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Tony Armstrong ’13
Tony Armstrong ’13 smiles while sitting on bleachers with a young child pointing toward the camera, below a sign reading 'THE SCOTS'.
Tony Armstrong ’13 smiles while sitting on bleachers with a young child pointing toward the camera, below a sign reading 'THE SCOTS'.
Students should not stress about how the content they are learning in the classroom applies to what they are going to do after Mac; it’s more the skills they develop that matter.
Tony Armstrong ’13

English Major
Head of Content, Banking, NerdWallet
Writing • Finance • Research • Internships

When I graduated, I knew I wanted to write in some capacity. A fellow English major was interning at NerdWallet (a company that aims to provide folks with confidence to make financial decisions) and let me know that they were hiring writers. I didn’t know anything about personal finance or about the kind of writing we do now—general-audience articles explaining complex issues around banking, investing, and mortgages. But there is so much overlap between my English classes and this work. In Mac classes with only fifteen students, you have to form opinions and defend them with evidence and conviction, stand by them or be willing to adapt and change your mind. That’s exactly what I do on a daily basis here.

I did an internship at Milkweed Editions the summer before my senior year, which confirmed that I wanted to work with words professionally. It also helped me realize that publishing wasn’t for me: I wanted to be more directly involved in the writing and editing process.

Currently, I lead the consumer banking arm of NerdWallet. As the company has grown from 60 to 700 people, it’s been a requirement to be constantly learning. When I started, I had to have the humility to recognize that there was a ton of stuff I didn’t know and couldn’t fake. I bought Personal Finance for Dummies, started having informational interviews to bounce my newly acquired knowledge off people to make sure it was on track, and did the same kinds of research I’d always done as a writer in English classrooms.

I had great, hard professors in college who helped me become comfortable existing in the space of not quite hitting the mark, with taking feedback and really learning from it. I still have that growth mindset, now that I’m supervising a team of writers and editors, assessing banking products, and setting strategy. And I find myself looking for that in new employees, that curiosity that makes you willing to ask questions.

Last updated: October 2025