In trying to take every opportunity to meet alumni and get more insight into the finance industry, I attended a financial roundtable at Gleacher Center (the downtown campus) on Thursday night. It was packed with over 400 financial analysts in the Chicago area. Different capital managers gave their philosophies on choosing stocks and gave some insight into the nature of the market. It was interesting to hear where different people have ended up from where I am now.
The count down is on at work. Two more weeks and I’m unemployed! I’m of the small group of students who worked the entire summer. I’m glad that I decided to work down to the wire, because you could drive yourself crazy trying to do everything possible to prepare or totally slack off and miss a lot of opportunities over the summer. It has required me to maintain a routine.
I was lucky, in that I already lived in Chicago, so I didn’t have to move across country which made things a lot easier. After a lot of soul searching and talking to students I decided to stay where I am (close to downtown) instead of making the move to Hyde Park. I was worried about missing the late night interaction, but it seems a large contingent of our class is staying Downtown, and it’s only a fifteen minute commute.
Many people are leaving on Random Walks next weekend. Random Walks are the pre-class trips to places all over the world. They are organized by second years and first year students get a chance to meet some of their classmates and a couple of second years. I thought the cost was exhorbitant and I could do a trip on my own for a lot less, so I passed on the Random Walk opportunity.
I put together a “meet and greet” for the incoming minority students to get together. We keep seeing each other at these professional events when we’re in suits and on our best behavior. I thought we should take the opportunity to get to know the real deal before the pressure starts. I’ll give you the run down on how it goes next week.