Maxxing out allowance

albatrosslee — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 22:03:57 -0500

Does it look bad to spend the full amount for the Hotel allowance? It won't affect my candidacy or make HR hate me will it? Tell me I am paranoid.

Exams for banking?

albatrosslee — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 23:35:50 -0500

So I had a chat with a headhunter contact that I have and he said that now they are giving analysts examinations where they essentially ask you to create a working DCF model of a company in a couple of hours. I've heard of online assessment games where they give you funny shapes and tricky math problems, but never one that asks you to do something like modeling.

Deferring graduation for a half-year

albatrosslee — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 21:22:52 -0500

As dried out as the job market is now, the only offer I was able to secure (so far) has been a MM firm in SF. I don't want to start out on the wrong foot, but I have considered the possibility of deferring my graduation for another half-year, getting another summer internship with a great firm, and locking an offer/apply next year for full-time.

Boss that rides you

albatrosslee — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 10:18:57 -0400

Been an intern for about 1 month at a boutique firm with decent leads, but the director rides the group till the break of dawn. He wants everything perfect and everything 5 minutes ago, which I can understand is good for business, but does he need to fuck with us so much? For example, we were presenting a medical device manufacturing company to a potential client, and he goes off on an associate because the powerpoint formating wasn't to his exact specifications (I think the indentations were fandangled or something).

Why not S&T?

albatrosslee — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 13:04:43 -0400

It just struck me as a question I should have asked myself long ago. Not only are you out of the office much earlier than bankers, you never have to pull an all nighter as well. Keeping pace with market information is much more interesting than droning numbers into Excel. Good traders can earn just as much as good bankers. (Didn't I hear something like bulge revenue is ~75% from trading and ~25% banking fees? Correct me if I'm wrong) The only benefit I see banking have over trading is that it may have better exit opportunities whether you decide to go back to school or maybe join a PE firm.

Corporate Lawyers

albatrosslee — Wed, 30 May 2007 12:59:12 -0400

Who knew the secret to getting interviews is to actually write sincere and honest cover letters. Anyways, I just did an interview with an international law firm that does finance, litigation, and corporate legal services for restructuring, M&A, and securities. This isn't exactly banking, but it is a big, well-respected firm and the pay is decent. Anyways, I know generally what corporate lawyers do on deals, but are their hours just as bad?

China the new frontier?!

albatrosslee — Thu, 24 May 2007 01:14:27 -0400

If you don't know by know, China is going to be a big deal. Nevermind the BRIC report by Goldman in 2004 or the 11% GPD gain the past quarter, look at the record-breaking IPOs in the finance sector! M&A is also growing at over 25% each year according to Dealogic. While Chinese deals only account for like 1% of all fees generated by all transactions globally, this number is expected to shoot up... dramatically. The most surprising thing of all this is that not until Goldman's 33% acquisition in one of the first established investment banks, INVESTMENT BANKING DIDN'T EVEN EXIST BEFORE 2004. Look where we are at just 3 years later... better yet, imagine where we will be in 10 years.

Summer abroad?

albatrosslee — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 12:53:25 -0400

Do recruiters value spending a semester abroad? I managed to secure a scholarship that would pay for it all, but I don't want to spend time doing it if it doesn't help me get into banking. I will be studying international finance through a summer program at a reputable school. Any suggestions?

Why would HK recruit elsewhere?

albatrosslee — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 23:11:06 -0400

1) They don't have a shortage of bright, talented students who have an understanding of finance and accounting.
2) Their teams are generally much smaller.
3) Equities in China/HK are underdeveloped at this point.
4) They don't need bankers who can't speak the language.
5) They don't want to hire those that aren't in it for the long term.
6) They have plenty of qualified people to do the grunt analyst work.

No Summer Gig

albatrosslee — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 12:40:37 -0400

Despite the few interviews I managed to get and the countless days spent writing email after email to boutique IB firms in NY, LA, SF, and Podunk, none have yielded any offers for an internship this summer. Although I'm at a target school, it's quite a big one and competition is still very tough. I considered taking the CFA a few weeks ago but i'm not nearly as prepared as I should be to take it in June (so i've plan to take it in Dec). I had an internship last summer working for a regional PWM firm but I would hate to have to do that again. Since I'm not majoring in Finance, I definitely feel like summer would be a good time to learn up on that area. Any advice on what I should do to strengthen my resume in time for full-time recruiting in 6 months? Thanks