Friday, July 13, 2007

Columbia MBA - Conversation with a recent Alum

Talked to a Columbia 2004 MBA class alum today on the phone.

-She is currently employed at a HUGE insurance firm on buy side research.

-She had good things to say about her current job and why she chose research despite having worked for an IBank before enrolling at Columbia. I joked with her that I was aiming for a career from which she has run away!

-According to her IBanking is not for everyone, it is pretty intense and she wanted to have a life apart from work.

-She did say that the areas I am interested in: Energy and Commodities are pretty interesting.

-She thought that my background would be a good fit with Columbia

-I told her that I was concerned about the fact that I would be a career changer and have a PhD. Her response to that was: in her Cohort about 50% of the people were career changers. She thought the fact that they dont have too many PhDs is a correlation not a causality. So I would be ok.

-Apparently, the fact that I have an engineering background would we welcomed at Columbia as they like a diverse background

-She also gave me a few tips on how to handle the interview

-She also asked me get my essays checked by people in the financial sector that I intended to be in.

It was a very positive conversation and it ended with her saying that I could contact her anytime for more questions.

Time to start with the essays. This weekend, I should get going.

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