Apologies to the loyal readers for my week absence from this blog. I'm glad to say that we have finally passed the apex of banking recruiting on campus and things are slowly down a bit after this week. It's been a hectic November to say the least. For the last 3+ weeks I've pretty much forgotten that I'm enrolled in classes at this school still. This week, you'll find me in San Francisco, attending the Investment Finance Association's Days of the Job. Thanks to the tremendous efforts of our 1st year Directors, we were able to visit 6 of the bulge bracket banks who recruit regularly from Anderson in the Bay Area. In the West Coast, our students place well in banks, with Anderson alumni in the Associate through MD ranks, right alongside grads from Wharton and Booth. DOJ's are great because we get to meet many more bankers and see them in their natural habitat, which can be very interesting. Despite what the popular press would have you think about the investment banking industry, the reality is, banking is a people business that, on a day to day basis, is entirely dependent on cohesive team work. Individuals who cannot work well in a team are spotted and ousted quickly. From what we've learned, keys to success include the ability to: work (very) hard and push towards a goal, be inquisitive and want to constantly (daily) learn new, complex things, have a collaborative attitude, and be humble and positive. These... Continue reading

So here's the good news, we all made it through mid-terms and everyone is still alive and well (kind of). After a fun Friday night of frolicking with classmates in West Hollywood at one of two Anderson Halloween parties (we really love wearing costumes here, see picture below), then spending all of Saturday night in the OC watching the Rocky Horror Picture Show with my girlfriend (a really cool experience for anyone who hasn't seen it live), it was time to get serious again. MBA life goes on (very quickly might I add) whether you're ready or not. For a day, I almost forgot that this experience is all about constantly re-balancing your life, time and priorities (by the hour almost). In the mere 4 days since, here's what's happened. First, we started a new core class for the 2nd half of the quarter, Financial Markets, which means a brand new professor and TA's and of course, completely new curriculum to learn. Second, 7 investment banking recruiting events took place, which, for me, meant at least 7 hours of corporate presentations, 10 hours of networking, 14 beers drank in school, 14 original thank-you letters to write, and last but not least, 14 circle of deaths to stand through. Top that off with an academic internship interview at a local long/short fund, banking interview study session with other ACT group mates, and an UCLA-USC mixer, all on Thursday. Now let me remind you that it's only been 4 days since the... Continue reading

Midterms are here! This week is a blitzkrieg of review sessions, and the 1st year community is frantic. Economics and Statistics are without a doubt on everyone's mind right now. And while I'm certain these tests will be very difficult, I find myself really learning the subject matter well when studying and discussing the problems and applications of theories with my classmates and friends in the program. The collegial learning environment is one of the aspects of MBA school I really looked forward to and the Anderson community has not let me down. No matter who we are, each of us has naturally found groups of people who we can trust and have meaningful and often insightful conversations with. Tonight I got together with 4 of my section mates, and we had a very productive, but totally impromptu, Economics study session, making sure to take Youtube breaks in between to share some laughs. This wasn't a group that I was assigned to worked with but over the course of our daily interaction, we just ended up together, crammed in a warm fishbowl on the 4th floor of the library, discussing elasticity of demand and it's relationship to marginal revenue. Outside of class, fellow blogger Katie, myself and a group of committed powderhounds are in the middle of forming the Anderson Ski and Snowboard Club, which had gone dormant in recent years. You often read about B-schools enabling students to form student clubs, but I never thought it'd be ME who's... Continue reading