When Ayobola* (31) relocated from Nigeria to the US in July 2018, she had a mission to build a career in global finance. Within two months, she got into wealth management at JPMorgan. Seven years later, she’s an investment banking associate at one of Wall Street’s most prestigious firms, earning $175,000 a year and working on billion-dollar deals.
In this story, she shares her career journey from Nigeria to Wall Street’s inner circle.
Early Career in Nigeria: From ₦100k a Month to Chasing Bigger Dreams
I was 20 when I graduated from the university with a degree in Statistics. It wasn’t my first choice. I had applied for Computer Science, but got something different in the admission offer. I didn’t want to lose a year waiting for another opportunity, so I took it, not fully knowing where it could lead.
By my final year, I was still wrestling with that question. My father, an accountant who had built a successful career in Nigeria before moving to the US in 2005, suggested I explore his field.
During a holiday visit, he handed me some of his old textbooks. “You don’t need to study accounting in university to be an accountant,” he told me. “If you’re serious, you can take the exams and become chartered.” He mentioned ICAN, but after researching, I decided to aim higher and take the ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants), an international certification with global recognition. I wanted my career options to stretch beyond Nigeria’s borders.
I began applying for bank roles as soon as I finished NYSC in late 2015. The following year, I got into Access Bank’s entry-level training programme and was posted to the Customer Experience unit, earning ₦100k monthly.
A Burning Ambition
That same month, I enrolled in an ACCA tutorial centre. From Monday to Friday, I worked on the customer-facing floor of the Access Bank branch — opening accounts, resolving issues, and building relationships. On weekends, I sat in a classroom with oil company analysts, Big Four accountants, and Shell engineers, all working towards the same qualification. Being in that environment was electric. Every conversation made me hungrier to push my career higher.
Access Bank was my first real taste of corporate life, and it shaped me. My branch manager became a mentor, drilling into me the discipline of hard work, the art of treating customers well, and the importance of loving the team you work with. The network I built at the bank and in my ACCA classes surrounded me with ambitious, sharp-minded people. That circle raised my standards for what I could achieve.
I spent exactly two years at Access Bank, earning the same salary. The bank offered me a permanent staff role, but my US relocation process had already begun. I had also completed my ACCA exams, armed with a new qualification, a stronger network, and a fire to take my career global.
Moving to the US: Starting From Zero, and Rebuilding a Career Abroad
In April 2018, I left Access Bank and moved to the US to join my dad and siblings in July.
When I boarded that flight, I knew exactly what I wanted. Access Bank and my freshly completed ACCA had locked in my love for finance and confidence that I was good at it. I wasn’t going to land in America and switch to nursing or any “easier” route to stay afloat. I was staying in the finance field.
From the moment I arrived, my job hunt was laser-focused. I set up alerts on LinkedIn, Indeed, ZipRecruiter, and other platforms, filtering for roles with the finance-specific keywords I wanted. It wasn’t easy without a US degree or work history, but I treated my job search like a full-time job. I researched job descriptions, learnt the language of the roles, and sent out applications daily.
Within a month, I landed two interviews at JPMorgan for different positions. I emailed the recruiter to turn one down and focused on the other. I saw the interviewers sizing me up in that interview: “You’ve just arrived in the US, do you even know what we do here?” But when the questions turned to finance and accounting, I answered with ease.
At one point, the female interviewer turned to her colleague and said, “She’s smart. She knows her stuff. Anything she doesn’t know about our products or US regulations, we can teach her.”
Three days later, I got the call: I’d landed my first US job at JP Morgan.
First US Job at JP Morgan
In September 2018, I started my job as an entry-level associate at JPMorgan, one of the largest banks in the United States by assets and one of the biggest in the world. My base pay was $70,000 yearly.
Realistically, I shouldn’t have gotten that job — my résumé was entirely Nigerian experience, and the role was in wealth management, a world away from what I’d done before.
The offer came with a catch: I had to pass three gruelling regulatory finance exams within my first three months, or I’d lose the job. For some, that would be terrifying. For me, it was a challenge I knew I could crush. I’d already passed 11 ACCA papers; no exam could scare me.
I joined a training class of seven: the only woman, African, and non-traditional candidate. I finished my exams first, scored the highest, and set the tone for my time at JP Morgan: if others were doing two, I would do ten. I wanted to stand out as the hardest worker in the room.
I went From Earning $70k to over $100k in Four Years
Promotions came quickly — four in just over three years. My pay jumped with each one, eventually crossing the $100,000 mark in base and bonus. This put me in the top-earning bracket for most Americans. By the time I was ready to leave, I had become the team lead in the wealth management unit, managing 17 people, some old enough to be my parents. Leading that team at 27 remains my proudest achievement.
It taught me patience, fairness, how to build trust, and inspire people who didn’t have to listen to me, but did. I thrived because I was relentless. I raised my hand for every opportunity, showed up early, delivered on promises, and kept a positive, collaborative energy. That combination earned me both promotions and allies, including a former boss who eventually became my peer and championed me for management.
The reason I stayed four years was simple: I loved the work and the people, and I was still learning every day — about finance, US workplace culture, and life in a new country. My colleagues didn’t just teach me the job; they taught me where to buy a winter coat and how to navigate American holidays. By year three, I felt like an “OG” and saw no reason to leave.
When I eventually left, it wasn’t because I was unhappy. I still loved the job, but I’d worked nonstop since I was 21 and wanted a new challenge: a full-time MBA. I knew the older I got, the less likely I’d pause my career for school. I wanted to upskill, recalibrate, and see what else I might want for the next phase of my career.
The MBA Leap: Flipping a $170k Price Tag Into a Free Ride
My career journey is one of grace and proof that hard work meets opportunity in the most unexpected ways. By the time I applied for business school, I had built a career I was proud of. My profile stood out enough that I didn’t just get in — I got five full-ride scholarships from top M7 programs. The M7 business schools are a group of seven highly prestigious MBA programs in the United States.
It was overwhelming, in the best way. Ultimately, I made my choice and began the semester in Fall 2022. The scholarship covered my $170,000 tuition, meaning my only expenses were living costs. I can’t overstate how much of a blessing that was.
Breaking into Wall Street: $175k Base Pay, and the Perks of an MBA
The MBA opened doors and gave me access to a recruiting pipeline I could never have entered otherwise. Investment banking is famously closed off: you either join straight out of undergrad as an analyst or enter as an MBA associate. There’s no wandering in from the outside.
At my chosen M7 Business school, the recruiting machine starts the minute you arrive. In my first quarter, while juggling classes, I attended networking sessions, coffee chats, and company presentations, all laser-focused on the roles I wanted. I joined the investment banking track, which meant my calendar was full of events with top banks. By January 2023, I had locked in my summer internship with one of Wall Street’s most prestigious investment banks.
From June to August 2023, that internship was my chance to prove myself and for the firm to decide if I was the right fit. By the end, they handed me a full-time offer, starting after graduation. I’d secured my post-MBA role before my second year even began.
After completing my program in 2024, I officially joined the investment bank as an associate. The base salary is $175,000, not counting bonuses, which can be substantial. But beyond the pay, the role itself is the prize — the kind of high-bar opportunity I could only have accessed through the MBA.
Looking back, I see a straight line between the scholarship, the recruiting grind, the summer internship, and my job today. But living it was anything but linear — it was a mix of faith, grit, and being ready when the door cracked open.
Future Plans: Building a Legacy on Wall Street and Beyond
I’m grateful to God, my parents, and everyone who has shaped my journey. My parents gave me one of the greatest gifts — the opportunity to come to the US. They laid the foundation, and I built on it. Without them, my journey would have been far harder, maybe even impossible.
I’m not at the pinnacle yet, but consistency is my compass. Doing the right things well, over and over, is how results are made. In the years ahead, I see myself reaching new heights, thriving, and creating impact beyond my role.
By 40, I want to look back and know I’ve climbed close to the top — to be a recognised expert, a respected leader, and someone whose work speaks for itself.
Names* marked with an asterisk have been changed to respect the speaker’s privacy.
