FINANTIC

FT Alphaville alternative?

2010-07-21T08:20:00.000-04:00

One of the things I’ve come to enjoy during the last few years was FT Alphaville. It’s a nice blog with good market insights, and you could create a free FT account and sign up to breaking news, setup alerts, and my favorite, the “6am Cut”.

After running this service for free for 2 years, FT decided it’s time to squeeze some more money out of it. So for £1.25/week you can subscribe to something that used to be free. FT calls this a “terrific offer”.

http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2010/07/13/284961/the-6am-cut-a-special-offer/

The 6am cut usually does not have the full news story, it’s just a news brief. It contains links to the FT news item, and you need to be a fully paid FT subscriber to be able to read the stories anyways.

I know, nothing is free. But charging someone to show him a snippet of what he would see when he pays more, is a bit silly. I just don’t get it.

Good thing we’re living in a free society and there are other options. I just haven’t found a good alternative yet and I’m open to suggestions. I’m sure I’ll find one. Or as Hendrix put it in Red House “if my girl doesn’t love me no more, I know her sister will”. You think WSJ will start a free daily briefing? Yeah right!

GOP's deficit

2010-07-20T06:03:00.028-04:00

I was going to debut blog posting revival with an analysis on healthcare quality, but turns out while watching the Sunday morning political talk shows this got my attention.

On ABC's Meet The Press, the Sen. John Cornyn, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee made quite a blatant accusation about the budget deficit. You can read the trascript of the discussion here. Quoting Cornyn:

SEN. CORNYN: Well, let's look at a few facts. I, I, thank you for the opportunity because I wanted to respond to what Chris said. You know, in the last year that President Bush was in office, 2008, the deficit was 3.2 percent of the gross domestic product. Today it's 10 percent. Just--we just hit the $13 trillion cap on national debt, $2.3 trillion...

Apparently we are going to hear this more and more, since the same issue was raised by Mitch McConnell on CNN's State of the Union. Transcript here.

MCCONNELL: -- how long can we -- how long can the other side run against the previous administration? They've been in charge now for a year and a half. They've been on a gargantuan spending spree. They've taken, as I said, the deficit as a percentage of GDP from 3.2 percent to almost 10 percent in a year and a half.

The first argument to be raised here is obviously that the TARP money and the bank bailouts were passed during Bush's term, not Obama's, which have been the major contributor to the budget deficit. But that's not all, since they are also blatantly lying about how big the deficit was.

Also as Paul Krugman brilliantly points out, what Cornyn and McConnell refer to as the last year of Bush actually does not include the 4th quarter of 2008 which is when all the TARP and bank bailouts were passed through the congress. Also the first quarter of 2009 reflects mostly Bush policies, since the fiscal stimulus bill, ARRA, was not passed until Feb 17.

Source: BEA through Paul Krugman

Republicans are making these claims to show how fiscally irresponsible Democrats have been, and how much Republicans value fiscal austerity. Their track record however, is exactly the opposite.

The US has been running a structural deficit (i.e. the persistent component of budget deficit, as opposed to the cyclical component which comes and goes with business cycles), since Bush took office to top this off. When Bush 43 took office US had a budget surplus of 2.5% of GDP. By the end of Bush's first year in office the federal budget was almost flat, at 0.6% of GDP. We never looked back after that. At one point in 2004 the budget deficit was nearly 4%, which recovered to 1% in June 2007. When Bush left office in January 2009, the budget deficit was 5.4% of GDP, not 3.2% as McConnell and Cornyn claims. Furthermore, this deficit was not on the back of a recession and high unemployment. In fact, every Republican president since Nixon has increased the US Federal debt throughout their term.

Source: US Office of Management and Budget through Wikipedia.

How come the party that is touting less government spending and austerity is doing exactly opposite?

Time to revive

2010-07-05T07:30:00.004-04:00

I know it's been a long time since I've last posted. Thanks for the emails reminding me of that fact. It's amazing to see interest in my blog posts almost 2 years after I penned them. I haven't been writing mainly because I'm no longer a student, although I deem myself as a perpetual one.

I will no longer be writing about business schools and finance education but about more broad subjects that reflect my interests and what's current in the finance world. I intend the new incarnation of this blog to be a logbook my journey as a perpetual student.

I'll try to categorize the posts into a few buckets. Ones I'm thinking of are: macroeconomics, politics, quant finance, risk management, technology, and others (catch all for music, arts etc., should I decide to go off-topic occasionally).

Hopefully some of my good old readers will still find this useful.

Post MIF Answers #2 (U.S. Centric)

2009-10-01T13:55:00.002-04:00

1) [...]My current goal is to become a CFO, is that possible?

I totally agree that LBS MiF will help you in that regard. This year has been really tough on LBS graduates. most people had to go back to their original employers, or worse yet, take a job they have not wanted. I think times are getting better though.

What I'm trying to get at is many people coming to LBS had the illusion that the degree would automatically get them a highly desirable job.

2) Do you know if the Milkrounds also include opportunities back in the US?

Very minimal. I tried being proactive and wanted to organize a career trek to the US, but I received no support from career services. Career services have targeted marketing efforts where they sit down with employers and pretty much market the students prior to academic year start. They cannot do that for the US companies, so that's why there aren't many opportunities in the US

3) Are you looking to come back to the states or stay overseas? Do you have a choice?

Not really for the time being.

In general, I think you should assume that there's 80% chance you will stay in London post-grad unless you have/make good contacts and arrangements in the US prior to coming to London. Also, LBS brand name means a lot in Europe, but people in the US are not very aware of it. Many people asked me why I wasn't going to LSE, since they think it's a better business school.

4) How does your healthcare work during the program? Since that is on every news cast here in the states these days.

Good and bad. Your entire family would have free health care, called NHS. You first register with a GP (general practitioner - like PCP in the US), then for any problems you visit him/her. The GP may direct you to a hospital to see a specialist. The service is fast, you don't wait ages before seeing a doctor. There are also a few unpleasant things about it. They don't run enough tests since they are on a limited state budget. Still pretty good.

Post-MIF Answers to some questions

2009-10-01T13:29:00.002-04:00

I've been getting quite a few emails recently from people considering whether or not to apply / join LBS. Hope this helps.

A.K.

* Once you have completed the program, could you please explain your overall opinion?

It was great. Biggest complaint was the core (mandatory) course modules in the first semester, especially if you arent into accounting and corporate finance. I wasn't. Smart people, great classes to take.

* Was the Master worthy in terms of personal experience and education received? Did you regret not to have taken an MBA from a top tier Business School?

No. I already have an MBA and MIF was a 1000 times better. Just cut out all the b.s. and get down to business. Reputation wise, there is a problem though, since everyone knows LBS MBA, but not very familiar with MIF. That's not a big problem in London though. Esp. hedge funds and PE shops prefer MIFs rather than MBAs.

* Did you receive offers that fulfill your expectations, despite the current economic/financial situation?

Yes, I work for a hedge fund. I had another offer as a quant associate from a mutual fund, but I chose the hedge fund. I had found the HF prior to MIF thru networking, did a summer internship here, and worked part time during the year. School did not like it, but I didn't care. At the end I ended up with a great job. It took a lot of working, studying as well as sacrifice from the social and family life. It's doable though and I would highly recommend doing so.

* And your classmates, did they receive attractive offers as well?

Not all of them. The ones that got offers were the ones that had laser sharp focus in one area. Being a "jack of all trades" is not a good thing during market downturns. People want employees they can rely on, ones that are proven and has shown dedication to one and only one field. This effect is more pronounced when the jobs are scarce.

* Any additional positive or negative comments about the program that you would like to point out?

MIF project can be a big pain in the *ss, or it can be a great thing fr your resume. Try to make the most out of it. Get a feeling for the people first, and pick someone that is reliable

HSMP: is there light at the end of the tunnel?

2008-07-23T10:36:00.003-04:00

I had posted previously about the changes in the HSMP system. This post is part 2 to my earlier post which you can read here.

Since my original post, Home Office has stopped taking HSMP applications completely. They only accept HSMP applications they have received up to June 30, 2008. Any application that was dated after June 30 has to be done under the Tier 1 (General) system.

My main trouble was that I have never received a reference number for my application. Short of tracking the receipt of my application on US Post Office web page, I had no indication that whether Home Office had my application or not. First I sent an email to them. I've got an automated response that said they do not respond to emails anymore. That is very frustrating since they mention email as one of the contact methods on the HSMP contact page. You can reach it here.

So I went on a phone call expedition to find out whether I can get hold of a live human being at the Home Office. After several trials, and waiting on the line for a grand total of 40 minutes, I've found that they've put a new option to their call center. You can call the number, then press 2 for HSMP questions, press 2 for general inquiries, and then press 1 for judicial review. Once I did that, someone picked up the phone instantly. I don't know if that was my luck or not.

Anyways, I've learnt that they are currently processing applications dated March 25th (which is also published on their web site - so what they have on the web site is up to date). The officer looked up my reference number using my name and date of birth. Thank god they had it in the system! He said they've received mine on March 31st, and they should start processing mine any day now. He said processing takes between 1 week to 1 month.

I've also learnt that you can change your contact address by sending a fax to Home Office. I can't publish the fax number here, but it's different than what's posted on the contact page I've linked above. That fax number may or may not work for changing an address, I have no idea. He also confirmed that it is possible to change from student or any other work permit status to HSMP once you receive the HSMP approval letter, and you do not need to leave the UK for that. If you are in the UK under a tourist visa you would need to leave and re-enter though.

I hope that is helpful information to some, as I was not able to find anything similar to this on the UK immigration related forums.

Beeell's Follow-up to my Previous Post (Q&A)

2008-07-09T08:25:00.003-04:00

Beeell (author of the LBS So Journ blog which has a link on this page) has took another stab at the questions my reader sent me. You can read them at:

http://lbssojourn.blogspot.com/2008/07/follow-up-comments-to-classmates-blog.html

Enjoy!

Answering some questions

2008-07-07T10:05:00.002-04:00

I've received this email a couple of weeks ago, and since the questions here seems to be a recurring theme in the emails I've been getting recently, I've decided to publicly answer this one. The author of this email was kind enough to let me publish it here. I also like the kind remarks, and I guess one of the reasons I decided to publish this email was to show off. :)

I should also say that I am not in the best position to answer these questions, since I have not even started the program yet. I reserve the right to change my opinions through the course of next year, so please take these answers with a grain of salt.

[...]I wish to inform you that I am already a business management graduate and a chartered secretary specialising in corporate and economic laws. I was contemplating a number of options for pursuing an advanced program in finance. One option is a second MBA from one of the premier institutes in the US or UK and another option is the Masters in Finance program at LBS. I have close to 4 years of experience in the financial services industry.

As I was just reading up some material on the MiF course offered by LBS, I came across your blog and found it extremely useful. You have given a wealth of information. What I liked the most about your blog was the way in which you have shared your experiences / feelings / opinions. However, I need some additional details which I believe will help me take an informed decision:-

a. How good is MiF, LBS? I mean without an opportunity to intern with an iBank / hedge fund what are your chances of getting into a bulge bracket ibank?

I think doing an internship increases your chances of getting into a bulge bracket i-bank or a hedge fund considerably. This is specially the case if you do not have any work experience in the type of firm you want to work at. LBS MiF program has a requirement that you have at least 2 years of finance experience, but they are pretty vague about that requirement. You could have been working for the IT group in a commercial bank for 2 years and still be admitted to MiF. Operative term being "could have been" since LBS admissions solely makes the decision.

If you think you do not have the right amount of experience, or if you want to make a significant career move, I urge you to consider the MBA program instead. It's a 2 year program, and you have great chance to do an internship between years 1 and 2.

When I go to London, I will root for LBS to support pre-MiF internships since I've gone through a lot of trouble securing this internship, and also getting the administrative stuff done (such as visas). Oxford MFE program on the other hand, provides help for their students to get an internship before the program starts without even asking for it.

b. In your blog you had mentioned that only 30% - 40% of the MiF students get placed through the milk rounds. The rest have to find jobs on their own. This does make me feel extremely insecure. Does this mean that the school does not support the students in anyway?

That's the number I've got from a current MiF student. I think it's more empirical than a rock solid number. But yes, since the timing of milk rounds is a little awkward, not many MiF students get a job offer. Reminder, the first milk round is mainly for full time job offers and takes place sometime around November. Second milk round is around April/May and is mainly for internship opportunities. If you are an MBA student that calendar makes a lot of sense. You do the May milk round for an internship during your first year, and the Nov milk round for a full time job just when you start the second year.

I don't know how much support you get from the school. The people (MiF staff, alumni and current students) I've talked to sounded pretty calm about the whole process, since everyone gets placed one way or the other. Career services is pretty good and they start working with you even before you get a foot in London. They publish resume books, and try very hard to get you placed. But at the end of the day it's up to you to network your way into a decent job, or to present yourself to the prospective employers.

c. You had recommended that it is always better to do an intern before joining MiF. How long should the internship be? How to go about getting an internship with an iBank? I am currently staying in India. What are the chances for me to get an internship with bulge bracker bank in one of the leading financial centres? ( In my knowledge, it is quite limited... :) Do give your views on this.

i-bank internships are hard to get. Here's why. Their internship applications close sometime in mid to late december. Even if you apply in Round 1 to LBS, you may not get a decision by then. And let me tell you that telling people you have an admission offer from LBS places some weight on your application. So do your best, apply as early as you can, even before the R1 deadline. That way you may apply to i-bank internships before they close.

How long? - I don't know. 2 months should be the bare minimum I think. It depends on the organization you are interning with, and they tend to determine the duration most of the time.

d. I have also read that networking is one of key aspects for getting a job in an ibank. With a 1 year program, and placements starting within the first few months of joining LBS ( MiF), how can one possibly network and get a job?

I am definitely not the right person to answer this question right now, but maybe within a year I'll have some first hand experience to share with you.

Here are what I know so far. There are school trips to NY, Hong Kong etc. I think it's important to attend those, since every time an employer shows up at the school people would be circling him like a flock of ants. I don't think that's the right way of networking your way into a job.

LBS has a ton of clubs for different interests, you can see the complete list here. You should use these as tools to meet people in the industry that you normally would not be able to.

e. I firmly believe that the courses that LBS offers is great. But will the coaching for the first few months at LBS MiF suffice to crack the technical ibanking interviews?

We'll see. But the assumption is you already come from a finance background anyways.

I understand that LBS has a terrific brand name. But somehow the finer details of the MiF course make me feel a bit sceptical.

As I had mentioned, your blog was indeed awesome. (perhaps you should be charging people for this... :) more informative that any other site that I have been visiting in the recent past. This prompted me to shoot off this mail to you.

Charging?? Hmm. Good idea, but I don't know how much of my hefty tuition bill I can recoup from this site. Although clicking on the advertisements on this site would help for a starter. (or buy yourself a kindle!)

Would greatly appreciate your views on the aforementioned points.

Keep well....

Kind rgds.

No problem at all! Hope this was helpful.
Keep reading!

Rent vs. Buy

2008-06-19T15:50:00.002-04:00

Excellent calculator at NY Times web site. I was wondering about this since I'm about to rent my place. check it out.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/10/business/2007_BUYRENT_GRAPHIC.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Internship before MIF

2008-05-22T10:24:00.005-04:00

So one of the things I've been heavily looking into in the last couple of months was arranging for an internship prior to MIF. Especially if you are coming from a non-finance career background, doing an internship has tremendous benefits for securing a job post-MBA.

I have seeked help from London Business School regarding this, but I guess their career services is swamped with helping current MIF and last year MBA students find a job and first year MBAs an internship during and after the milkrounds.

My advice to people who would like to do a MIF is seriously think about investment bank internships by the time you are applying to your schools. Most of the investment banks that offer internships set deadlines such as November or December, so it is really inconvenient for us 1-year program participants. I guess it works well for 2-year MBA students since you can get into the program, apply to a bunch of internships in the first 3 months and have your internship ready and waiting for you in summer.

In my case it required a lot of networking and some luck. Luck is always important. It seems like now I have a VC internship in the US and a hedge fund internship in the UK lined up. I also have a job offer at a start-up firm to be one of the founders of the company that provides algorithmic trading solutions.

I am at the verge of making a decision, and that would possibly determine the rest of my career, as it would be harder to do a VC internship and get a hedge fund job when I graduate or vice versa. Should I take on the hedge fund gig and lean myself towards trading side of finance, or take the VC internship and have a VC/PE/M&A side of things? I guess VC/PE would be more fun (human factor), whereas trading would be more analytical oriented (given my tech background this is not a bad thing at all).

Any opinions? Please leave a comment on my blog page, or send me a note at finantic[at]gmail.com

Finantic

Subprime Primer

2008-04-25T11:16:00.004-04:00

Here's a really good (read: black humor) explanation of the subprime crisis. Click here and it will open in Google Docs. I know the subprime mess is old news now, but I like the presentation and wanted to share it. There's some foul language in there, so beware.

I've got it from Greg Mankiw's blog, so thanks!

First impression: London Business School

2008-04-18T10:16:00.009-04:00

It's almost been a week since I've been back from Europe, but I'll keep writing about my experience while I was in London, and hope it will be useful for folks subscribed to this blog.

If you are an admitted student, you can email one of the two admissions officers and they would help you visit the LBS campus. In my case I wasn't so lucky since the school was on easter break and I wasn't able to attend any classes. Usually they help you sit in a class with the current MIF students and feel the atmosphere.

My wife and I walked to the school after getting off at the Baker Street station. It's a 5 minute walk from the tube station, pretty convenient. The lobby area is in the Sainsbury Building, which is the glorious building overlooking Regent's Park which is pictured below. BTW, you might want to open the campus map in another window by clicking here.

This glorious building is unfortunately not the building that MIFs hang out all the time, as it belongs to the MBA program. MIF classrooms and the program offices are located in the less glorious Plowden Building which is at the bottom of the pdf map you have just opened. You don't see the pictures of the Plowden Building anywhere, since Sainsbury does a much better job at marketing the school with its White House looking facade.

I had a chance to sit down with one of the admissions officers for 15 minutes or so, and then I met with a current MIF FT student who comes from a similar background as I do. I will try to convey some of his words of wisdom here.

About the grades, he said usually the top 10% of the class gets an A, and in a typical class it's the people who have experience in the subject matter (i.e. accountants do well in accounting class) that would get an A. Having that said, unless you are thinking about going to a consulting venue, your graduating grade does not matter. Most of the students are focused on finding a job rather than grades anyways.

Second topic was about finding a job. His impressions were slightly different than another alumnus I've talked to earlier, and he said about a total of 30-40% of students would find jobs during the milk rounds, and the rest would be through individual efforts. He said he was concerned about finding a job before coming to London, but he is more relaxed now as he thinks it will not be a problem. His suggestion was to find a full time job and not an internship that you can try to convert to a full time position later because most investment banks would not be able to convert internships to jobs right away due to their hiring quotas.

I'm not going to go into all the rants and raves we both had about how expensive London is. You can pretty much imagine that part of the conversation.

I should say that I wasn't impressed with the interiors of the building, especially when compared to the school I've attended in the US. I guess I was expecting a little better than low quality wall to wall carpets and fake wood paneling from the 80's. I think they could do much better with the muchos dolares they charge to their students. I didn't have a chance to see a classroom and any other facilities so no comments there. That being said, I've been to a school with stellar facilities and crappy rankings, and I would much rather go to a school with the best ranking around with not so great facilities.

There are other things I want to talk about related to daily boring activities that you'll need to do once you're in London, such as bank accounts, getting a phone, transportation, and renting. These will have to wait for another post since it's already been a pretty long post.

Cheers mates! ;)

PS: I've lost my camera while in London, so I had to lift the pictures on this page from Flickr. Kudos to original authors of these pictures, which could be seen here and here.

PPS: I've got a new camera! ;)

LBS MIF Admits so far

2008-03-05T12:03:00.003-05:00

There are 78 people that has been admitted so far. From what I see, most people have careers in finance, although not at very high-profile institutions such as I-banking or hedge funds. Working at a government organization (central bank or so) also seems like a popular trend.

One of my readers emailed me today saying he's got in. I hope more of the readers of this blog will get in to the program and we'll meet in London. I'm pretty excited about going there, especially since we've pretty much decided that my wife will join me in London as well.

My first ding - Princeton

2008-02-23T02:34:00.003-05:00

Princeton dinged me. I should honestly say that Princeton was the school that I least paid attention to during applications, although I thought my essays were pretty good. I've sent the application fee pretty late, and did not bother to send any transcripts since they did not ask for it in the initial application.

In any event, I think getting 2 acceptances out of 3 schools is still pretty good. An acceptance from Princeton would not have changed my decision, so I'm glad someone else got an acceptance from Princeton instead of me.

In the coming days I'll write more about the LBS financing the studies, curriculum, career paths and scholarships. There is a very vibrant discussion going on at the LBS portal among the new admits. I am not allowed to copy & paste any information directly from LBS portal to here, but I will definitely write my impressions.

The natural selection

2008-02-11T18:31:00.001-05:00

It's nice to know that people are following this blog. I hope it hasn't been too long, but there has been quite a few things going on in my life lately and I haven't been able to write much. Also, I did not know which offer I was going to accept.

On one hand, there was Oxford, a name that everybody appreciate with an opportunity to get a decent internship over the summer. The other option was LBS, the heavy-weight champion of all Finance programs around.

It was a tough decision, but I have decided to accept LBS' offer. And here's the reason for the title: I just waited until Oxford's offer expires, so now I only have one offer that I can not afford rejecting. Isn't that wonderful?

To top it off, here's the 2007 Global MBA rankings from Financial Times:
http://rankings.ft.com/global-mba-rankings

LBS jumped from #5 to #2 spot globally, and it's also the #1 business school in Europe.
http://media.ft.com/cms/1a8b39e4-c804-11dc-94a6-0000779fd2ac.pdf

So now that the decision phase is over, I can concentrate on making arrangements for moving to London.! And that would mean letting my lovely car go :(

Here's a little goodie about LBS. It's kinda cheesy but I like it.

And Oxford says yes!!!

2008-01-12T10:59:00.001-05:00

I will not have a whole lot of time to post until the end of January, but I've got great news today. Oxford accepted me, which brings me to my Oxford vs. LBS dilemma. I've also started looking at financing my studies. Oxford is considerably cheaper than LBS, which may also make a difference in my decision.

I also have not have time to respond to the comments my readers left so far, but this will get done today as well.

I'll keep posting..

Never underestimate Oxford!

2007-12-27T15:56:00.000-05:00

I've received an email from my cousin today, congratulating me on LBS admission. He was asking what my plans are if Oxford would offer me a place as well. From the tone of his email, I could tell he was a bit surprised that I am thinking about turning down Oxford to go to LBS. A couple of days ago, a similar topic came up when talking to my parents. How come I would not want to go to Oxford?

I guess I have been underestimating the power Oxford label has, after centuries of educating world's most successful people. Even though the Said Business School is relatively new, people I've talked to regard the program as one of the most successful programs that provide a good mix of Finance and Economics. This is one distinguishing factor, as the degree LBS provides is purely a Finance degree.

Here's another data point. An Oxford MBA (not MFE) blogger has posted a somewhat comparison between LBS and Oxford programs. http://richardconnmba.blogspot.com/2007/07/more-lbs-questions.html

Rankings are telling a different story though. When you look at the MBA rankings (unfortunately I do not have access to Finance ratings from any other source), LBS ranks much higher than Oxford. Take a look at FT rankings for example.

FT.com / Business Education / European Business school rankings
FT.com / Business Education / Global MBA rankings

LBS ranks 2nd in Europe, and 5th globally, whereas Oxford ranks 21st in EU and 19th globally.

For now, I will keep betting that LBS name will get bigger and better known outside the UK within 10 years or so. I am also betting that it is already a big name within PE/IB circles, which is what I care for.

Comments, anyone?

LBS MiF Interview Experience

2007-12-21T21:37:00.000-05:00

I'd better write about my LBS interview before I forget about it. Hey, is there a better day to write about it night before your wedding reception anyways? JK

Here's my LBS application timeline:
- Nov 5, 2007: Emailled MiF admissions about eligibility (basically sent my resume)
- Nov 16, 2007: Submitted my application just in time for the Round 1 application deadline. (Actually it was 5 hours past the deadline. Don't try this at home!)
- Dec 6 2007: Received confirmation from LBS that I was shortlisted for an interview
- Dec 15, 2007: Interviewed with an alumnus

Prep work:
I did two things. First, I read about the finance industry. This is not something you can do overnight. Prepare yourself by reading Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Economist. Read the industry guides from Vault. Also read some of the books I've listed on this blog. They give you a great insight about the industry. Secondly, I had been reading forums and blogs about others' interview experiences. I'd especially recommend Business Week's forums, accepted.com, admissions411.com etc.

Attire:
I had no idea what to wear, since the interview was with a 2007 graduate, on a weekend, and near his home. So I asked him. He said he didn't care what I'd wear, but he said if I'd feel better by wearing formal he'd be fine. We agreed on business casual. I went to the interview with dress pants, button down shirt, and a jacket. Not a suit, and no tie. I think it worked well.

Questions:
Both technical and behavioral questions. Mainly, we went through my resume. The toughest question was why I was interested in Finance. (My background is high-tech) You need to explain where your interest in finance stems from. It needs to be genuine and real. You need to have a story to tell.

Another important question was what I wanted to do after I graduated. Again, need a good story to tell. "I want to work in Finance industry" is not good. "Investment banking" is better, but not specific enough. Research the departments within the type of company you want to work for, and have a couple of words to say about the position you want to take. I also explained him my plan about job search, which would begin even before the program would start. I'm planning to get a summer internship, and get CFA qualification.

What about my long term plans? I already had an answer in my essay, but I had to defend my position. Your interviewer may try to convince you that you had a boilerplate answer, and the worst thing you can do is accept to that.

Some technical questions about finance. What are derivatives, options, value at risk, proprietary trading. Don't make things up. If you don't know the answer to a question just admit it, and say you are eager to learn what the answer is. Although you're not expected to already know everything that would be thought during the program, you need to have some knowledge.

How can I use my current background in my future career in finance? I said I can use my strategy and sales experience if I were to work for a trading grouo in an I-bank. He said I-Bank trade desks do not do much sales. I told him that as I get higher in the group I believe I would have more sales responsibility to mutual funds etc. He bought into that.

Being in the US, why am I applying to LBS? Did I think about the finance programs in the US? Now be careful. This is a trick question. Here's why. The finance programs in the US (not talking about finance oriented MBA programs here) are geared towards churning out quants. For example Berkeley's Haas is a great program, but it's financial engineering. He was basically trying to gauge whether I knew what I wanted. So I gave him the answer he wanted. (I think). I said I was interested in a leadership role in a finance organization, not being a number jock. (Nothing wrong with being a number jock, I just don't want it). The only program similar to what I wanted was Princeton in the US, but I'd prefer LBS over Princeton due to many reasons.

What would I bring to the student body and the program? Need some creativity here. I think these boring questions are designed to see your out of the box thinking. They want to see sparks in your eyes when telling a story. Some originality needed here. Not sure if I was successful, but I said being a manager in a public company, I know what the shareholder expectations are, and I know how these requirements translate into daily work load. I also bring significant international experience (I live in the US, but I'm not American), and I've had this kind of experience already once. Finally, I'm technically savvy and can help people. He said these were all great reasons, but don't try to over emphasize technical background much. MiF is more technical than MBA, but you're not going there to be a quant. So don't brag about your technical qualifications much.

The interview took about 1 hour and 15 minutes. The original allotted time was 45 minutes, so we went over a little. He answered a lot of my questions. I realized most of my questions had one "official" and one "off-the record" answer. Off the record answer was universally more useful.

Something negative happened during the interview as well. My cell phone started going off in the middle of the interview. It was on vibrate, but after a couple calls, I started getting annoyed. So I excused myself and pulled out my cell phone and turned it off. Later when I was walking out, I was able to take a peek at his notes. One of the notes he jotted down was "cell phone". You can imagine what I thought. "What a douche bag am I? I just got myself dinged!"

Well, luckily that wasn't the case, and I got the admission a couple of days ago. Phew!!

PS: Don't forget to send a thank-you letter after the interview.

ADMITTED TO LBS!

2007-12-20T10:28:00.000-05:00

I've just got an email from LBS MiF admissions committee. I've got admitted to the program!

I'm long way from home, in a snowy place with my in-laws to celebrate Christmas. This has been a wonderful Christmas present.

There's a lot to say, and I am hoping to post details about my application strategy including the interview in the coming days. Make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed, and you'll get the updates.

Happy holidays everyone.

Finance schools and programs to apply

2007-12-17T18:52:00.001-05:00

Here's what my initial list looked like:

- Oxford University - Said Business School, Masters in Financial Economics
- Cambridge University - Judge Business School, M.Sc. Finance (aka MFin)
- Manchester Business School, M.Sc. Finance and Economics
- Imperial College (Tanaka), M.Sc. Finance
- Princeton University, M.Sc. Finance
- London School of Economics, M.Sc. Finance and Economics
- London Business School, Master in Finance

The list actually goes on and on.. It took me quite a while to compile this list, looking at it from every possible angle. App deadlines, tuition, living expenses in each city, application requirements etc.

I had decided to apply to Princeton, Oxford and Cambridge initially, however I had to put off Cambridge, since they are supposedly coming up with a new program which they encourage people with background like mine to apply. The program still hasn't been announced.

One of my professors from the MBA encouraged me to apply to the LBS, and even though I felt that my background in Finance is not very strong, I decided to give it a shot. (LBS requires that you have a background in finance). I have some background related to the finance industry from my day to day work experience and b-school, but I'd say that is peripheral.

Eventually I've applied to the following schools:
- LBS
- Oxford
- Princeton

LBS and Oxford offered me an interview, which I'll write about later. (Both of these interviews have already occured). I have been putting off sending the application payment to Princeton, which I should do pretty soon.

You may wonder why I did not consider any other schools in the U.S besides Princeton. There are very good schools in the U.S. that send a considerable portion of their yearly graduates to IBs annually. However, those (NYU, Harvard, Wharton) are all MBA schools, without any dedicated program in Finance. There are also some pretty good Financial Engineering programs such as Haas School of Business in Berkeley, but this is really targeted towards quantitative finance, i.e., you need to become a math jock and your life revolves around formulas. This might be a good thing for some people, but I am looking for a leadership position in the finance industry, not a technical position.

MBA vs. Masters in Finance

2007-12-17T18:26:00.001-05:00

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have an MBA degree from a non-top tier US business school. After realizing how important the school label is for getting hired into a top investment bank or a consulting firm, I had to make a choice. Which B-school do I apply to? Should I apply to another MBA program, or a M.Sc. program that specializes in Finance?

First, if you have an MBA degree from a US Business school, you typically cannot apply for another MBA program within the US. That's pretty intuitive. I was told that U.K. business schools actually do not care if you have a previous MBA degree, but I decided against applying to any MBA program at all, for the following reasons (in no particular order):

1) I don't think I value the MBA education from a top school after my current MBA degree. the curriculum is the same among MBA schools, and the only difference is the quality of faculty and student body.

2) Getting a second MBA is a very loser thing to do.

3) Full time Finance programs are typically one year long, whereas MBA programs are 2 years long. There's a big financial difference.

So ended up applying to Finance programs only...

First Post - What is this blog about?

2007-12-17T13:08:00.000-05:00

As my first post, I guess I need to explain what I am trying to accomplish with this blog.
Well, here it goes. .

I am a 29 year old guy, who currently is a business development manager at a high tech company in the US. I've got an MBA, which helped me realize the wonderful world of finance. Call it passion, greed, love for money, challenge. Whatever.. I just want to get into the finance industry.

After struggling to get a job in some high profile investment banks, I faced the reality: the business school I've graduated from is not a high profile school that bulge bracket investment banks like to hire from.

Instead of quitting, I started looking for alternatives. One of these alternatives was a radical one, which was the one I decided to pursue. Going back to the graduate school! After a bachelors and masters in engineering, as well as an MBA, I am planning to go back to the grad school to get what I want. My plan is to get into one of the best schools in the finance field, and work my way into the finance industry.

I know this dream will not be easy, in multiple aspects. It will be a huge financial impact, as I am looking into getting a full-time Masters in Finance. This will mean quitting my nicely paid job, and taking a large debt. I live in the US, and since the programs I am looking at are mostly in the UK, it would also mean leaving my lovely newly-wed wife for a year. The list goes on and on...

Hence this blog's reason for being. I am an archive freak. I like going back in time and looking at my thoughts. I also like helping other people in due process. So I decided to start a blog that I would post anonymously, and share my experience with the world.

I have also setup an email address to communicate with the world regarding this blog. You can contact me at finantic (@) gmail (dot) com with any questions or comments you would like to make privately. Otherwise, commenting to each post is also enabled, and I encourage you to use it for all your public comments.

This blog will be publishing an RSS feed, and if you are interested in what I have to say, I encourage you to subscribe to my RSS feed. I use Google Reader for reading my RSS feeds, and I highly encourage you to use it. It's a great product.

That's it for now.. Next couple of posts will be about my applications to finance schools.

Thanks!