I guess I have not written for quite some time...
Where to start? With the obvious, I guess. I graduated - that explains why my website is lacking in some of its original graphics. As my email account and online webspace has been cancelled, these pictures are missing! so sorry, people...
I went to China for a few weeks on a MET course (great fun!). It was the first time I went out on an extended trip with a load of English students. When we went out to eat, usually, the guide and the Chinese speaking phd students and academics from Cambridge would go out meet their friends. So I was the only person who could speak Mandarin and Cantonese out of almost 30 people. It was actually lots of fun as I was doing all the translating and brokering group discounts with the locals (they actually thought I was their tour guide and wanted me to bring more business!).
I also completed this corporate finance internship. Although I was dealing with corporations, it was unfortunately not half as interesting as my previous Deutsche Bank internship in operations. At Deutsche, at least I got to get to know my colleagues better - we'd go for drinks time to time, where as here, it was all just work and very little banter in the office. Plus, the only thing I did was to research prospective clients that we could pitch to and create profiles and info books.
Researching was actually quite challenging in its own right - you realise that it does not just entail looking in Google (esp for private firms), but mastering a plethora of financial research tools such as Bloomberg and Datastream... and then using judgement to rule out what you think is not right and then finally painting your own picture of the company and how it is doing... there is actually a lot to learn.
And then there is all the delegation - getting the presentation, printing and research support teams to do what you want in a short amount of time. That is a task in itself and often you get something back that you didn't want because you didn't specify something correctly - always frustrating for both sides.
Although the experience is good (after a while, it'll probably plateau though), I think it gets really tedious very soon. My view is that you are bogged down at this analyst stage for two years without enough top level exposure that management consulting offers. And did I mention that in corporate finance, it would not be surprising if you get treated like crap? (depends on your boss of course...). And, of course, the notorious nocturnhours... So, at the end of the day, I have decided that this is not what I want.
So, to anyone out there applying to corp fi, if you think that the money (expect over twice more than what you get from other careers after bonus and tax), prestige and experience way exceeds the negative side, by all means go for it. But, you'll have to get that Proplus (or similar) out for the long haul, grow a thick skin to take the abuse, and above all, understand what you are getting into.
