A Notre Dame MBA helped Nicole Gardini launch investment banking career

Nicole Gardini (MBA ’23)

Once she completed her Bachelor of Business Administration degree, Nicole Gardini (MBA ’23) landed a job as a consultant at Accenture. But after a few years working for the company’s Denver office, she felt as though the role was keeping her too deep in the weeds of the day-to-day software operations of the firm’s clients.

“I was very focused on the nitty-gritty technical aspects of software implementations,” Gardini recalled. “I wanted to be in the conversations that were a few levels above where I was sitting. I wanted to be talking with the C-suite about the next year, the next five years and the company’s overall strategy.”

She identified investment banking as the pathway toward participating in those conversations and an MBA at the University of Notre Dame as the vehicle to get there.

It worked. As a Notre Dame MBA student, Gardini majored in finance, concentrating in Investments. She interned at the Manhattan-headquartered financial services firm Guggenheim Securities and landed a job there after she graduated. Gardini is now an associate in Guggenheim’s technology group and works primarily in mergers and acquisitions.

“My MBA set me up to be a part of the higher-level conversations that I wanted to have a voice in,” Gardini said. “Investment banking really wasn’t on my radar during my undergraduate studies at Trinity University. But going into grad school, it was definitely the goal. Having the Notre Dame brand on my side during the recruitment process was a huge part of getting to know people in the industry and getting my foot in the door.”

Applied Investment Management (AIM) taught investment banking fundamentals

Gardini credits the Applied Investment Management (AIM) course with playing a major role in her development, both as a student in the course and later as a teaching assistant.

At the Mendoza College of Business, AIM is offered as both an undergraduate and an MBA course, with students managing a real-world portfolio of 20 stocks valued at nearly $30 million. Since its inception in 1995, the students managing the fund have outperformed both the Russell 3000 and the S&P 500.

AIM students choose one equity they believe the fund should invest in and one they think it should divest from. They update their thinking on each equity throughout the course, and regularly present their theses to the class. AIM challenges students to defend their ideas against peer critique, and the experience helped prepare Gardini for the work she’s doing now.

“You’re trying to get your company into the fund, and everyone has their stock,” she said. “You debate why yours should make the cut and be included in the portfolio. AIM was super engaging and fairly intense. It’s not exactly a competition, but competition can definitely be in the nature of the course.”

Gardini uses the equities analysis skills she learned at AIM in her work at Guggenheim, but finds her two semesters as an AIM teaching assistant even more applicable.

“Being a teaching assistant very much mirrors my associate role,” said Gardini. “I help junior analysts and guide them in their work. It’s very similar to working with the students in the course and helping them refine their analysis.”

South Bend became a family reunion

Nicole Gardini’s family at a home football game when she was a child.

For Gardini, investment banking hours have sometimes been long, but she’s genuinely interested in her work and now has a seat at the table in the conversations she longed to join. For students considering pursuing a similar path, she cautions them not to get too nervous about the job search. “There’s a lot of emphasis on how intense and time-consuming the recruitment process is, but I really tried to stay true to myself,” said Gardini, who credits Mendoza’s graduate career services team and the Finance & Investments Club with helping her navigate the process.

“Remember to be genuine and not psych yourself out about how competitive the industry is,” she said. “Go into each conversation with a positive attitude and don’t get distracted by the process. That helps a lot, and it just brings ‘you’ forward.

“People really focus on the offer, but it’s also important to stay focused on your own personal values. From any conversation, try to glean whether a firm is a place you can see yourself working. It will help you get to the place you are meant to be.”

After two years at Guggenheim’s New York City office, Gardini recently joined the team in Boston. But Gardini’s time in South Bend was a unique chapter in her life. Attending Notre Dame wasn’t just a career move — it was a homecoming. Although she grew up in Texas, Gardini has Indiana roots.

Gardini family at a tailgate.

“My dad’s whole family is from the South Bend-Mishawaka area,” she said. “Growing up, we were automatic Notre Dame fans. It was football games, visiting family and soccer camps in the summer.”

Gardini’s family ties were very much a part of her Notre Dame experience. Her older sister Natalie had completed her MBA just before she enrolled, and her younger brother Dante was finishing his undergraduate degree during Nicole’s two years at Mendoza. Her parents, for their part, traveled to South Bend for every Fighting Irish home football game.

“It came together really nicely for our family, and I knew I was right where I was supposed to be,” Gardini said. “It was like having a family reunion every weekend.”