What a year

I wrote my last exam for the Academic Year today and I’m done! It’s been a wonderful year filled with non-stop action. All I want to do now is just sit around and do absolutely nothing. Knowing myself though, after two days, I know I’ll start feeling like there’s something I ought to be doing. Until then, I’ll take a break; move my things out of the apartment to storage and head on down south for some good quality vacation with the family.

One of the things I’ve heard from several of my classmates is that business school is a humbling experience. That is one very true statement. One of them once commented that he had a huge ego before business school and all that has been well trimmed now. During the year, I met some of the smartest, highly driven and ambitious people I’ve ever met. I have learnt a lot especially going through the investment banking recruitment process. I met a lot of very helpful Alums along the way. I did the most intense networking I’ve ever had to. I met interviewers that were very encouraging. I met a few wacky ones too including one that told me he really liked me and is certain I will get several offers (Only for him to end up not making me an offer. I couldn’t help but truly wonder WTF?) I learnt also that the concept of fit is very important, whether you are picking business schools to attend or employer to work for. Another important lesson is that when you interview with a firm that typically does not recruit from your school, you will be subject do a high level of scrutiny. One such firm took me through 4 rounds of interviews.

Through this blog, I received a number of emails during the course of the year from prospective applicants and other fellow MBA students. Needless to say, I’ve had a wonderful year. I’m all set for the summer and will kick it off with a month long vacation before I start working. My summer employer was kind enough to help secure a furnished and highly subsidized apartment very close to work. I’m very grateful to God and pray for an even more fulfilling second year.

For all those of you that are starting in Business School this Fall, I know you are all wondering what you should be reading before starting school. I have two words for you. Chill Out. Have as much fun as you can and read no textbook. If your school has some kind of summer quant workshop like the ASW at Kenan-Flagler, I will strongly recommend that you take it. I did, and I’m glad I did. The only serious reading I can recommend is that you start researching companies, careers and job functions that you think you might be interested in. The Vault and Wetfeet Guides will do you a lot of good. Keep those emails coming and I’ll keep answering them until I start work in June. I’ll wrap things up later tonight by having dinner with fellow blogger Buckyhoo who is now a bona fide MBA. Peace y’all.

Almost there

I have less than one week to go and I cannot even begin to express how excited I am about wrapping up the first year. Out of the five classes I took this Mod, Taxes and I-Banking have already been completed. Taxes was completed with a full blown take home exam that kept me busy along with the final I-Banking presentation over the weekend. I don’t think I’ve mentioned this before but the financial modeling part of the Investment Banking class is taught by Scott Rostan, an ex Merrill Lynch M&A banker and founder of Training The Street. His company trains most of the Analysts and Associates on Wall Street. Most of the other Business Schools get a piece of him only for the short one or two-day program but we are privileged to have him for 4 hours weekly for 8 full weeks. I enjoyed the class and certainly feel prepared for the summer. We wrapped up the class with a price negotiation simulation. My team was on the sell-side of an M&A deal and we had fun negotiating with the guys on the buy-side.

Earlier, I blogged about an expensive textbook I had to buy for the Taxes class and how quickly I’ll sell it after the class. I ended up liking the book so much that it’s the only textbook I’ve decided to keep from this Mod. It also helped that the professor, a former University of Chicago professor, is one of the co-authors of the book.

On a different note, I recently received a letter from my big bad credit card company notifying me that the interest rate on the card will be jacked up from 8% to 18%! I jumped on the internet immediately to see if someone had screwed with my credit. My credit score was doing just fine so I called the company to know what informed their decision. They had absolutely no reason and I threatened to pay if off (Yeah Right) if they don’t bring down the rate to something reasonable. To cut the story short, I asked if they’ll rather make zero interest income from me if I pay off or keep making a fair income at 8%. The rep’s response suggested they don’t give a hoot whether I stay with them or not.

Due to the bank’s massive size, they have so many uncoordinated moving parts. I had an offer from another unit of the same bank that I had kept for a day just like this. I swung into action, took them up on the offer and paid off the 8% balance with their own money effectively locking them to 3.9% for the life of the balance. Guess who’s laughing now.

Experience Weekend

We just hosted what turned out to be a phenomenal weekend of fun, information, education and one-on-one contact between us and the class of 2009. I still remember my visit to last year’s experience weekend. I’m positive that most of the students had a great time. After all the day’s formal activities, we had a “Taste of Chapel Hill” with lots of food, drinks, live band and a huge turnout. After that we all moved to the afterparty at Pantana Bob. I got to meet many of the incoming students and most seem to be completely sold on coming to Chapel Hill.

For the loyal readers of this blog who may be wondering who I am, here’s a hint for you. I was with the welcome party in the morning and was also on the Investment Banking Career Panel. I had someone come up to me and asked if I was DingProof. A lot of planning went into the event and I’m glad everything went well and the weather was wonderful, unlike last year when it rained. I haven’t mentioned this before but I also happen to be a member of the Admissions Advisory Board and I’m just proud of everyone on the board and the roles played in putting this together. You guys coming in this year and interested in Investment Banking and Finance will see a whole lot of me. I just found out that I have been appointed to be a Peer Counselor. I’ll get the chance to review your resumes, conduct mock interviews, and wholeheartedly give back to you all the same way the current second year students did for us. Maybe I’ll get to haze you a little bit too :)

Annual H1B Cap met in one Day!

For those unfamiliar with H1B, a quick intro here. H1B is the work permit granted to foreigners to work in the US as professionals. Every year, the US Immigration service opens up the application on first business day of April. Well this year, they received 150,000 applications on the first day, and there are only 65,000 available spots. On the bright side though for MBA students, there’s an extra 20,000 reserved for H1B applicants with advanced degrees. I doubt that it’ll take long before this gets filled up too.

As much as I’ll love to work in the US after the heavy investment in this MBA thingy, the last thing I need is some work permit snafu. If the cap is not increased from the current 65,000 by my second year in school (There’s currently a big push for this), I may cut my US sojourn short and start actively exploring opportunities back home. Time will tell…..

The official release can be found here

First Blog Anniversary

Hard to believe it already one year since I started this fantastic voyage! I went over my postings and everything still remains very fresh in memory. What is even more exciting is that I have just four weeks to the end of the first year. That means I have exactly thirteen months to wrap things up. I will probably end the blog once I graduate as it would have achieved its purpose.

As part of the Investment Banking Class, last week’s speaker was the highly respected but now retired banker Hugh McColl after whom the Kenan-Flagler Business School Building is named. The story goes that he rose from an officer to become the President of a small North Carolina Bank. Under his leadership, the small North Carolina Bank grew into what is now one of America’s biggest banking institutions – Bank of America. It was refreshing to hear him refer to the Bible when asked some questions about leadership. Mr. McColl is a UNC Chapel Hill Alum.