June, 2007

I will start. 72 for NYC - DB. Much smaller than last year's

Hey guys, wanted to know how well / in demand people are coming out of bain consulting (with a rotation in their private equity group) to get interviews / land jobs as associates at some of the more larger hedge funds / pe shops? are they just as competitive with bain on their resume as say, a goldman or morgan ibd kid? anyone going through / been through the interview process now at solid hedge funds / pe shops have experience seeing kids from bain also interviewing? trying to decide between an offer at bain and a bulge bracket bank doing IB.

- 3.87 GPA at mid-tier UC, transferring into the Econ program at UC Berkeley for my Junior and Senior years
- Internship at Big 4
- I want to work in SF or LA

Given recent events, what do you guys see as the future of CDOs?

less issuance for awhile? no subprime issuance? more secondary trading as people try to evaluate / unload existing CDOs?

Check out this new blog, let me know what you think. Obviously this is just the beginning.
http://theopportunitycosts.blogspot.com/
thanks

Hmm.. can u get spyware/viruses on ur blackberry or other PDA's?

I've been reading and doing a lot of research preparing myself for ib interviews, the more research I do the less confident I feel of my chances. I come from a non-target school, I'm sure no one here has ever heard of it. I have an F and two Cs on my transcript. I do have a finance internship at a fortune 10 company, but it’s not a bank and not in corp fin. My gpa is a 3.5 with my major gpa at a 3.7.

What books do you recommend to:
1. How to sell yourself to I-banks.
2. How to interview well in I-banking.

Some insights on why you like the book would be greatly appreciated.

Hi, I am a rising second year at the University of Chicago studying Econ. I have wanted to go into I-Banking since high school. I was fortunate enough to have gotten into my dream schools, including Harvard, Yale and Columbia. However, I turned down these schools and a full ride to UF for UChicago for two reasons: 1) Chicago offered me a substantial merit scholarship and 2) I was told that they had one of the best Econ programs in the country.

I was wondering if some one could guide me on how comps are built at a BB.

1. Is the data pulled from financial reports or is it taken directly from CapitalIQ, Factset, etc ?

2. What all has to be done to scrub the comps ? Are steps mentioned below all that is needed ?
- Normalizing Earnings (Adding one off / restructuring expenses and subtracting one off or non recurring gains )
- Adjusting for different financial periods(31st March vs 31st December)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6rswyZj-Ls

I'm starting full time in sales & trading at a BB this year. Due to US work visa problems, I'm not able to work in NYC as originally planned. I have the choice of either going to London or Hong Kong but am having a hard time deciding on which. Could you guys help me to decide which city to go?

London is much more established and the city itself is considered a financial center in Europe.

On the other hand, Hong Kong has some tremendous growth potentials that make it hard to ignore. However, I think there is this general perception that people who got hired into the Hong Kong office have lower caliber than their colleagues in NYC and London.

couple of questions...

debating btw these two banks (associate position). I know that much of the experience depends on the individual group, MDs, VPs, etc. But just wondering if anyone has any general advice on these two banks.

the second question I guess is more general. How important is it to get to a sector that you are more inclined to versus degree of comfort with the group, prestige etc. I am choosing between one group at one of the banks where I know many of the bankers, and a group at a different bank where I am super interested in the sector and know less people at the bank. From what I hear, people say that at many of the BB banks, it is easy to switch groups - so the group that you start with is not necessarily the one you end up in. Not sure if others have experienced this dilemma before.

how is it offered?? do they mail the contract to your house and you sign and mail it back or will they ask you to come down to their office??

anyone know anything about this place? one of my buddies has an interview there next week and told him I would see what I could find out?

Just wondering how much of the information you learned in your degrees is used in practice at your jobs.

Last semester, I finished my school's undergraduate introductory finance course and was wondering how useful the material is in finance related jobs. The reason I ask is because I've heard from many that you get all the training you need at the company, and going to college is more about learning "how to learn" rather than learning the material itself, but didn't think it would be quite as true with finance-related jobs.

I know this has been talked about before, but I've read a lot of mixed answers. Of all the classes that are out there which one can offer me the best mix of excel skills and valuation techniques at a decent price. My excel skills are novice by ib standards.

How/Where can I find deal information for a small boutique firm? I've searched the internet and they don't have a website.

I am not going to post my actual number, but I will give you all a little intel. The figures at dealbreaker were way high. This year's buckets are last year + 5-10. My best guess for the buckets are 85-90/100-110/125-135. Still strong, but not the 155 for third years that dealbreaker is throwing around.

If you were at Morgan Stanley IBD in the M&A group for the summer, would you bother moving onto goldman?