New Year thoughts!
Winter break has ended. The year has changed. A new term has started. A new set of people now form my study group. Change is in the air!
The last few days I was at New York City. Agenda was part fun, part business. Chilled out for a the first couple of days. Ate some good Indian food, looked around the city. Met up with a friend who is attending B school there, spoke to another. Met a fellow blogger who is applying next year. Met up with people at some firms I am targeting. The energy on a trading floor is tremendous. And this energy exists regardless of which firm I visit.
I also visited the world's largest trading floor at Stamford, CT. I just wasn't prepared for what I saw. Rows and rows of trading terminals. Each person having upto 6 LCD screens in front. Had a look at the arena from the top. This trading floor has to be seen to be believed!
In each firm, the enthusiasm and support I got from Tuck alumni continues to surprise. Sometimes I wonder whether I can live up to those high standards. Really senior people (somebody who has been trading for 20 years and manages a team of 20 traders is REALLY SENIOR), spent almost an hour (he actually told the HR contact to ensure that I meet him when I am at his firm). At another firm I visited, another senior trader set up meetings with people he thought I should meet and talked for over half an hour about why he liked his firm. The bond Tuck creates is just mindblowing. Think of it - I have almost NOTHING in common with these people except that we attended the same great school. Just that is reason enough for the passion.
During my firm visits, another aspect that surprised me was how small the world seems to be. Every Tuckie who is senior seems to know everybody else who is at the top of his profession. For my summer internship, I have also applied to a hedge fund run by a Tuckie. And already, 2 other alums have told me to say hi to him since they know him. So, if I interview with the fund, I picture the interview will be 'Hi, this is Tagad. Nice to meet you. By the way Trading Guru and Consulting Guru say hi to you. I met them over the last month.' Some applicant asked me whether I had experienced the famed Tuck network. 'Experienced the Tuck network' is probably devaluing the whole community to an often misused word.
Internship recruiting starts soon. Job search takes the priority now and everything else takes a back seat. All firms that recruit on campus have to have 50% of their interview slots open for bidding. The remaining 50% (closed list) is for candidates they have decided to invite for interviews based on their resumes.
From the outside, it looks like getting an interview is really hard (expensive in bidding points) if one is not on the closed list. This is true for certain consulting firms. For Investment Banking interviews, anybody who wants to interview is able to bid for the slots without spending too many points. I think most people will end up doing some banking interviews regardless of their interest levels in the domain.
So far, my luck with respect to the closed list seems pretty good. Have ended up with some trading interviews, a consulting interview and a investment management interview. Considering the fact that trading has been my main focus and I have only applied to 2 top consulting firms, I am quite happy with the way things have turned out. A large part of the credit for this goes to my ex-study group members who helped me build a powerful cover letter and polish my resume for better impact.
The interviews with a disparate set of firms opens up a pandora's box with respect to preparation. Consulting firms have case interviews. Investment management firms require a stock pitch. Trading interviews are technical. And all of them look for fit. By end Jan, I will know whether I fit somewhere or whether I am a misfit!
Happy New Year to everybody.
posted by Tagad_Tale @ 7:05 PM
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