the 2019 managerial economics graduate admits feeling some nerves during his first time on the phone as an internal sales representative for Franklin Templeton.
"Cold-calling as part of my internship was one thing," Lee said. "I don't do cold-calling in my job right now because I'm an inbound, but taking calls for the first time was very nerve-wracking. The financial advisor expects you to know everything. Some of them have been in the job for 25-30 years, and they're grilling you on information, and you've only been on the desk for maybe three days."
In February this year, Lee started working at Franklin Templeton, the Bay Area-headquartered leader in financial management. He interned in the Rancho Cordova office a year before, during which he shadowed people in the very role he now holds. He sat in meetings and on phone calls, and learned the basic operations of the industry. To its credit, Franklin does an admirable job at promoting upward mobility, and easing the transition to the next rung on the ladder. So Lee felt prepared. Still, such a moment is akin to an athlete getting that first taste of action at the next level.
"That transition from an internship in college to finally doing my job was a huge one," Lee says. "You're now dealing with people's money, and a lot of it, too. It's a simple phone call, and yet there are millions of dollars at stake. You have to know your information."
Fortunately for Lee, the initial butterflies disappeared quickly, and within a month or so, both his knowledge base and his confidence level took off. Ultimately, he comes from the right background: his time as a collegiate student-athlete and his own family resources prepared him in ways even he did not foresee.
"At first, when you get out of college, you don't know how football will translate in the real world. But it translates in every aspect," Lee said. "You have meetings in a job, and you have to be efficient at taking notes, just like in team meetings. You show up early for every meeting and early for work. And you're just grinding through tough times. In a football game, as a DB or receiver, you may make a mistake, and it's about learning from it. You learn to get back up. That's just like in your job: you make a mistake or say the wrong thing, and you have to get back up and learn from it."
Additionally, Lee's entry into the world of finance continues something of a family tradition. His father, Anthony, still works as a financial advisor and vice president of investments for the Los Angeles-based Wedbush Securities. He encouraged both sons to become interested in investments from a relatively young age. Brandyn's younger brother, Austyn, currently attends the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State, with interests in marketing and supply chain management.
As for Brandyn, he recalls making his first investments in tax liens, stocks and other securities as early as middle school; and sprouted aspirations in finance by the time he was a junior at Chaminade. Lee further credits the hit film The Big Short, a 2015 adaptation of Michael Lewis' book about the 2008 financial crisis, for solidifying his career trajectory.
"It really jumped off when I saw The Big Short, and saw how much money people we're making. I thought I would love to learn about it and be a part of it," said Lee, who was recently reminded of his favorite movie when hedge fund manager Bill Ackman similarly turned a $27 million investment in credit default swaps into a $2.7 billion profit. "Stuff like that is what got me really interested in finance, made me want to get to that level in knowing how to manage billions of dollars, and makes me want to be smart enough and experienced enough to do it."
True to the philosophy of the Aggie EVO student-athlete outcomes program, Lee began blazing his career path well before walking across the graduation stage. He held two on-campus internships with Scott Stevenson, who served as the business enterprise manager for the Division of Student Affairs and marketing director for ASUCD. Stevenson also worked for the athletics department as a designer and publications coordinator. On top of that, he is a UC Davis grad (1992) and a fellow Kappa, adding another level of bond between mentor and protégé.
Lee's first internship marked his introduction to the cold call. He reached out to businesses in Davis and Sacramento, seeking sponsorships for events like Picnic Day and the freshman fair. Like that first inbound call he later experienced at Franklin, Lee remembers feeling some nerves during his first cold call. He even recalls not mentioning that he was a student until the end of the call, fearing he would not be taken seriously. However, Lee knew that if he prepared diligently and carried himself well, he could give the impression of an experienced university staffer, and thus instill more confidence in the business owner with whom he was building a rapport.
"It was nerve-wracking at first, especially setting up meetings and sitting down with owners," Lee said. "I had a real agenda for the meeting, and I made sure it was professional. That was something I definitely learned from those. After you do it for one event, then the next, it just gets simpler. Confidence definitely came with experience."
The following year, Lee raised the stakes, moving into an internship with the ASUCD Creative Media team. Still under Stevenson's watch, one of his first projects was the Sunset Fest, a concert initially held on the Memorial Union Quad. What once was a freshman welcome was now a miniature festival, with music, dance, cultural performances, food and merchandise. Lee not only raised funds and partnerships for the event, but established strong alliances to benefit future editions.
Lee's other major project was a special Unitrans bus route to the Vacaville factory outlets. He and Stevenson constructed a one-day pilot run, with discounts for the students from participating merchants. Once again, he pounded the pavement, meeting with prospective business owners while creating a model that could be beneficial for the campus bus service. Not only was the test run a success, but for Lee specifically, it broadened his skill set to add marketing and sales to his expertise in finance.
"At the time, I didn't know how much it would help my future career, but it actually did," Lee says. "That's what I'm currently doing. I'm getting calls from financial advisors, creating business relationships and helping out their clients. Those internships really helped with Franklin Templeton. They got me the job and the role."
Armed with the tools learned from his on-campus positions, Lee sought to gain experience in the corporate world. He was heading into his fourth academic year, and found himself thinking seriously about his post-UC Davis future. Almost on a whim, Lee consulted the campus website to learn when the next student career fair was taking place. In previous years, he had been unable to fit the various Internship & Career Center events into his busy schedule.
As it turned out, the next fair was the following day. Lee scrambled to update his resume, readied his suit and tie, then headed to the Pavilion. Hundreds of students flooded the arena floor, with lines snaking in all directions. He first met with a rep at Five Star Bank, with whom he would later reconnect on an Aggie EVO road trip. Lee then waited in another queue to talk to Garett Knudson, the manager of internal sales at the Franklin Templeton Investments campus in Rancho Cordova.
Lee spoke about his aspirations and asked questions about the company. The conversation went well, he says, but he was well aware that Knudson had already spoken with hundreds of other students that day, and thus, had heard hundreds of versions of the same pitch. Fortunately, Knudson mentioned another UC Davis student who had done an internship the summer before: Tiger Garcia, another managerial economics student and a fellow safety on the football team.
"That's how we really connected. I told him that I played on the football team and that Tiger is my teammate," said Lee. "I was able to do a series of four interviews that following January through April. I ended up getting the internship."
Lee worked as a sales intern at Franklin for the two months between the end of the 2019 school year and the start of fall camp. He gained a front-row seat for the daily routine of inbound sales reps (his current role), while learning how to use such tools and resources as Morningstar, Lipper and the Wall Street Journal. As part of the internship, Lee also began studying for the Securities Industry Essentials exam. The SIE is a must in the financial world: once that achievement is unlocked, it allows a person to take the various Series exams that cover all conceivable aspects of the industry.
"The main thing I liked about the internship was seeing the progression of employees. During the summer I was there, people were moving up, from internal sales representative to senior representative. Seeing that people are able to move up in a short span is pretty heart-warming," he said. Furthermore, as Knudson explained, when someone moves up the ladder at Franklin, they do so because they are truly prepped and qualified for the advancement.
Among those ready for the next step was Lee himself. He graduated in December after playing his final season as an Aggie safety, then joined Franklin full-time in February. In June, Lee finished the Series 7, or the General Securities Representative Exam, which allows an entry-level broker to deal in stocks, options, commodities, funds and other securities. A month later, he completed the Series 63, or Uniform Securities Agent State Law exam. Lee's next move is the Graduate Management Admission Test, or GMAT, which will position him for an eventual return to school and a master's of business administration program.
"Studying in the finance world never stops," says Lee. "It's an everyday thing. You're always having to read different articles and keep up with events in the market. Even for your licenses, you have to really grind."
One huge asset is that Lee has a seasoned ally just one phone call away in the form of Anthony. As a financial advisor himself, Brandyn's father provides invaluable insight for what is on the other end of every inbound call. "We talk a lot more about finance, especially when I got into financial newsletters and magazines like Barron's. We probably talk about investments once a week. He gives me pointers about my job, about what financial advisors like to hear on the phone. That helped me out a lot. There's a lot more dialog about investments because I know more now," said the younger Lee.
As he wraps up his first year with Franklin Templeton, Lee carries a thirst for knowledge and an enthusiasm for his profession that the EVO system hopes to instill in every Aggie. And in turn, Lee is grateful for the experience he had as a student-athlete.
"An aspect of football that I'll take to my grave is that it makes you treasure the time you have," he says. "With football, you work early in the morning and then at night as well. I remember thinking I would be really tired in my first week on the job. But I didn't have to wake up for weights. I just had to go to my desk and answer calls. I have in the back of my mind that it will never be as hard as football.
"That's why I say football helps with every aspect of your job," says Lee. "It helps out with your whole attitude – how to attack the day, how to learn from your mistakes, how to grind throughout the day, and how to achieve a goal."
ABOUT UC DAVIS:
With the addition of equestrian and women's beach volleyball in 2018, more than 700 student-athletes represent the fifth-ranked public school in the nation on one of 25 intercollegiate athletics teams.
UC Davis, a national leader in Title IX gender equity and leadership, is centrally located between San Francisco, Lake Tahoe, and the Napa Valley; and offers an unrivaled student-athlete experience that features the ideal combination of elite academics, Division I athletics and personal growth.
Ranked annually in the top 10 in diversity and students' social mobility, UC Davis is uncommonly committed to preparing student-athletes for life after graduation with Aggie EVO — an innovative student-athlete outcomes program that helps young women and men develop passions, gain real-world experience, and enjoy a successful launch to full-time employment or graduate school. Through Aggie EVO, Intercollegiate Athletics provides unmatched resources and a vast network of working professionals to ensure post-graduation success for its student-athletes.
