For the past decade, continual improvement has been a consistent theme in investment professional Levi Pettit’s educational and work pursuits.
Pettit double-majored in finance and economics at the University of Texas at Dallas, graduating magna cum laude and also was a member of the men’s golf team.
“In Division III, there are no athletic scholarships,” he says. “There’s no professional aspirations; everybody who’s playing is really just there because they love the game.”
In college, Pettit says he learned a significant amount while working at two internships — one at a family office and another at an oil and gas company.
“I learned that I didn’t want to work in oil and gas; however, it was a great experience,” he says. “I really didn’t understand what a family office was at the time [I interned in one], and I fell in love with it. You have a direct line of communication to the most important people in the company. It felt like something I could see myself doing long-term.”
Pettit later worked in a first-generation, single-family office as an investment associate, evaluating investment options, conducting transaction due diligence and monitoring the investments in its portfolio.
“I had a great relationship with my boss, and we did a lot of really cool things together,” he says. “My role at the family office was generally on the private side, dealing more with alternative investments, private equity, venture capital, commercial real estate; we would do direct investing, as well as fund allocation.”
After about four years, Pettit was ready to take the next steps in his career and felt that an MBA would provide him the experience and knowledge he was looking for.
“I was 28, and an MBA has always been in the back of my mind, so I packed up and moved out to California.”
Achieving Professional Advancement Goals
Pettit is currently pursuing a master of business administration degree at Pepperdine University’s Graziadio Business School. He also earned a charterholder designation from the CFA Institute.
“Nobody required it of me,” he says. “It’s something I did on my own. It was a lot of evenings and weekends studying.”
When working toward becoming a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), Pettit remained dedicated to the process. After passing Level I, he committed to studying over 600 hours for Levels II and III. Despite the challenges, Levi Pettit successfully completed all three levels of the CFA exam earning his CFA Charter through persistence and hard work.
To Levi Pettit, being a lifetime learner is important — an approach his boss at the first company he worked for encouraged him to embrace.
“She said to me, ‘I know that you just graduated, and you think that you have a college degree and know everything now; but that’s not the case — and you need to realize that you will need to continue learning for the rest of your career,’” he says. “That’s just something that stuck with me; and something that I’ve tried to hold on to.”
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