We started class again after Memorial Day in New York City with Mr. John Rogan, Managing Director at Russell Reynolds Associates. The firm is known to exclusively recruit executive positions for many of the top companies globally, including Coca-Cola and Bank of America.
This is the sixth in a series of 10 blogs chronicling the experiences of 31 Global Master of Finance (GMF) dual degree students during their two week long immersion course in Washington, DC and New York. Each blog will be written by a small subset of students during their experience.
Mr. Rogan spoke to us about current trends in hiring, the importance of casting a wide net for your first job, and highlighted the skills important to move up the ladder. Our professor Richard Ryffel also pointed out the importance of networking in a meaningful and impactful way instead of simply inviting people on LinkedIn.
Danny Meyer
Although we wish we had a Shake Shack burger for lunch today (the line was rather discouraging), something more wonderful happened. We had the chance to meet one of our very own–Danny Meyer. Mr. Meyer is a hospitality entrepreneur originally from St. Louis and CEO of Union Square Hospitality Group. Danny shared with us Union Square’s culture of hospitality, which in his opinion is the key to many aspects of his business.
When asked about how he view challenges and difficulties in expanding his business, Danny used an interesting metaphor related to surfing: Problems in business are like waves for surfers; they will keep coming. But if you love surfing, you will learn to ride the waves.
After paying a short visit to the original Shake Shack location, we were off to Goldman Sachs for the last stop of the day. The guest speaker, Mr. Mark Dehnert, is an experienced investment banking veteran and a Washington University alum. He is now the Managing Director of Goldman Sachs Execution & Clearing.
With extensive experience in derivatives trading, quantitative research, and algorithmic trading (e.g. High Frequency Trading), Mr. Dehnert was able to elaborate on a wide range of issues, from market news to how social networking has played a role in trading. For instance, Mr. Dehnert pointed out how trading has evolved to become more statistically oriented, as compared to days past when intuitions had a bigger role in driving trading decisions. Programming skills are highly preferred for graduate job candidates, when integration among front desk trading, quantitative research, and programming continue to deepen.
Mr. Dehnert also mentioned the increase in compliance cost associated with regulatory reform in the post-crisis era. Banks are forced to pass the cost to market in the form of higher bid-ask spread, which decreased market liquidity. In the worst cases, banks simply chose to exit businesses because of the excessive capital requirements, which resonated with what we heard from Mr. Richard Choi in Washington, D.C. on the first leg of the trip.
Guest Bloggers: Joshua Joseph, Yuan (Scotty) Hou, Amy Yu (GMF 2015)
Images from Union Square Hospitality Group website.
