OwenBloggers: Serdar

How to pack for 10 weeks???

Just last night, Colleen and I were talking about how/what to pack for 10 weeks?  It is clearly a subject matter that is bothering her more than me (due to her enormous shoe collection); but still this is a significant problem as we are going to be leaving on a flight to New York in about 2 weeks to start our summer internships.

How do you exactly pack for a 10-week job? This is the only problem we are facing right now as we recently completed our first year of business school at Vanderbilt. Looking back at the past 10 months, I certainly feel grateful that "packing" is the only real dilemma we are currently facing.

The first year went by really fast...a little too fast if you ask me.

The Samba Will Continue

If you're a regular reader of OwenBloggers, you know his name: Sharran Srivatsaa.  Just like the rest of the outgoing Class of 2008, Sharran's leaving us.  Sharran--for those of you who don't know him personally--is one of those "idea" guys.  You know the ones... They just can't seem to sit still.  They're always throwing off-the-wall ideas around.  They've got a "to-do" list a mile long.  They just seem to buzz with a frenetic energy.  And they never take "no" for an answer.  That's Sharran.

The really cool thing about people like Sharran is that they come up with ideas like OwenBloggers.  Not only do they think this stuff up, they then actually bring the idea to life. 

Thanks, Sharran.  Thanks for dreaming, for pushing, for encouraging, and for working to bring your "big ideas" to life.  Owen is a better, more creative place than ever before.  We wish you the best for the next chapter in your life...Long live the rhythm.

Cheers,
Ryan Dix & Serdar Sikca

Finance at Owen

Are you planning on pursuing a finance concentration at Owen? Are you looking for a career in investment banking, investment management, or corporate finance post-graduation? If so, take a look...

It is no secret that the finance department at Owen is one of the strongest in the school (if not "the" strongest), both from a faculty and career placement perspective. Every year roughly 35% of Owen students concentrate in finance, making it by far the most popular career path for interns & graduates.

I am a finance concentrator myself, and will be completing my summer internship in the field of investment management at a bulge bracket bank. So, here are my "unofficial" thoughts about "Finance at Owen."

Reputation

One of the main reasons for me to choose Owen over another higher-ranked school (for those ranking-crazies out there) was the overall reputation of Vanderbilt University, as well as the high amount of respect the finance program receives here at Owen. After spending almost a full school-year here, I came to realize that this is absolutely true.

Faculty

Owen has top-notch faculty in the field of finance. Whether you are taking your Managerial Finance from the man, whose research led to a sweeping reform of the NASDAQ market and the introduction of the SEC Order Handling Rules; or Derivatives from the man who wrote the book on Derivatives, as well as creating three world-wide used indexes for the Chicago Board Options Exchange, you'll be sure to receive the best financial education possible.

Career Management

Vanderbilt (Owen) does not have a good reputation in Wall Street, it has a great one. Recruiters tend to love the fact that Owen students are hard-working, scrappy, and need to work hard just a little bit harder (than say a HBS student) to get that coveted job. I have actually leveraged this point heavily during my interview process with many firms.

Investment Banking seems to be the most popular field in finance (most finance students fall in love with banking early on.) While Owen is not a core school for many Wall Street banks (this means they do not come to campus to conduct information sessions & interviews) for investment banking, our school has many successful alumni at every bulge bracket bank imaginable. Owen does a great job of networking with these people & banks up in NY by planning "Wall Street Week" in October every year. It is a great opportunity for first-year students to learn about the different businesses (i.e. investment banking, investment management, corporate finance). Last year, about 80 of us attended this event and it was certainly very helpful. Moreover, Owen also conducts "NY Interview Day" in January, where they reserve an entire floor of a really nice hotel in NY and give many companies to interview the candidates they have selected from Owen.

Here are some firms that have hired Owen interns for investment banking functions this upcoming summer:

• Merrill Lynch
• UBS Investment Bank
• Bank of America
• Wachovia Securities
• SunTrust Bank Inc.
• Morgan Keegan
• Harris Williams & Co.
• Bear Sterns & Co. Inc. (yes, I know)

In terms of Investment Management - Private Wealth Management, Owen is a core school for many top firms and receives regular visits for company information sessions & interviews on campus. This field is definitely more "niche" in terms of the finance students at Owen pursuing it. It is quite harder to get into (than banking) just by sheer numbers perspective (i.e. Top Wall Street banks have thousands of bankers in the U.S., but only a few hundred PWM professionals.) Here are some firms that have hired Owen interns for Investment Management (PWM) functions this upcoming summer:

• Goldman Sachs
• Morgan Stanley
• Credit Suisse
• JPMorgan

Many more finance students at Owen tend to follow the corporate finance, general management, and various rotational programs at many Fortune 500 companies. Here are just some of the firms that have hired Owen interns for these functions this upcoming summer:

• Exxon / Mobil
• Citigroup
• Black & Decker
• Dell Inc.
• Procter & Gamble
• Bank of America
• AT&T
• Caterpillar
• Emerson
• The Thomson Corporation
• GE
• Pfizer

In short, there are plenty of great opportunities awaiting you at Owen if you are passionate about a career in finance. And that's all you can ever ask for in life...an opportunity.

Waste of space

While we enjoy our “Spring Break” at Vanderbilt, it has been great to take some time off from school, do a little bit of traveling, and actually reading a book for my own pleasure (rather than for a class).

This break has reminded me of this time last year, when I was reading & studying any MBA-prep material and on-line course I could get my hands on in order to best prepare myself for Owen. Oh, how "unintelligent" I was back then...Now, I have realized that the BEST way to prepare yourself for your MBA at Vanderbilt is to relax and enjoy yourself...I repeat: relax and enjoy!

Once this 2-year sprint begins in August, you will know exactly what I mean and you will treasure every moment of "break" from school. Please don't worry about any pre-MBA courses or materials; they will teach you everything you need to know once you get here.

And who said Cricket players are not tough...

How "international" is Owen?

Often times I receive questions/concerns about the lack of international flavor at Owen. Here is a recent example of how "international" Owen truly is:

Now, why did I put up all these flags? In our current Derivatives class at Owen, these are the nationalities that make up our study group of 5 students: a Chinese, an American, a Turk, an Icelander, and a Greek. Just thought you might like to know...

MBA Internship Search

It is arguably the single most important element of one’s MBA education…that highly coveted summer internship. It is now mid-January, and the MBA internship hunt is in full force. It is indeed true: a hunt. Thousands of intelligent, determined, and highly-ambitious MBAs all over the world are hunting down for the “perfect” summer internship. The stakes are very high, since landing the right summer internship is crucial in terms of future employment for an MBA student. Why? It is simply a matter of economics: supply and demand.

Studies show that it is actually harder to land a MBA summer internship than it is to land a full-time job after graduation, because firms generally hire a very small amount of summer interns. Moreover, firms generally select the bulk of their full-time MBA hires from their summer intern pool, hence we can look at the summer internship as a 10-week interview where both you and the firm size each other up to determine if this is a good relationship. Now, what is a young MBA student to do, to distinguish him/herself from the pack? Here are my suggestions:

• Handle yourself professionally - As young MBA students, we will be regarded to even higher standards than our peers, because we need to prove to the recruiters that we are professional and mature enough to handle the rigors of a MBA summer internship. This part includes the e-mails as well, as they are very important and can make or break your internship opportunities. Always proofread your e-mails.
• Network, network, network - I can’t stress this enough. Alumni are your best source to start your networking efforts, but you will need to branch out eventually. Do NOT concentrate your networking efforts on one firm only. Get in touch with all the major firms in your industry in order to get different perspectives. This will help you tremendously during the interview process, when a recruiter asks you why you are interested in her firm. You can go ahead and talk about the differences you have noticed after talking to many professionals in various firms.
• Don’t be a company-sucker - What do I mean by that? Many MBAs (inevitably) go after a firm mainly because of the brand name of the firm. While it is true that some firms are better “resume-builders” than others, I highly recommend that you pick an industry/business function and follow all the firms that operate in it. If you are applying for a job in Company X only because of the firm’s overall reputation, it will show during the interview process and you will be eliminated. Your interest in the industry and the other firms in it show Company X that you are serious about being in this business.
• Don’t give up - Many alumni & recruiters will try to talk you out of it. They will tell you that you might not be cut out for this type of business because you don’t have enough experience. What they are actually trying to do is to see how you will react. If you have talked to enough professionals in the business, you will have encountered at least one person who comes from a similar background as you do. So, tell the recruiter about them. Tell them: “If he/she can do it, so can I.”

Remember to have your “story” down, and make it interesting. Recruiters interview many similar MBA students, and you want them leaving your school with only one interview in mind - yours!

Disclaimer: This post has also been featured on YoungMBA.net

How I spent 18 hours at school...

Finals are over.  Thank God!  However, they were not pain-free.  That is why I wanted to share my last Wednesday (Dec 19th) with anyone who might be interested.

We had our core Operations final Wednesday morning at 8 a.m., hence I walked into Owen at 7:30.  Little did I know that I would be spending the next 18 hours in the very same building (with only a couple of breaks for lunch and dinner) with absolutely no coffee.  Most of my buddies were done with their finals after Operations, however a few of us lucky ones had another one to go Thursday morning - Investments.

That is why me and a couple of my study friends for Investments set up shop in the library, while most of our friends were enjoying all sorts of alcoholic beverages around Nashville and were frequently texting & calling me (thanks Pat, Wild Bill, Meara, Brooks, Ami) whether to support our studying efforts or to make fun of us.

In the end, we stayed at Owen until 1:30 a.m. that night and realized once again that b-school does not come without sacrifice.  Oh, and I forgot to mention that a couple of our friends (taking the same class) actually slept at school that night.

One quick of advice for all the prospective Owen students: be prepared for the journey.

Fun Fact of the Day: Chuck Norris’ calendar goes straight from March 31st to April 2nd; no one fools Chuck Norris.

Town Hall

What is this Town Hall about?  Well it is clearly one of the reasons why I chose to come to Owen.  Right now, I am sitting in the biggest classroom at Owen with my fellow first-year classmates and we are discussing any issues we have faced so far with Owen's curriculum.

This is a faculty-free meeting where all willing first-year students can get together and discuss any curriculum related issues with one another.  We have OSGA members present, who then will take these issues to faculty representatives.

Owen is certainly a great school and has a tremendous curriculum, however every school has issues with its curriculum and it is very hard to make everyone happy.  What I like about Owen is the fact that we are actually trying to improve it for the better good of future incoming classes.  We don't just get through the classes, receive our grades, and move on.  Instead, we try to pinpoint any problems we might have faced during our time at Owen so far, and make it a better learning environment for all.

I am truly glad that I chose to come to Owen.  I am very proud of my school and fellow students!

One year after admissions...

After I attended the recent Discover Weekend for Owen and met many prospective students, I have been in touch with quite a few of them via e-mail.  This has led me to think about about my application process which had come to an end right around this time last year.  I remember sending in my application to every b-school in my target list by mid-November and anxiously waiting to hear back from them.  Looking back to the whole process, it just seems such a long time ago.

I realize that this time of the year is quite a busy one for prospective b-school students, and I have a few suggestions:

• If you haven't already submitted your applications, do so as early as you can.
• Do not be discouraged if you get wait-listed at a particular school.  Just keep in contact with the admissions office and reiterate your interest.  Make sure that they remember your name when the time comes to call people from the wait list.
• Talk to as many current students as you can, and make sure that schools are the right fit for you in terms of culture, curriculum, and recruiting.
• Try your hardest to interview in person.  It is much more effective than interviewing over the phone.
• Treat your interviews as a conversation rather than an interrogation.
• After you get admitted to your dream school, just sit back and relax.  Finish your time at your current job and take a nice summer vacation. Do NOT worry about polishing your finance & accounting skills for the start of b-school.  Just enjoy your time off; trust me you are going to be a lot busier at b-school than you are at your current job.

I hope this helps slightly.  If you have any questions or concerns about Owen, please feel free to contact me.

Fun Fact of the Day: Chuck Norris doesn't wear a watch, HE decides what time it is.

More turkey jokes? Anyone?

This past week was indeed a very important one at Owen.  Why?  Because we had a full week OFF!  As you know, it also marked Thanksgiving week.

Being from Turkey, this is always a special time for me as there is never a shortage of turkey jokes that come my way.  Frankly, I do not understand why people refer to Thanksgiving as "Turkey day" and wish each other a "Happy Turkey day."  I just want to make one thing clear: turkey = a bird, Turkey = a country.  Therefore, please refer to Thanksgiving as "turkey day" and not "Turkey day." :)

Before I forgot, if you have any more turkey jokes, please save them until next year.

Fun Fact of the Day: Benjamin Franklin wanted the turkey to be America's national bird.