American Express: Nicky Jabin
The Fowler College of Business at San Diego State University has many graduates working in companies that enhance the year-end holidays for shoppers, travelers and merchants. Here is the story of one of those grads.
Nicky Jabin: American Express
In a year where online holiday shopping is expected to reach $910 billion, the implementation of easy and convenient customer payment options is critically important to merchants with a significant internet presence.
Supporting these merchants is precisely what Nicky Jabin (’10, finance) does in her position as a merchant partnerships manager for American Express. “I’ve recently taken a new role in the Merchant Partnerships department where I manage a portfolio of our e-commerce merchants,” said Jabin. “My responsibilities are to deepen our e-commerce relationships by partnering with them on strategic initiatives to drive incremental business while delivering value to our mutual customers.”
Nicky Jabin earned her finance degree from SDSU in 2010.
Job Offers Flexibility, Good Work/Life Balance
Jabin, who earned her finance degree in 2010, joined American Express in 2014 after spending 3 ½ years with Union Bank and their parent company, Bank of Tokyo (now Mitsubishi UFJ Bank). “I found the banking industry interesting, but I didn’t love the hours, and I wanted a different approach to work life hours,” said Jabin, who is a San Diego native. “I initially joined one of American Express’ corporate finance teams because they offered the flexibility I was looking for and because I viewed them as a powerhouse in the financial industry and payments space.”
After choosing to attend SDSU because she “wasn’t ready to leave sunny San Diego,” Jabin decided to study finance. She chose this field because she felt that it allowed her to combine her love of math with her love of working with people and her ability to build strong business relationships.
Leaving San Diego
As an SDSU finance student, she was able to test the limits of her comfort zone by living outside of San Diego (and the United States), by spending a semester studying abroad in London. “I had never lived away from home before, and I felt this was a good opportunity for both personal and academic growth,” said Jabin. “I was the only American in my finance and accounting courses, so I was happy to make friends with people from all around the globe. My favorite part of studying and living in London was the ease of traveling to other European countries, giving me exposure to many different cultures and building long-lasting memories.”
Fowler finance lecturer, Frank Ryan, was Jabin’s favorite faculty member while she was at SDSU. “He was a great teacher, and I was never intimidated by the complexity of his exams,” she said.
Her experiences outside of San Diego County served her well: After graduating from SDSU with magna cum laude distinction, Jabin accepted an offer from Union Bank to join their analyst training program in Orange County, California, prompting her to leave her San Diego roots in the process. She put even more distance between herself and her home state of California by moving to New York City in 2013, where she lives and works today.
She says that one of the best things about working at American Express is the opportunity to switch roles in the company every 18 months. This provides employees the opportunity to learn new skills sets and offers them the chance to get a more complete understanding of the organization.
Avoid the Rat Race
For those students considering following her into American Express or another organization headquartered within the high stakes New York financial industry, Jabin has some advice: “Working in the finance industry in New York City is intense and people are very competitive,” said Jabin. “If you get into the rat race, you will never be satisfied. Find something you enjoy doing and run your own race.”
