On Wednesday, September 4, 2019, Goldman Sachs volunteers created a “Chess For Success” themed event for our College Bound students at their headquarters. Co-chairs Alexandra Wiener and Ilya Rivkin organized inspiring speakers, workshops for the students on resume building and interview skills, and a fast-paced team chess tournament. 36 College Bound students and 16 Goldman Sachs employees participated including Nikita Bear, formerly on the CIS Board of Directors.

Raanan Agus, Partner and Managing Director, gave an inspiring keynote presentation. We learned that Raanan was a high school chess team player and he wrote his college application essay about chess!

Advice for the students from Raanan Agus:

Summer jobs and internships: “No matter how menial the job, do the best possible job you can to position yourself for a better job. Develop your reputation for reliability and credibility.”

On chess and life: “Avoiding blunders is key, especially avoiding big outlier losses. Learn from your mistakes.”

On hiring: The number one attribute he looks for is intellectual curiosity.

Ilya Rivkin gave a wide-ranging talk on chess and life. Ilya is an alum of CIS and he still plays chess regularly.

Quotes from Ilya:

“The hardest and most important part about chess is thinking. When you apply thinking skill to anything you do, you can be successful.”

“Having options in chess will help you win. And the key to success in life is having options.”

Alexandra Wiener led the workshop on Resume building and Ilya Rivkin led the workshop on Interview Skills.