By Colleen Watson

A Merrill Lynch advertisement read, "The World is 10 Years Old". It appeared in the Wall Street Journal in the fall of 1998. It had been ten years since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. That event has become the benchmark for the end of the cold war and beginning of a new age, the Information Age and the end of the Industrial Age.

The discovery of the New World in 1492 by Christopher Columbus marked the beginning of the Industrial Age. The Industrial Age lasted about 500 years.

Information is knowledge passed in real time. The Internet and simulcasts are excellent examples of real time information.

To learn more about this new world order, I contacted Merrill Lynch. I wanted to learn what I could about financial job opportunities in the Information Age.

Ron Connors, Director/Vice President of the Merrill Lynch complex in Saint Paul, Minnesota was an excellent resource. He has been with ML for 24 years starting his career as a college intern. The internships program is still going strong and Merrill Lynch is constantly looking for new talent. Ron presently has 4 interns in Saint Paul.

The Merrill Lynch Chairman of the Board in the 1980s, Dan Tully, stated their core philosophy, "Our most important asset rides the elevator to work every morning". Ron Connors reaffirmed, "Finding new talent is the most critically important part of my job."

Today's customer wants specialized services geared to their specific needs. Customers don't believe that one size fits all. Information they seek must be up to the minute market solutions. Financial advisors need to operate like they have Wall Street right here on the Mississippi.

Ideal candidates for a career on "Wall Street" are bright college graduates with an internal drive to succeed. Hard work and persistence are also necessary. A 60 to 70 hour workweek eliminates those that want to succeed without the effort. It takes a few years to become a wise and respected financial advisor. Eventually, the successful advisors go on to specialize in their chosen segment of the market.

Medical Doctors used to be General Practitioners who cared for their client's entire myriad of medical problems. Today they specialize. We used to buy and sell stocks with our stockbroker. Now we have more information and insist on having our finances handled by specialists.

Ron Connors also shared that second career candidates have been very successful as Financial Planners. An ex-first grade teacher is today a million dollar producer. A restaurant owner sold his business and became a top-level financial advisor. And a fifth year senior, who was bartending his way thru college, became a super-star for Merrill Lynch.

One of the common denominators of successful Merrill Lynch hires was the willingness to develop affinity groups where your knowledge will be the most helpful. Being involved in a community outside of work is very helpful in developing credibility. "People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care', is a great quote from Steven Covey. It explains volunteerism as a business development tool.

New market demands for specialization have created a need for women and minority specialists. Seeking knowledge and additional training is a constant, too. Information is increasing exponentially, so learning is a lifelong endeavor.

Ron told me that he started to learn about the financial market when he was 16 years old. His summer employer had him work at his home, landscaping. His assignment at lunch was to read and study The Wall Street Journal. Then the last working hour each day, his boss paid Ron for an hour of work that consisted only of a discussion of the issues from that day's news.

The journey never ends in this career path to Wall Street.