I AM BACK

Hmmm.....Long time...My last post was way back in April last year....This itself shows how hectic is MBA...
Lot of things have happened in last one year:
I chose to join Simon Graduate School of Business over CMU Tepper, ISB, Vanderbilt and Iowa....

Some Key Highlights from First Quarter:
a. With every day passing, I was getting more and more confused...What did I want to? Finance was my top choice...but in Finance itself there are lot of careers...Sometimes I thought of focussing on Equity Research, sometimes corporate finance, sometimes risk management..blah blah blah...
b. Learnt how to do effective networking....And this was learning from my own experiences....I was lucky enough to get some invaluable advices from Simon Alumni...
c. I believe I started Networking right on time but I doubt if it was in right direction every time...
d. By the end of the quarter, I had no Intership interview calls....Pressure was slowly slowly building up....
e. Managed to get 3.75 GPA and hence secured a place on the Dean's List....
f. U.S Market started showing some signs of weakness....Thanks to Credit Market Crisis.

Some Key Highlights from Christmas Break:
a. Fuelled up my networking....Talked/Met lot of alums in New York...
b. My wife, Anu arrived to NJ for an onsite assignment..
c. But no interview calls till the end of 2007.
d. US Credit Market crunch worsened.

Some Key Highlights from Winter Quarter:
a. In first two weeks itself, got 5 NYRP interview calls - Citigroup (Corp Fin), UBS (I Banking), Thomas Wiesel (I Banking), Goldman (Financial Operations) and Deloitte (Tech Consulting) and then 1 interview call for BRP event - Liberty Mutual (Corp Fin).
b. Converted Thomas Wiesel (I Banking), Goldman (Financial Operations) and Deloitte (Tech Consulting) and Liberty Mutual (Corp Fin) for second round.
c. U.S. Market kept on deteriorating
d. Liberty Mutual kept my result on hold and till date no news from them.
e. Thomas Wiesel rejected me after keeping me on waitlist for 2 weeks.
f. Got final offers from Goldman (Operations) and Deloitte (Tech Consulting)
g. Once again got placed on the Dean's list with GPA of 3.78

In between Winter Quarter and Spring quarter, I reached out to lot of Simon Alums and other personal contacts to get advice on picking between Deloitte and Goldman. Almost everyone suggested Goldman, because of the company's brand name, "Derivatives" group and mainly because I didn't have any better offer.

So far Some Key Highlights from Spring Quarter:
a. Accepted Goldman Internship.
b. Joining them on 9th June after my CFA on 7th June.
c. Mid term went on well..
d. Feeling pressure for CFA now.

Overall, I will say, placements have not been that bad at Simon. Companies have come to campus. People have got internship/job offers but effects of U.S. recession fear are visible.

Recently did a presentation on India in "Broaden Your Horizon" event at Simon school. I covered Maharashtra State. Really missed my country while preparing for presentation and of course during the presentation as well....:)

Will keep you guys posted...Till then enjoy.....

JP