Posted
4:39 PM
by Zachary (e-mail)
Having already accepted a full-time offer, I'm not involved in the scrum of second year recruiting, which kicks into gear in October. However, being one step removed has given me some perspective on some parts of the MBA job market.
Management consulting (MC) seems hot, hot, hot. The classmates that I know who interned at the McKinseys, Bains, and BCGs all ended up with offers, and very generous ones to boot. Those same companies are combing the MBA2s looking for students who worked in another field over the summer but might consider switching to consulting. I know that Michigan has historically been a good source of consulting hires, but like every other school, the 2000-2002 downturn put a big dent in MC recruiting numbers. From the looks of it, they're finally back strong.
For Wall Street banks, I'd say that investment banking is rapidly heating up, but not yet as hot as MC. It was a very successful summer class for the Ross School of Business, and I've noticed that several banks are coming back for full-time interviews; over the past couple weeks a couple of new banks have even added interview schedules. Very good signs.
Sales and trading certainly isn't is hot, but it's not cold either--perhaps lukewarm? My own sense is that banks came into the year expecting a fixed income downturn (hence, little hiring plans) and an equities rebound. What they got was pretty much the reverse, and it was a tough summer for those trying to get into the equities side. Still, my gut says that S&T hiring could pop later in the year, especially if post-election the markets start looking up.
Among the other finance fields, equities research remains very, very tough to break into. First, the Street is still trying to figure out how to make money from research, in this Elliot Spitzer era. Second, except for last year, stocks haven't been burning it up. And third, the IPO market remains tepid.
I don't have a sense of other job areas like brand management, which Michigan is famous for. Overall, the MBA job situtation seems to have taken another step of improvement over last year, with numbers of job listings here up. Hopefully, by May those listings will translate to more classmates with better jobs at higher salaries.
Posted
8:15 PM
by Zachary (e-mail)
Come with me as I take you through a typical Ross MBA student's home game Saturday.
T-6 Hours to Kickoff
The MBA student leaves his apartment and heads up Main Street, towards Michigan Stadium. As he approaches the Big House, he notices that already the nearest parking, at Pioneer High School and on the UM Golf Course, are already filling up.
T-5.5 Hours to Kickoff
Passing by the stadium, he walks on into town to a classmates house where his friends are gathering for Kegs & Eggs. As a buddy fires up the gas-powered blender to make Margharitas, he downs the breakfast of champions (steak and egg sandwich, Guinesss):
T-5 Hours to Kickoff
The Beer Pong table is setup, and the game is soon to be afoot...
T-2 Hours to Kickoff
Having survived several rounds of Beer Pong, Beer Dice, and other sports starting with the word Beer, he and his cohorts stumble back up the hill past the stadium, to the UMBSA (Business Students Associate) tailgating. The "official" tailgating party of the business school, the UMBSA smartly moved their setup to the UM Golf Course, right at the corner of Stadium & Main (i.e. right across from the Big House). Pausing to thank our good friends at Target for sponsoring this week's bash, he digs in for some lunch...drink...
Gametime
It's all gravy from here: a dash across the street, the roar of the crowd, and a resounding 30-10 Wolverine victory. Want to feel what it's like to watch a football game with 111,428 friends, click on the photo for a [4.5MB] digital video (NOTE: To save space on my server, I've removed the Iowa game video. Clicking below will open video from the Minnesota game).
Is this a great business school or what!
Posted
7:02 PM
by Zachary (e-mail)
As many former students have told me, the second year of business school--if you have a full-time job offer in hand--is gravy. After a few weeks of settling back into school, I've now hit the sweet spot of business school life, and I'm loving it.
First, there's the fact that you choose your own classes. Compared to other MBA2s, I'm taking a pretty heavy, pretty finance-centric courseload, but I'm finding it worth it. Yes, I'm doing a lot more homework than I did last year, but it's in foreign exchange arbitrage, portfolio evaluation, and stock market statistics--i.e. topics that are relatively interesting and relevant to my career.
Second, the daily schedule is sweet: my earliest class is at 11am, and most days I don't start until the afternoon. With my mornings free, I've finally started on a long-standing goal of mine: to learn to play golf. I've found a really great deal on individual private golf lessons at the Pine View Golf Course in Ypsilanti, 15 minutes from the school. So for the past week I've been spending 9:30 to 10:30 outside, in 70 degree temperatures and under a tremendous blue sky.
Third, football and parties (which was also present last year, to be fair).
If anything, my biggest source of "pressure" comes from my responsibilities as a Finance Club officer, as I want to put a lot of effort into helping as many of this year's MBA1s get into sales and trading as possible. And if that's your biggest worry, you know you're in the 2nd year groove.
Posted
7:33 AM
by Zachary (e-mail)
...were published in today's edition. The Wall Street Journal's rankings rely upon the impressions of corporate recruiters, i.e. the people who'll be hiring MBA students, so its particularly gratifying for the Ross School of Business to be ranked #1.
The WSJ article does a good job of describing Michigan's main strengths. The only others I would add are:
1. Diversity of Interests: When you come to the Ross School of Business, students don't find themselves surrounded by 150 classmates clammoring for Investment Banking jobs. There really isn't a single career path that dominates the student body, which means there's much less competitive infighting amongst students.
2. The Overall University: The article touches on this in relations to the CEMP program, but the resources in other fields that Ross MBA students have access to is tremendous. I'm taking advantage of that this term by studying Business Japanese (through the Asian Languages department) and Financial Engineering (through the Math department).
3. Football: No other top business school offers the likelihood of watching your football team play in the Rose Bowl.
Posted
8:17 AM
by Zachary (e-mail)
The Wall Street Journal announced it's 2005 business school rankings on CNBC just now, and the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan ranked #1. Results will be posted here tomorrow.
Update: #2-#5: Tepper (Carnegie Mellon), Tuck, Wharton, Chicago.
Posted
1:52 PM
by Zachary (e-mail)
Michigan Business School students have gotten a couple e-mails from the school's media relations department over the past week. The two items of note relate to:
1. Name Change - All the details surrounding the school's name change are still being worked out. Now, the new name. However, the process of designing/modifying the school's "signature" and "brandmark" is still unfolding. Ideally, the school will have its new branded "look" finished soon enough (the current brand merchandise is available here).
2. Wall Street Journal Rankings - Apparently CNBC will have crews on campus this Tuesday morning as part of the countdown to the unveiling of the new Wall Street Journal MBA rankings. If you're interested, watch SquawkBox from 7am to 10am.
Posted
6:32 PM
by Zachary (e-mail)
All I can say is if Michigan plays as poorly next Saturday against Iowa as they did today against San Diego State, they won't walk away with a 24-21 win. It was ugly.
Posted
8:39 AM
by Zachary (e-mail)
Late last week I heard from the bank I interned at that they were extending me a full-time job offer for next summer. This brought a pot-pourri of emotions: gratification (that they had viewed me as positively as I had viewed the firm), relief (I don't have to do more recruiting if I so choose), excitement, and reflection. My two and half year journey, from the start of applications to this point, have paid off.
I won't go into more details on this subject until I make decision on the offer and/or my full-time employment.
Posted
8:25 AM
by Zachary (e-mail)
Yesterday I spoke at a couple events for MBA1s, a student advice panel and as an officer of the finance club. By far the most commonly raised issue related was the sense of being overwhelmed by business school, from classes to clubs to social events to job hunting. Especially with the pace of the job hunt (Citigroup kicks off the corporate presentation season here on Tuesday, exactly one week after classes started), students who don't have a clear idea of what job they want feel behind the eightball.
My advice to them was basically:
1. Prioritize: Is landing the perfect job most important to you, are grades most important, is networking the most important? MBA1s need to honestly answer those questions to themselves. Every year there are some students who say that grades don't matter to them, but when things hit the fan and they see others doing better than themselves, they panic. For me, getting into S&T was my #1, #2, and #3 priorities last year. I got some bad grades, but that was okay since I got the job I wanted. Each student is different.
2. Ask MBA2s: One of the hallmarks of the Ross School of Business (see, I'm getting used to it) is how friendly and cooperative students are. 99% of the second year students are more than happy to sit down with MBA1s and answer questions about their summer job, career path, or other aspects of business school life. If an MBA1 is unclear whether brand management or investment banking is right for them, talk to a couple MBA2s from each area and the differences will become apparent right away.
3. Enjoy: Michigan has to be one of the most fun business schools to go to, from the people to the town to football. These two years away from work should be enjoyed, period. Even the job hunt, in my opinion, should be approached with positive anticipation. After all, this is our time at bat, our time at the plate, to reach for our dream jobs.
Posted
8:20 AM
by Zachary (e-mail)
It was fun until the 4th quarter, at least. Teams can't go into Southbend and expect to win by kicking field goals every time they make the red zone. This was an ugly game and the final score, Notre Dame 28 - Michigan 20, doesn't truly reflect how noxiously the Wolverines played. Sigh.
Next week: San Diego State, in the Big House. I almost feel sorry for them.
Posted
1:36 PM
by Zachary (e-mail)
Stephen M. Ross School of Business
At the University of Michigan
It's official.
Posted
8:05 AM
by Zachary (e-mail)
Breaking News: All University of Michigan Business School students just received an e-mail from Dean Dolan inviting us to an 11:00 reception:
"The University of Michigan will announce it has just received the largest gift in its 187-year history. This is a gift to our Business School, and it is by far the largest gift ever given to any business school in the United States...
A press conference and celebratory reception will immediately follow. "
Details and links as soon as I get them...
Update 1:
Quick synopsis: Stephen M. Ross (1962, BBA), CEO of Related Companies (a New York real estate powerhouse), has donated $100 Million to the business school. According to Dean Dolan, this is nearly double the size of the largest single donation ever made to any business school in the United States. The school's name will be officially changed to the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.
The school just finished the announcment, which included remarks from Dean Dolan, UM President Coleman, and Mr. Ross himself. Mr. Ross' family was in attendance, including his uncle, Max Ross, namesake of Ohio State University's Fisher School of Business. So the same family has produced alumni whose names now adorn the business school.
Full details are available here.
Update 2:
The previous largest business school naming donation, per a quick search of the web, was David Tepper's $55 Million gift to Carnegie Mellon this March to rename the school the David A Tepper School of Business.
Update 3:
Over the next few days I'll be re-wording the website to reflect the new school name. It might take a while.
Update 4:
Here's the Detroit News coverage of the gift. I note that Mr. Ross' firm was the developer of the gorgeous new Time Warner building in New York.
Posted
7:40 AM
by Zachary (e-mail)
Breakfast:
...With Friends:
With my new digital camera, I was able to take some short video clips from the game. Unfortunately, this nice 31 second clip of Michigan scoring a touchdown and the fans doing the fight song weighs in at 15MB, which is too big to upload to the site. I'll have to work on that.
Posted
7:18 AM
by Zachary (e-mail)
After much trouble (almost all of it self-inflicted), I've finally nailed down my Fall Term schedule. In Fall A (i.e. the first 7 weeks), I'm taking:
ASIANLAN 429 - Business Japanese I (14 week)
MATH 542 - Financial Engineering I (14 week)
FIN 608 - Capital Markets & Investment Strategy (7 week)
FIN 612 - Principles of International Finance (7 week)
FIN 621 - Corporate Financial Policy (7 week)
The big addition was the Financial Engineering class. I felt that, going into trading, I really needed to polish up my statistics and math skills. Adding that course (offered by the math department, not the business school) forced me to rearrange some of the other courses, and postpone a few until the Winter Term.
In Fall B (November and December), I'm taking:
ASIANLAN 429 - Business Japanese I (14 week)
MATH 542 - Financial Engineering I (14 week)
ACC 564 - Corporate Financial Reporting (Condensed 7 week)
FIN 614 - Managing International Portfolios (7 week)
FIN 622 - Corporate Financial Engineering (7 week)
Amongst my peers, this is a fairly finance-centric courseload. That is both by choice and by class offering; there are certain financial subject I definitely want exposure to before graduating, and it just so happened that many of them were offered in the Fall term. I'm looking forward to a few management and business law courses in the Winter.
Posted
7:34 AM
by Zachary (e-mail)
After Saturday's satisfying victory (pictures to follow), it's time to get down to business:
Classes: They start tomorrow, and I'm still in limbo on the final details of my schedule. There's a Japanese language placement exam today, which determines what level course I could take, after which things should fall into place. In the meantime, I discovered a very useful statistics course, which pushed me up to seven registered courses. Obviously, some will be cut.
Clubs: The first finance club meeting is next Sunday, so the other officers and I will be busy planning the term's meetings. Our Wall Street Forum trip is several weeks earlier this year than last, so we'll be extra busy early in the term.
Jobs: This week sees a large number of classmates finding out whether they got a full-time job offer or not. Gulp.
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