Career Launch: How Caddying Helped Natalie Vaglia Land a Job with Ares Management Corporation
Natalie Vaglia
A future Direct Lending Analyst at Ares Management Corporation, Natalie shares how caddying at Oakland Hills Country Club helped her become an Evans Scholar and land a great job.
Why do you love your job so much?
My idea of an ideal career is one that pushes me to my full potential, provides me the opportunity to make an impact through my work, and continuously allows me to grow as an individual through a broad set of experiences, networks, and skill sets. Interning at Ares Management this past summer truly embodied each of these aspects and more. Every day I had the opportunity to work alongside some of the most intelligent and genuine individuals that consistently motivated me to learn and grow through my work. I am grateful for the opportunity to begin my career at Ares post-graduation.
Ares Direct Lending Group Dinner
How did caddying help prepare you for this role?
There is no doubt that caddying helped to shape me personally and professionally into the young woman I am today. Caddying taught me an array of life skills from treating all people at every level with respect to finding confidence in myself and my work, but most notably caddying provided me the opportunity to gain a sense of grit, perseverance, and accountability.
Evans Scholar Golf Classic 2021
Did anyone that you met caddying help you land your dream job? If so, please explain.
The privilege to meet and converse with some of the most successful and generous individuals in metro Detroit allowed me to learn from their unique paths and enhance my understanding of what I wanted to do.
One member who I was fortunate enough to regularly caddy for, Vince Thomas, consistently supported and helped to shape my aspirations from a young age. Vince taught me the importance of taking calculated risks, especially early in my career, and the value of truly doing the work. Vince, along with many other members, made introductions for me inside and outside of the club to their network which has been an invaluable resource throughout the process of landing my role.
Can you name someone whose career inspires you and that you'd like to emulate?
Mary Petrovich has been an inspiration of mine since I began caddying at Oakland Hills in 2014. Early on, I looked up to Mary as an Evans Scholar alumni and WGA Director, a leader in the Detroit business community and a highly respected member at Oakland Hills. Throughout the summers, I was lucky enough to form a personal relationship with Mary that resulted in an internship at her automotive firm DealerShop in Birmingham, MI in 2020. Mary instilled in me the meaning of hard work, possessing grit, and achieving maximum results. I am constantly driven by my desire to emulate this form of meaningful success that would allow me to put myself in a position to provide future generations of caddies and women in finance with the same opportunities and support I have received. I strive to make the same impact on individuals, that so many like Mary have made on me.
What's the best perk of your job?
The simplest way to describe the best part of interning at Ares this summer is to compare it to being assigned your favorite golfer’s bag but on a consecutive basis. The opportunity to wake up each morning excited to get into the office and work alongside the other interns and full-time employees is an incomparable feeling. Going into Ares I knew the culture was going to be exceptional but being able to consider some of my coworkers to be my closest friends by the end of the summer was an unexpected but pleasant surprise.
