Secrets to finding a job, and success, fresh out of college

In the 1980s, a popular TV commercial informed viewers, “When E.F. Hutton talks, people listen.”

The commercial was for one of the most popular and well-respected stock brokerage firms of its time. It involved young professionals at a dinner party stopping everything to listen when a man says, “My broker is E.F. Hutton, and Hutton says…”

The chatter about the room and the clanging of forks and knives suddenly halts as everyone leans in to listen for morsels of financial wisdom.

Students in Radford University’s Davis College of Business and Economics had their own stop-and-listen moment recently when financial adviser Stephan Cassaday ’76 visited campus for a series of guest lectures.

Cassaday, who has been named by Barron's as Virginia’s top advisor in five of the past six years, spoke to students in a Marketing 101 class and later to a class of mostly seniors in an upper-level management course. Later in the day, he gathered with members of the Davis College’s Student Managed Investment Portfolio Organization (SMIPO), which manages funds for Radford University Foundation's endowment.

When he spoke, they listened.

“The things I’m going to tell you today will transform your lives,” Cassaday said in Management Chair and Professor Iain Clelland’s Management 450 course. “The things I’m going to say are born from a singular qualification that I have to talk to you, which is I have made every stupid mistake a person could make, personally and in business.”

Cassaday began advising investors professionally in 1977, and after 16 years in which he held senior and management positions with major New York Stock Exchange firms, he founded Cassaday & Company. The independent advisory firm has been recognized nationally as a top wealth management firm and has grown from $40 million in assets to nearly $3 billion.

World-renowned investment publication Barron’s, which is operated by Dow Jones, has ranked Cassaday as one of the top financial advisors in the United States on both its Independent Advisors List, as well as its more broad-based Top Advisors List, where he was ranked 12th and 32nd, respectively, in 2018.

Cassaday & Company has 48 employees, many of whom are Radford University graduates, assisting more than 1,900 households throughout the United States.

“I care about my employees, and by association, their children and spouses. That’s about 150 people who rely completely on the quality of the decisions I make,” Cassaday said. “If I mess up, I have to answer to those people.”

It can be a stressful lifestyle, “but I’m the least stressed guy you’ll ever meet,” Cassaday explained, “because I’ve had plenty of practice making these decisions.”

To reach Cassaday’s level of success, job seekers must start somewhere. An early part of that process is the job interview.

“Most of the people we interview are horrible at it,” Cassaday candidly told students. “Most of you are not ready and need to practice.”

But Cassaday, who said he has conducted thousands of interviews, offered step-by-step solutions for acing interviews. That advice included researching popular interview questions and then asking “a friend, roommate, or anyone who is willing to hold your smartphone and record you” while you answer the questions.

It was “amazing” advice, said senior Courtney O’Brien. “He made me feel like I can take on this interview process and be OK. I loved when he said it’s not about finding a job, it’s about finding the perfect job for you.”

Cassaday urged students to send their practice videos to him. “First of all, I’d be flattered,” he said. “Second of all, I may want to interview you, because I would think, ‘This person has her act together.’”

After his talk, Cassaday took questions. One student asked if he hired workers right out of college or if he preferred they have some workplace experience.

Right out of college, he quickly answered. “Because when people come right out, they are like sponges. They do not have any bad habits.”

Cassaday said that of the nine advisors he has on staff, eight were hired soon after their college graduation.

Another student asked Cassaday if there was a best major – or if a business major was needed – for working at his firm.

“I was a psychology major,” he said. “By the way, psychology is the best degree for what we do. Success in our business is based primarily on interpersonal skills and being able to understand why people make decisions. This starts with asking a lot of great questions, listening to the answers and formulating solutions based on that interaction.”

When he first started Cassaday & Company, people thought he was “crazy,” he recalled, since there already existed numerous similar, successful firms.

People said, “You’re going to compete with the giant, super powerful and well-known companies like Merrill Lynch, Dean Witter, Paine Webber, Prudential Bache, Smith Barney and E.F. Hutton. That’s nuts,” Cassaday recalled. “Today, all of those companies are gone or have been forced to merge to survive, and Cassaday & Company, Inc.’s assets under management have grown 21% per year for 25 years.

“Is that because I’m smarter them everybody else?” he continued. “Definitely not. However, I had an unshakeable faith that our idea of providing objective and impartial advice at an independent employee-owned firm would resonate with investors. That, plus hiring great people and a little bit of luck has led to our success.”