A Fast Start in Financial Services

John McDonnell ’24 likes to be at the center of the action. 

As an associate account executive at the financial services firm Aon, McDonnell works in the commercial risk sector, helping clients mitigate risks, assess insurance needs, and design business safety procedures.

“It’s been so much more than I’ve expected,” he says of the first major role after graduation. “The clients I get to work with are companies you see on billboards or items and services you use every day. It’s really interesting to understand their business operations, priorities, and risk appetites. I’m always learning.”

McDonnell credits Associate Professor of Business Eric Lin with providing key academic and career support. In Lin’s course Financial Analysis for Leaders, McDonnell worked through case studies that helped him “apply skills in a way that you might in the real world. It was incredibly helpful for trying to grapple with how a business works at its core.”

Lin, he adds, “made everything he was teaching so digestible. I really appreciated his courses and his willingness to talk about my career goals. He pointed me in the right direction.”

McDonnell also participated in Winter Term internships and a study away program that shaped his post-graduation path. In 2023, he applied his politics major and business coursework to an internship with the holding company Exor N.V., where he analyzed how potential outcomes of the U.S. presidential election might affect the broader business landscape.

Many of McDonnell’s politics courses focused on international relations, and his internship with Exor gave him a unique opportunity to combine his academic interests. “One of the greatest perks of Oberlin is that it enables you to pursue your passions,” he says.

Later that year, McDonnell studied in Australia, allowing him “to reflect on what I actually want from my working experience.” He shadowed a chief operating officer and got a taste of the behind-the-scenes work he now loves at Aon. “It was eye-opening. I liked how he was in the action and had to make split-second decisions. I’m grateful I had the opportunity to see that.”

Even with his busy job, McDonnell stays connected to Oberlin through regular alumni meetups in San Francisco. He marvels at how easy it is to relate to fellow Obies at these events. “It just cements that when you go to Oberlin, you have this incredible network post-grad,” he says. “Our alumni go on to do inspiring things, whether in teaching, law, business, or the nonprofit world. You meet wonderful people.

“Oberlin attracts a certain type of person who believes they can make incredible change, not only in their own life, but in the lives of others,” McDonnell adds. “I think that’s why alums feel such a strong connection when they reconnect or meet for the first time.”

Kristen Evans is a culture writer and critic who has written for BuzzFeed, The Boston Globe, The Los Angeles Times, LA Weekly, NYLON, and The New Republic.