Can I do this full-time?

-This past week has been the busiest so far at school. Apparently it is one of the roughest weeks in the first semester at Sloan and I am happy to note that I came away unscathed. I even managed to go out Wednesday nite (3 shots of Jaeger and 3 beers), Thu nite, and Friday nite until 2 am. Work hard, party hard people!

-It is a shame that my life has become so MIT Sloan centric. The Sloan building sits like 50 metres from the Charles River and I have NOT even gone once to sit on the banks and enjoy the weather and the water. I need to do more of that. The weather has been super great so far here in Boston/Cambridge.

-There was a nice article today on ESPN.com by the Sports Guy on Manny Ramirez. He captured how I felt as a Manny 'fan' very well. Do read it when you get a chance.

-So my team (of three) participated in the MIT Sloan "Stock Pitch" competition today. None of us has had any background in Asset Management prior to Sloan so it was a great experience preparing for it. I spent 4h on Friday, 12h on Saturday, and 4h on Sunday (today ..errr yesterday) preparing for it with my team. The best part: it did not feel like we 'worked'. I skipped two parties to keep prepping and really enjoyed it. Our pitch I thought was ok. We pitched Dick Sporting Goods (DKS) and went "short" on it. We did not win it (two first year teams were declared winners) but came away with a feeling of accomplishment. We learnt how retail firms work, how different macro-economic factors affect their revenue, and how other factors like Inventory per square foot affect growth. Good times, good times!

So the question is, if I choose a Investment Management career, can I do this full-time? Will I enjoy it? Let's see.

-This past week also had two Banks (names withheld) visit the Sloan campus. I had to dress up in a suit and go attend the presentations. It was an interesting experience. I specifically spoke to people in Investment Management at both Banks and avoided people in Trading and Banking. But of course, one of my classmates gets hold of me and takes me to listen to one of the banker guys. And it was great. This guy was in charge of Energy M&A for the US and Europe. I loved the job description and the exciting things he was doing in doing due dilligence for Renewable Energy firms. Only problem with Banking is the lifestyle and I am definitely not into 100 h work weeks. It's a pity.

-I also had the distinct pleasure of watching myself on tape while delivering a presentation. B school communication courses do that to improve your presentation skills. It was another interesting experience. I used "um" quite a bit and seemed to be smacking my lips a lot (had not had enough water I think). And there are other things to improve as well.

-This coming week we have two Investment Management firms visiting Sloan, then there are the VC talks midweek, energy related talks, and MIT Energy night.

later

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