Sunday, May 29, 2005

A little bit of everything...

I have my CFA Level II exam less than a week from now. There are 18 study sessions. The CFA Institute recommends candidates allocate atleast 1 week per study session and 4 weeks at the end for review. A total of 22 weeks. As an aside, I got my study material a week ago!! So, here I am - on a Sunday night. Studying for my exam!

Last couple of weeks have been very busy. Had end of term report submissions and exams. Wrote a paper and gave a presentation on "Characteristics of firms in bankruptcy". Wrote a term paper on "Kazakhstan and Indian pharma". Wrote my Operations exam. The Managerial Accounting exam is due on Tuesday.

Signed a lease for a place to live next year. Am taking over a lease of a car from a graduating Tuckie. Started packing my room. Can't believe it is just a week for the term to end and my summer internship to begin.

Last week one of the second years who interned at the same firm hosted a wine and cheese evening. He has a house on a lake shore. The view was absolutely breathtaking. We had a cheeseboard with a nice selection of cheeses - Saint Agur, Pave Daphinois, Brie, Emmental, Saint Albray.

Mid last week we had a second year panel on internships in Sales & Trading. So, the bunch of us who will be doing this for the summer hung on to every word they said. The second years have been extremely supportive of us throughout the internship search process. The best way for us to thank them is by continuing this tradition.

Oh yeah, sometime during the last two weeks I chose my courses for the Fall term. It is a good mixture of finance courses, a course on leadership and a course on real estate. The common factor among my courses seems to be the fact that all the professors are super stars in their fields. So, I am taking Investments taught by Ken French (of the Fama French 3 factor model fame), Real Estate taught by John Vogel (he is also a part of Donald Trump's eponymous university), Private Equity by Colin Blaydon and Leadership Out of the Box by Ella Bell.

I have always told people that one of the advantages of the size of Tuck is the unmatched access to resources (be it faculty, recruiters, alumni etc.) There is no course that went on lottery. Interview slots with top tier investment banks went for open signup. Last week, there was an alumni reunion. An alumnus who handles $300 million agreed to speak to students about his investing style etc. I was expecting a seminar style setting. Instead we were 3 students and the alum - so we had an interaction that was more of a 2 way discussion. One of the 3 students signed up for a summer job with him after the interaction.

There has however been one exception to this unmatched access pattern. The September trip to meet Warren Buffett. The size of the group is limited to 49 people. And anybody in their senses would not give up a chance to meet Warren Buffett. So, for those who are NOT in the investment club, spots for the trip had to be allotted through a lottery. Fortunately, as a member of the investment club, I got a slot and I am looking forward to the trip. While I am on the topic, I must mention that the Investment Club @ Tuck is doing a great job. Last year we had a set of passionate club leaders. By all accounts, the new leadership promises to beat the high standards the previous team set.

During the week, I need to pack up all the stuff in my room and move it to storage. Make presentations as part of the Tuck Leadership Forum project and move to NYC to start my internship. Oh yeah, my CFA exam is on Saturday. Wish me luck!!

posted by Tagad_Tale @ 9:18 PM

Thursday, May 12, 2005

Priorities....

The toughest part about business school is drawing a balance between activities that are pure fun (like sports, parties), activities that are fun and work (meeting with study group) and activities that are pure work (writing that term paper on "Acquiring Firms out of Chapter 11: Are Auctions More Efficient?")

While we had a talk on time management first day of business school, I have drawn up my own system of prioritizing. Anything that is pure work - I question whether it is absolutely necessary. Then I spend time looking for the most efficient way to accomplish the task at hand. Once this is done, I put off the task till the deadline. This method prevents work from expanding to fill up the time on hand!

As far as fun and work activities go, it is a critical part of school and I try to keep it to under 3 hours per day. Since the people around me are pleasant and fun to be with, the 3 hour limit is often violated, but I don't mind it.

Fun - this is the most difficult part because of the plethora of choices. Like last week, one could take a fly fishing lesson, play squash, go running, hit some balls on the golf course or just watch a movie. All these were options for Friday evening. Unfortunately, I had to go to Boston for a client meeting. But, the concert I attended later that evening (Native American music and Hawaiian music) more than compensated for it. This was my first concert at The Hop. I have now decided to keep an eye on the schedule and attend more such events. This evening, there is a company sponsored BBQ/networking in the courtyard while there are free cocktails in the main building. At the exact same time, the squash club has its weekly round robin. Tomorrow evening, we have the Argentinian BBQ. During the day, there is a work-life symposium. Afternoon, I am going climbing at Quechee with the Tuck Climbing Society. Finally, Saturday, during the day there is a fund raiser - Run for the kids. And, at night, there is Beach Ball - the biggest party of the year!! So, business school is not at all about working hard and burying your nose in books!

Last week, we had Jack Welch come down to talk about Leadership. The Q&A session was very interesting. I bought a few copies of his book, Winning and got it autographed during the signing session later. Given his reputation as Neutron Jack, CEO of the Millenium etc., I was surprised by his dimunitive stature. May be, I had read too many articles saying tall people are more likely to be leaders.

It is beautiful outside. A friend just returned after playing soccer. No such luck for me. Need to build a model for a simulation game that starts in 2 hours!!

posted by Tagad_Tale @ 1:00 PM