A Day in the Life of a 2nd-Year MBA Student...

I thought I'd do something I've never done before on my blog and give you brief snapshot of what I do on a typical day. (An original idea for a blog, I know). I chose last Monday, October 22nd...

Monday
After checking email, I caught the bus to school for Cayuga Fund class from 8-10am. We did some training with a financial software application called StockVal and then a couple of student portfolio managers pitched some stock ideas for inclusion in the Fund. All of the stock pitches received the required two-thirds majority vote, which meant the trades would be executed after class. Directly following class, I met with Rich Marin (former CEO of Bear Stearns Asset Management and current Executive in Residence at the Johnson School) for a half-hour to get some career advice. I spent the rest of the afternoon doing research on the stocks I cover in the Fund and responding to a handful of emails before coming home to spend time with my family. After eating dinner and putting the kids to bed, I finished up a take-home midterm exam for my Equity Derivatives class while watching the monday night football game. Peyton threw a late TD to keep my undefeated season alive in my fantasy football league, so I'd say it was a good day.

That was a fairly typical day for me. It's not unusual during your second year at B-school to only have one or two classes scheduled a day, which is due to the structure of the elective courses. And it's great to have a seasoned Wall St. exec like Rich Marin available to speak with. Now that I think of it, I'm really amazed at the quality of professionals (guest speakers, alumni, faculty) that I've come in contact with over my short time at Cornell. Jim Chanos, Seth Klarman, and Michael Mauboussin are some heavy hitters in the asset management world, and I've had the luxury of sitting in a classroom with each of them. And when I think that my classmates are going to be the next generation of leaders, it's even more humbling.

Calling All Career Switchers

I've noticed that my last few posts touch on some things that make Cornell different. Every school has innate strengths and weaknesses and every MBA candidate is using a different lens to determine which program best suits their situation, learning objectives, and career goals. With that said, I thought I'd reflect on my decision to attend business school in general and why the past 14 months have been such an enriching experience.

Almost every student I know at Cornell is a career-switcher of some form, myself included. This makes perfect sense since most people don't quit their jobs and pay tens of thousands of dollars to pursue other career possibilities if they were already content with the job they have. The ironic thing about business school is that you really don't have two years to figure out what you want to do. Decisions about which classes to take, which clubs to join, and which corporate breifings to attend, are decisions made within the first few weeks of the first year in the program. I was one of the few students who had a very defined set of career goals from day one. I wanted a job on the buy-side, specifically with a value-oriented equity fund, and being focused freed up a lot of time to get prepared for my internship.

If I had to choose one thing that surprised me the most about business school, it was the amount of work I had to do outside of class to prepare for a job on the buy-side. I was expected to know how to value a company, disect an industry, and analyze economic data by January when interviews started. Since these concepts aren't covered in the fall semester (the "core" classes), I did a lot of work on my own, with friends, and with the Investment Management Club to get up to speed. Although I found it to be especially true of asset management careers, you will undoubtedly have to prepare outside of class whether you're pursuing an internship in marketing, investment banking, consulting, or corporate finance. The learning curve is steep for any new career, so knowing what you want to do before you come to school will give you a definite headstart.

I'm certainly not suggesting that you can't change your mind while you're here. An internship is the only thing that I know of that let's you "try before you buy" your career. If you don't like the summer you spent on Wall Street, you can always switch directions and take a new path during your second year in school. An MBA is also the perfect platform to get exposed to other fields that you didn't know would ever interest you. Developing basic skills in stategic consulting, corporate valuation, and general leadership has been an amazing experience for me, and I think I'd be happy taking a job in any of those areas. The opportunities in the business world are literally endless and there's no better time to identify and formulate your passions at the sunrise of your career. I guess what I'm trying to say is that being focused and having a clear goal will improve your chances of getting where you want to go, but being open-minded and reasonably flexible while you're in school will only serve to sharpen and expand your career possibilities.

OK, I've waxed way too philosophical for the Johnson Blog. I'll think of a joke or something next week, but hopefully my thoughts were helpful to someone out there.