"Being an international applicant, I couldn't get a chance to visit the Stern campus.
It would be great if you could tell me little bit more about the Stern community and how fit a person from technical background is to Stern"
Regarding fit - to be entirely honest, I'm not sure I know how to answer that question. We do have a lot of engineers, but we also have a lot of people from other backgrounds. Stern really tries to get people from diverse backgrounds and also diverse future interests. It's hard to say how many engineers they would end up admitting because it depends on the size and mix of the applicant pool each year.
Regarding community - Now that I am here at Stern, I can say that our community is truly one of our biggest assets, in addition to our excellent faculty (especially in Finance and Marketing) and our location. One of the most valuable things you gain from your MBA is a lifelong network, and I think Stern really helps build and foster those relationships by establishing a very strong sense of community.
When I first visited Stern as a prospective student, I didn't expect to see a tight-knit community feeling among the students, especially because of the New York location and the lack of a typical campus structure. However, when I was at the information session, the 2 guys who were holding the information session seemed to know everyone! People were in groups everywhere, studying or just hanging out, and everyone seemed to know everyone. It was definitely eye-opening. And now that I am here, I can attest to that.
I think the way you build a community is getting together like-minded people and giving them a lot of opportunity to work and play together. And Stern does this very well - in your first semester, you are divided into Blocks of 60 each, and you take most core classes together with your block, but also do a lot of activities together - there are block parties, block volunteer activities (our block volunteered for the Avon Walk this year), and block dinners with each of our professors for this semester. Through these activities, you get to know everyone in your block pretty well by the end of the first semester. Add to this the different clubs that you will be member of, and all the different events and activities (both formal and alcohol-centric) that each club holds, and you can see how your sense of community and your network builds!
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Friday, November 17, 2006
It's that time of the year again
No, I'm talking about the stress-inducing holidays. I'm talking about the stress-inducing MBA application time. I've been receiving some emails about what Stern does, what the community is all about etc. , so I'm going to try and answer some of those questions here.
Today's question:
I was looking to gain insight into the student clubs/activities related to Finance at Stern. Could you please provide me information from your experience at Stern that you think sets the school apart from other leading B-Schools, especially in the finance field. What kind of activities does Stern organize that helps students pursuing a career in the finance field?
As any current B-school student will tell you, I don't think I can do a fair relative-value assessment. What I can talk about is what Stern does, so here goes.
NOTE: This is specific to Finance, but some of these activities apply to all industries and functions, and the professional clubs associated with each industry organize their own activities similar to the ones organized by the Graduate Finance Association here at Stern.
1. Official Corporate Events - During October and November, before you apply to companies for your summer intership (typically, applications are due the first week of Dec), atleast two to three companies come to campus every day for corporate presentations - these are typically a presentation followed by a reception during which you get to network with the representatives of the company (usually the companies are represented by somewhere between 5 and 20 people, depending on the type and size of the firm). These events are organized by the Office of Career Development (OCD).
2. Panels - The OCD holds a number of panels with MBA2's and alumni where you can learn more about a particular industry, company or function. There are a number of these that happen throughout your first semester to help you make a more informed decision about what track you want to pursue
3. Workshops - Because Finance jobs are highly sought after and the selection process is extremely competitive, the clubs alongwith the Office of Career Development host a number of workshops for Resume & Cover Letter Writing, Behavioral Interview, Technical Interview as well as specialized workshops such as How to Pitch a Stock etc. throughout the first semester to help you prepare for the application process.
4. Unofficial Corporate Events - In addition to the corporate presentations hosted by the school, there are also other, specialized events such as cocktail receptions with companies, which are hosted by clubs such as the GFA, AIM (Association for Investment Management), STR (Sales, Trading and Research club) and FEA (Financial Engineering Association).
5. GFA Hour - This is a 1.5 hour weekly lunch during which a company will come and talk about a topic - this could either be a case study of a recent deal that they completed, or it could be about a particular industry or a current issue affecting the economy or businesses. Not only are these highly informative, again these are also a great way to network with officers in the company. Typically, the companies who participate in GFA Hour are all the major investment banks, but we also have other financial institutions such as commercial banks, credit card companies, mutual funds etc.
6. Other - In addition to these, a number of clubs like the GFA organize alumni mixers, where you can network with alumni. The school has an online database of about 70,000 alumni worldwide whom you can contact. I have had tremendous response from all the alumni I have contacted, and they have been instrumental in my research into companies and industries.
So, as you can see, the school - through the OCD and the clubs - invests a lot of time and effort to make sure that you are successful in establishing a longterm career that is the right one for you.
I will try to talk more about other industries, in the coming weeks, but typically recruiting for Finance happens in early-mid Jan, followed by Consulting and Marketing. The Entertainment & Media, and Technology companies come to campus starting in March.
If you have questions, post a comment or send me an email and I will try to address them going forward.
Good luck with all your applications!
Today's question:
I was looking to gain insight into the student clubs/activities related to Finance at Stern. Could you please provide me information from your experience at Stern that you think sets the school apart from other leading B-Schools, especially in the finance field. What kind of activities does Stern organize that helps students pursuing a career in the finance field?
As any current B-school student will tell you, I don't think I can do a fair relative-value assessment. What I can talk about is what Stern does, so here goes.
NOTE: This is specific to Finance, but some of these activities apply to all industries and functions, and the professional clubs associated with each industry organize their own activities similar to the ones organized by the Graduate Finance Association here at Stern.
1. Official Corporate Events - During October and November, before you apply to companies for your summer intership (typically, applications are due the first week of Dec), atleast two to three companies come to campus every day for corporate presentations - these are typically a presentation followed by a reception during which you get to network with the representatives of the company (usually the companies are represented by somewhere between 5 and 20 people, depending on the type and size of the firm). These events are organized by the Office of Career Development (OCD).
2. Panels - The OCD holds a number of panels with MBA2's and alumni where you can learn more about a particular industry, company or function. There are a number of these that happen throughout your first semester to help you make a more informed decision about what track you want to pursue
3. Workshops - Because Finance jobs are highly sought after and the selection process is extremely competitive, the clubs alongwith the Office of Career Development host a number of workshops for Resume & Cover Letter Writing, Behavioral Interview, Technical Interview as well as specialized workshops such as How to Pitch a Stock etc. throughout the first semester to help you prepare for the application process.
4. Unofficial Corporate Events - In addition to the corporate presentations hosted by the school, there are also other, specialized events such as cocktail receptions with companies, which are hosted by clubs such as the GFA, AIM (Association for Investment Management), STR (Sales, Trading and Research club) and FEA (Financial Engineering Association).
5. GFA Hour - This is a 1.5 hour weekly lunch during which a company will come and talk about a topic - this could either be a case study of a recent deal that they completed, or it could be about a particular industry or a current issue affecting the economy or businesses. Not only are these highly informative, again these are also a great way to network with officers in the company. Typically, the companies who participate in GFA Hour are all the major investment banks, but we also have other financial institutions such as commercial banks, credit card companies, mutual funds etc.
6. Other - In addition to these, a number of clubs like the GFA organize alumni mixers, where you can network with alumni. The school has an online database of about 70,000 alumni worldwide whom you can contact. I have had tremendous response from all the alumni I have contacted, and they have been instrumental in my research into companies and industries.
So, as you can see, the school - through the OCD and the clubs - invests a lot of time and effort to make sure that you are successful in establishing a longterm career that is the right one for you.
I will try to talk more about other industries, in the coming weeks, but typically recruiting for Finance happens in early-mid Jan, followed by Consulting and Marketing. The Entertainment & Media, and Technology companies come to campus starting in March.
If you have questions, post a comment or send me an email and I will try to address them going forward.
Good luck with all your applications!
Monday, November 13, 2006
Fame, Glory and a Big Cardboard Check
I recently found out about the Seventh Annual Deloitte Case Challenge at Stern, and decided to participate in it just for the challenge (if not at bschool, then when?). The competition was held last Thursday, and what follows is the sweat and tear-filled saga of the trials and tribulations of 5 classmates in search of glory and fame. Or something.
12 teams (out of 16 teams that applied) were selected at random using a lottery. Each team consisted of 5 members (thankfully, there was no random assignment of teams - we got to pick our own before the competition). We were given the case on Thursday night, and had till Friday 8am to prepare the presentation. What followed was a fun and challenging experience.
The case was about a men's wallet company looking to expand into the women's handbag market; we had to come up with an analysis on the soundness of the plan as well as recommendations for the next 5 years for the company. There was a lot of data provided alongwith the case, and one of the challenges was trying to sift out the relevant data. We took about an hour to read through the case and some of the materials in order to internalize the information, and another hour coming up with the right framework to use to evaluate the case. Since this was a market entry case, we decided to analyze it using the 4Ps (Product, Pricing, Placement and Promotion) and Porter's Five Forces. We then spent a good two hours talking about the case and brainstorming different ideas.
At around 10:30pm, we were finally ready to divide the case up and attack the components in teams of one or two. Broadly, we split this up into target market/placement, promotion, supply and manufacturing, financials and competitive landscape. In addition to the manufacturing and supply-chain research, I opted to do the financials alongwith another teammate, and this was probably the most challenging part of the case (and according to the judges, what really set us apart from the other teams). The financials were challenging because the company is private and the only financial data we were provided was an estimated income statement for 2006. The est. IS had entries for Sales Revenue, Cost of Revenue, Interest Expense and SG&A, and we had to make a ton of assumptions about expected revenues from the handbag business, cost of advertising, cost of capital and operating costs in order to do the requisite DCF valuations (thank you, Gode and Silber!!). What I found somewhat surprising was that none of the other teams did a DCF valuation (I guess it pays to have two finance geeks on the team! :-)).
After working on our individual slides for the next 4 hours, we put everything together and went over the deck a couple of times to check for accuracy and typos. At 4am, we decided to call it a night, and went home to get a couple of hours of sleep (apparently, we were one of two teams that got some sleep that night!). We were back in school at 8am to hand in 12 hardcopies of our slides. During our first round presentation at 9am, we presented for 30 minutes to a panel of 3 judges (just us and them in the room); there were about 4 or 5 questions at the end during the 5-minute Q&A session, a couple of which were quite challenging. After our presentation, we headed to the Starbucks lounge to get some shut-eye before lunch.
During lunch, the three finalist teams were announced, and somewhat to our surprise, we happened to be one of the teams!
The final round presentations followed a slightly different format. The room was open to all the other participants as well as the 4 teams who got eliminated by the lottery on the first day (overall, around 60-70 people). Each team was alloted 40 minutes to present to the audience and a panel of 9 judges, each of whom could interrupt us at any time to ask questions. Our team was the second to go. Our first teammate spoke of target market and placement, and was only asked one question, right at the end. This gave us a sense of hope that was quickly extinguished as we witnessed our second teammate get interrupted every 30 seconds during the course of her 4 minute speech. However, she held herself with amazing confidence and answered all the questions extremely well. I was the next to face the firing squad.
There are times in life when we surprise ourselves. I had no idea I could be so poised under pressure, or that I could "wing it" so well when required (I'm usually all about preparation, preparation, preparation!). I was barely 30 seconds into my speech when bang! came the first question. Next thing I knew, I was barely following my original speech format, having been forced to modify it in order to answer the questions that kept coming up. Luckily, I had done enough research on the topic (supply-chain and offshoring/outsourcing) to be able to answer most of the questions. A couple of questions threw me off a bit, but we had all agreed as a team that should we be asked for research or data that we didn't have, our answer should be "we'll have to research it some more and get back to you", which was a lifesaver!
Anyway, the rest of the presentation went off relatively smoothly, and we all heaved a huge sigh of relief and proceeded to the cocktail event to get some much needed alcohol-therapy. By this time, most of us had gone almost 36 hours without sleep (not counting the 2 hr nap in the morning), and were hardly in a mood to network with the Deloitte executives or with one another. The Deloitte guys probably saw this, and decided to announce the winner fairly early on and put us out of our collective misery.
For lack of a good segue, I shall put it quite bluntly - WE WON!!!!!!
We were awarded one of the ridiculously big cardboard checks (RBCC) for $2500 and somewhat smaller, individual carboard checks $500 each (and a wallet from the company that the case was based on). Much squealing, giggling and hugging (did I mention our team had 4 women? GIRL POWER!!) later, we posed for photos with our checks and some of the senior partners. After some more networking, we decided to drop the check off in front of our strategy professor's office (did I mention all of us are in the same block? GO BLOCK 3!!!), and head home for some overdue R&R.
12 teams (out of 16 teams that applied) were selected at random using a lottery. Each team consisted of 5 members (thankfully, there was no random assignment of teams - we got to pick our own before the competition). We were given the case on Thursday night, and had till Friday 8am to prepare the presentation. What followed was a fun and challenging experience.
The case was about a men's wallet company looking to expand into the women's handbag market; we had to come up with an analysis on the soundness of the plan as well as recommendations for the next 5 years for the company. There was a lot of data provided alongwith the case, and one of the challenges was trying to sift out the relevant data. We took about an hour to read through the case and some of the materials in order to internalize the information, and another hour coming up with the right framework to use to evaluate the case. Since this was a market entry case, we decided to analyze it using the 4Ps (Product, Pricing, Placement and Promotion) and Porter's Five Forces. We then spent a good two hours talking about the case and brainstorming different ideas.
At around 10:30pm, we were finally ready to divide the case up and attack the components in teams of one or two. Broadly, we split this up into target market/placement, promotion, supply and manufacturing, financials and competitive landscape. In addition to the manufacturing and supply-chain research, I opted to do the financials alongwith another teammate, and this was probably the most challenging part of the case (and according to the judges, what really set us apart from the other teams). The financials were challenging because the company is private and the only financial data we were provided was an estimated income statement for 2006. The est. IS had entries for Sales Revenue, Cost of Revenue, Interest Expense and SG&A, and we had to make a ton of assumptions about expected revenues from the handbag business, cost of advertising, cost of capital and operating costs in order to do the requisite DCF valuations (thank you, Gode and Silber!!). What I found somewhat surprising was that none of the other teams did a DCF valuation (I guess it pays to have two finance geeks on the team! :-)).
After working on our individual slides for the next 4 hours, we put everything together and went over the deck a couple of times to check for accuracy and typos. At 4am, we decided to call it a night, and went home to get a couple of hours of sleep (apparently, we were one of two teams that got some sleep that night!). We were back in school at 8am to hand in 12 hardcopies of our slides. During our first round presentation at 9am, we presented for 30 minutes to a panel of 3 judges (just us and them in the room); there were about 4 or 5 questions at the end during the 5-minute Q&A session, a couple of which were quite challenging. After our presentation, we headed to the Starbucks lounge to get some shut-eye before lunch.
During lunch, the three finalist teams were announced, and somewhat to our surprise, we happened to be one of the teams!
The final round presentations followed a slightly different format. The room was open to all the other participants as well as the 4 teams who got eliminated by the lottery on the first day (overall, around 60-70 people). Each team was alloted 40 minutes to present to the audience and a panel of 9 judges, each of whom could interrupt us at any time to ask questions. Our team was the second to go. Our first teammate spoke of target market and placement, and was only asked one question, right at the end. This gave us a sense of hope that was quickly extinguished as we witnessed our second teammate get interrupted every 30 seconds during the course of her 4 minute speech. However, she held herself with amazing confidence and answered all the questions extremely well. I was the next to face the firing squad.
There are times in life when we surprise ourselves. I had no idea I could be so poised under pressure, or that I could "wing it" so well when required (I'm usually all about preparation, preparation, preparation!). I was barely 30 seconds into my speech when bang! came the first question. Next thing I knew, I was barely following my original speech format, having been forced to modify it in order to answer the questions that kept coming up. Luckily, I had done enough research on the topic (supply-chain and offshoring/outsourcing) to be able to answer most of the questions. A couple of questions threw me off a bit, but we had all agreed as a team that should we be asked for research or data that we didn't have, our answer should be "we'll have to research it some more and get back to you", which was a lifesaver!
Anyway, the rest of the presentation went off relatively smoothly, and we all heaved a huge sigh of relief and proceeded to the cocktail event to get some much needed alcohol-therapy. By this time, most of us had gone almost 36 hours without sleep (not counting the 2 hr nap in the morning), and were hardly in a mood to network with the Deloitte executives or with one another. The Deloitte guys probably saw this, and decided to announce the winner fairly early on and put us out of our collective misery.
For lack of a good segue, I shall put it quite bluntly - WE WON!!!!!!
We were awarded one of the ridiculously big cardboard checks (RBCC) for $2500 and somewhat smaller, individual carboard checks $500 each (and a wallet from the company that the case was based on). Much squealing, giggling and hugging (did I mention our team had 4 women? GIRL POWER!!) later, we posed for photos with our checks and some of the senior partners. After some more networking, we decided to drop the check off in front of our strategy professor's office (did I mention all of us are in the same block? GO BLOCK 3!!!), and head home for some overdue R&R.
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