“Reaching Your Dream” series tells stories of Northwestern alums who found their dream careers thanks to Chicago Field Studies, an academic internship program that matches over 500 students every year with over 250 employer partners. CFS participants receive guidance on choosing internships based on their passions and values, navigating applying and interviewing, and succeeding in the professional world. While interning, students process their experiences in weekly CFS seminars, where they reflect on the place of work in their lives and the role of their industry in society.
By Nina Wieda
Mickey Jiang is a Principal at Shore Capital Partners, a lower middle market private equity firm headquartered in Chicago. A Northwestern 2014 alum with a degree in MMSS, Economics, and Mathematics, Mickey first joined Shore Capital as a CFS intern and found his calling there.
Mickey Jiang
Mickey was born in Tianjin, China. His father immigrated to the US as a post-graduate chemistry student with less than a thousand dollars in his pocket, his wife, and young son. Their family would later move to New Hampshire, where Mickey grew up in a suburban town known primarily for their apple farms. Mickey’s early career aspirations were inspired by watching Mythbusters. He was fascinated by the process of reverse-engineering problems, breaking them down, and solving them. As a result, he dreamed of becoming a special effects engineer, but did not pursue that career path after an honest heart-to-heart conversation with his father.
As it often happens with first-generation Americans from education-minded families, Mickey started college on a pre-med track. He was not certain, though, that the path was right for him. “I couldn’t see myself practicing medicine in the long run,” Mickey recalls. As a sophomore, he shifted his emphasis to the MMSS program and started learning about careers in investment banking and private equity. The path seemed intimidating: many of his peers were already far ahead of Mickey in terms of their internship experience. “It’s a testament to how high-achieving everyone at Northwestern is,” Mickey comments. He needed to catch up in terms of the real-world work experience, and that is how he came to Chicago Field Studies.
“I’ve always felt that CFS should be promoted more across Northwestern,” Mickey says emphatically. The program helped him catch up in his professional development and introduced him to many high-profile employers. He got to know a few companies through many rounds of interviewing and received several internship offers. He ultimately chose to intern with Shore Capital, because he felt that he would learn the most there. He was right. “Everyone was so generous with their mentorship. They were taking what felt, to me, like outsized time from their days to teach me their craft. The education they provided me was invaluable.” At the time, the company did not regularly hire CFS interns for full-time positions, so the mentorship was not, at the outset, an investment into a future colleague, but simply conscientious professional practice representative of the values of the firm. Since Mickey was a senior, he was combining his internship with a full-time job search. His supervisors at Shore encouraged him to put the job search first and take as much time as he needed to prepare for his interviews. However, Mickey enjoyed the work so much and was so appreciative of their mentorship that he found himself scheduling the job interviews around his responsibilities at Shore. The job search was going well, and Mickey had a few offers and second-round interviews lined up. Then on the eve of Halloween 2013, Shore had made a successful sale, and following a social night celebrating the team’s achievements, Mickey’s engagement and positive attitude precipitated a full-time offer from the firm before the end of the night. Mickey accepted without hesitation.
Eight years later, Mickey is a Shore Principal. The company has grown from less than 10 employees to more than 70 team members today. Hiring CFS interns for full-time positions has become much more common in the years since Mickey first joined the firm. “An internship is a realistic job preview for both parties. It’s a good way to find people who fit in with what we are trying to do here,” explains Mickey. To nurture the company’s relationship with Chicago Field Studies and help current students make the best of their internships, Mickey serves on the CFS Employer Board. For a few years, he was in charge of hiring a new crop of CFS interns every quarter, until he passed the responsibility to another CFS alum.
“We work hard,” Mickey admits, “but I don’t take it for granted that I’m in a unique situation surrounded by colleagues I deeply admire and enjoy being around professionally and personally. I love being here.” He enjoys the content of his work as much as he appreciates his co-workers. On a daily basis, he gets to reverse-engineer new problems and find solutions, engaging in the kind of critical thinking that attracted him as a child. He has not become a special effects engineer, but he has found a career that’s even more exciting.