Michelle Seitz was standing at a Quotron machine at North Carolina National Bank on Monday, Oct. 19, 1987, waiting to punch ticker symbols into the keyboard, when a man standing behind her started asking all manner of questions. Though Seitz didn’t bother turning around, she provided a series of what she recollects were cogent answers.

Five minutes into the exchange the inquisitor asked: “Who are you and what do you do here?”

Finally, Seitz turned and, to her astonishment, found bank CEO Hugh McColl standing there.

“I’m a portfolio manager,” she recalls telling him, though she was thinking, I’m 22 years old, four months into the job and managing $800 million of other people’s money during a stock market crash. This isn’t going to end well.

McColl riposted, “What in the world qualifies you to do that?”

Seitz recalls running through her school resume, which, she says, is basically all she had to offer, and made it sound