We have good news for you. You can have a cool career and make a good living. No need to choose between loving your job and paying your mortgage. The following profile, part of theBlackEnterprise.com Cool Jobs series, offers a peek into the nuts and bolts, perks and salaries behind enjoyable careers.
The It Factor: As the head of Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs’ newly formed Institutional Client Group, Valentino Carlotti is a key player in the firm’s sales and trading division, which this year was responsible
for 57% of first-quarter revenue for the financial giant. Of course, making high-level executive decisions is nothing new for Carlotti, who recently completed a 5-year run as president of the Goldman Sachs bank in Brazil. Now back in the states, the 46-year old New York native has been assigned the important task of managing relationships with elite customers of the 5th largest bank in the United States.The Process: Carlotti says he caught the finance bug in college. “Once I got to Wall Street and received the opportunity to gain actual experience in how the business worked, I knew that I had
made the right choice,” he adds. “The range of the things that I’ve been able to work on at Goldman Sachs is much broader than what people normally associate with Wall St. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the things that my career has allowed me to do and the global opportunities and the relationships that those experiences have allowed me to form.”Putting in Work: Carlotti now heads a new endeavor created by the firm with the goal of focusing on our institutional clients and effectively managing their needs. “I’m excited by the opportunity to manage some of our most important relationships. It is a great vote of confidence,” he says. “I started out in the investment banking division and was there for many years before moving to work in institutional sales in our equities division.” After working in more management roles, he moved to London and then to Brazil where he became president of Goldman Sachs’ Brazilian bank. “My new role allows me to leverage my knowledge of how to navigate the entire firm, and the strong relationships developed across the firm with the product and functional skills I have built over my career,” Carlotti says.
Wall Street Moves: “It’s true that the representation of African-Americans on Wall Street is small, but, I believe that if you’re interested in pursuing a career in this business that you shouldn’t make your decision based on any stereotypes or even true challenges that exist in the industry,” he says. Carlotti urges professionals to seek what they’re passionate about. “I think it’s important to pursue the field of endeavor that is most interesting to you and then focus on a plan for reaching your goals,” he says. “In pursuing one’s career, it’s important to constantly seek development, build expertise, drive and act and think like an owner and be open to new experiences.”