Priyanka Sharma
MBA 2013
In today’s
world, business and networking go hand-in-hand. Then, what’s the best way for
students to network, especially with Wall Street finance firms, who cannot directly
interact with BU students due to location differences. Of course, you go out to
Wall Street itself and meet personally with finance professionals. That’s where
MBA Finance Club’s New York Trek comes in handy. With the help of various BU
alumni, the MBA Finance club schedules this annual trek to various Wall Street
firms where students get an opportunity to interact with alumni as well as
other professionals, learn about different areas of finance, and build
relationships.
As the VP in
charge of Treks for the MBA Finance club, I had the opportunity to organize the
this year’s New York trek. The process started in back in February when the
current Finance club leadership took the reigns from the outgoing leadership, and
we immediately began contacting BU alumni at select firms to gauge their
interest and availability for this year’s trek. I received tremendous help from
my classmate and Finance club’s co-president Shan Guo (SMG, 2013) in this formidable
task. Shan contacted alumni at multiple firms to initiate the conversations and
we continued to follow up throughout the spring and summer. In the end, we were
able to arrange to meet with five companies on October 18th and 19th,
and 22 club members made the trip down to New York to participate in the trek.
Students and alumni at Goldman Sachs. |
Our first stop was
Goldman Sachs where we were joined by five BU alumni from the firm. Students
had a very interactive session learning about alumni job profiles as well as
current industry trends and news, from Dodd-Frank implications to the
presidential election to the fiscal cliff. From there, we moved on to Citigroup.
We had an awesome alumni presence there as twelve alumni joined us and discussed their diverse
experiences, which included investment banking, corporate banking, sales and
trading, and leveraged finance, among others. With such a productive day,
students were ready to make more connections while unwinding a little bit in
the evening at the Alumni reception, which was co-hosted by the MBA Finance Club
and BU SMG Alumni Relations office. Here, we spoke with consultants from
Cognizant Consulting about their financial services consulting practice and job
requirements. We spent rest of the evening at the reception as networking
continued among students and several more alumni from different companies who
graciously joined us there and shared their stories.
Day one of the
trek was quite successful and we all were very excited for the second day of
the trek, which brought exposure to different sets of companies. Students
arrived in the morning at Lincolnshire Management, a Private Equity firm, where
Mr. Mike Lyons, Senior Managing Director and BU alumnus, shared his experiences
and commented on the intricacies and nuances of private equity business. This
was definitely a unique experience for students to hear firsthand from such a
high profile business leader and to learn more about unexplored areas of
private equity. Our next destination was Barclay's Capital, which has regularly
hosted BU students and has also recruited from these treks in past years, and
students learned more about the world of investment banking from alumni at
Barclay's. After such an eventful couple of days, the trek was not over quite yet:
We had one more post-lunch stopover at PwC Advisory Services. This again was an
interesting experience, as we met with professionals from areas of Asset Management,
Insurance, and Banking and Capital Markets. The fact that our alumni contacts
brought so many non-alumni professionals for the session is truly a testament
to the commitment of our alumni to the BU community.
I consider the
trek to be an overwhelming success. Students visited six different companies in
areas of Investment Banking, Consulting and Private Equity; networked with more
than 45 business professionals in two days; and got exposure to varied
specializations within the Finance industry. I myself also learned important
lessons in organizing such events from start to finish and will strive to keep
improving these treks by including an even more diverse group of companies to
enhance students’ experiences. I would like to thank my fellow MBA Finance Club
committee members for their help in preparing for the trek,the BU SMG Alumni Relations office for organizing
the alumni reception, the Feld Career Center staff for getting us ready and
accompanying us on the trek, and most importantly, all of our Alumni who
committed so much of their time and energy in meeting with students and sharing
their experiences. I look forward to the upcoming trek!
Priyanka Sharma is a 2nd year General MBA student
concentrating in Finance and has experience in finance and technology
industries. Priyanka was born and raised in India and enjoys learning about different
cultures and their cuisines.
No comments:
Post a Comment