July, 2007

Hi guys

I haven't been paying attention to what's been happening in the markets for the past 6 weeks or so because I've been busy/preoccupied with other stuff. I checked out the WSJ today and found out that we're in the middle of a liquidity crisis and things are getting pretty scary in some places. Can anyone link to a good article/site that summarizes what has been going on and what set this stuff off? All of my normal news sources have articles that assume prior knowledge of the situation, and I can't figure out what set the whole thing off. I know people have been warning about the subprime sector for awhile now, but it looks like the market has only been performing poorly for about 5-6 days. Was there some kind of fund blow-up, macro event, or other impetus for this change, or did banks just realize how out of hand things have gotten?

How is LBS viewed in the US? Will most banks recognize its worth or will it be viewed as another overseas MBA?

Just wondering if anyone had heard of any analysts going to an associate trading program after their analyst banking program?

I'm not sure if its been discussed, but how hard would trading be to break into relative to I-banking and consulting?

Any1 own Capital IQ? how much is it?

So I'm just about to put a wrap on a summer internship at a BB in their Asset Management Division (Alternative Investments - Fund of Funds)

I'm thinking of moving over to the investment bank next summer. One problem is my duties have been a lot of intern work (copying, filing, binder creation), but I have done a good amount of excel work (not modeling, comps, banker work etc...)and really learned the ins and outs of what FoFs are and what we are responsible for doing.

How much money is enough? At what level (income or assets) are you guys going to leave finance and do something else? What is that something else going to be?

Other than PE, HF, VC, F500 Corp Fin/Corp Dev what exit options are there for ibankers at any level? It does not have to be easy, but I'm looking for anything like "I heard so-and-so got into XXX after being at a BB for Y years".

I'm a rising junior and I spent a great deal of time last year in an attempt to get a small start-up company off the ground with a group of other students. It no longer looks like this company is going to be successful but I still gained a tremendous amount of experience from working on it. I cold called landlords all over the city and made multiple presentations (pitches) to a large group (50+) selling my product.

Where exactly do these guys fit in? I know some of them get into say algorithmic trading and that kind of stuff, but otherwise, I'm really not too sure what they do. Is it accurate to say they're usually on the trading side of things or do they have a niche in IBD or corpfin or anywhere else? I figure I ought to know since quantitative finance is one of the positions my degree supposedly prepares

How does the payscale for quants compare to that of IBD and S/T analysts...and higher level employees??

This is purely a hypothetical situation...but I need an objective answer free of any morality.

Say, a person is applying to FT to MBB. For the summer between Jr and Sr years, he/she had an internship that was completely irrelevant to consulting or even business (think researching, architect shadowing, whatever). If this person were to lie on their resume and write something else such as an amazing volunteering experience and had references to back it up, would he/she be able to get through? Is there any way of getting caught, by say, checking work history through social security number or anything?

OK...I don't go to Baruch, but I just need an opinion. It seems like every business major I meet from Baruch has high hopes of getting into banking or HF. I was under the impression that this is a city college...do people really make it to BB's? or even MM's?

I'm asking since one of my family friend might end up there, but he still got big dreams.

To what extent are the skills acquired while working for PE FoF transferable to:
1)corporate finance(M&A, DCM/ECM, leveraged/structured finance),
2)equity research?

I'm considering working for PE FoF (involved up to 20% in co-investments) and was wondering about the chances to get into IB afterwards (say 1-2yrs).

Many thanks in advance for any advice...

Does anyone have any information on this group? I believe it's one of the only groups of its kind out of all the BBs.

Hi,

This is kinda off topic from Business Graduate School. But this is the closest forum thats relevent to my question. Can somebody please tell me if employers frown upon taking a reduced course load.

Heres my situation. I am doing my undergraduate as a double major in Finance and Accounting. I have already completed most of my Finance major requirements but only recently have decided to use the rest of my free courses to do a double major in accounting. This therefore leaves me with no more "easy" optional courses to take and instead, I have either all Higher level accoutning courses or Finance courses to take (9 to be exact). So heres my question, to maintain my current GPA or maybe even boost it, should i take a reduced courseload? ie. 3 in fall, 3 in winter and 3 in spring/summer or next fall. Or should i just take a full courseload of 4 in fall then 5.

Hi guys,

I am a MBA student, currently interning with a private equity firm.
PE and IB are very different, but afaik require similar skill set.
Most people would say, transition from IB to PE.

Can you please suggest, how easy / difficult transition from PE internship to IB ?

Also how would you compare IB vs PE career.. (besides the hours, which I believe are longer in IB..) both short and long term..

If so, could you let me know whether anything you learned in school applies to your job now??

If you work at a good middle-market PE firm ($2-3B fund) before B-school and perform well, how easy is it to make a transition to a larger firm (Warburg Pincus, Bain Cap, Carlyle, etc.) after Business School if you decide to make that transition?

I'd like to try out a MM shop for a few years, but don't want to be closing off any doors if I decide later on that I want to move to a bigger fund.

Hey guys,

could anyone who has nailed a fulltime BB analyst position send me an edited version of the cover letter they used. I want to be certain i'm giving them what they want when I apply this year

If this has been posted many a times, I am sorry.

Which is a better fit in terms of lifestyle and compensation? In terms of gaining a skill set that can be used later on in other financial firms or even consulting firms if one was to eventually switch?

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=afHmD6FZ2Wpw&refer=h...

SUBPRIMEPWNED

I want to clarify the organization of i banks question

when looking at an investment bank, isn't it divided into:
1)Corporate Finance(M&A/DCM/ECM/Lev fin, etc)
2)Sales and Trading
3)Research

Also, when referring to the IBD group, are they just referring to any group under the Corporate Finance division or a specific group like M&A?

Thanks in advance.

I am attending a lunch event tomorrow with the mgmt of a mining firm gearing up for an IPO. The offer targets only institutional investors and they are listing on LSE. Since I am very green and have no experience with this kind of thing, I was wondering what would be the relevant things to listen for and what would be some good things to jot down? I am not affiliated with any bank just going for educational purpose, but I hope to be able to comment on it intelligently to someone.