New York City DOJ Trip

One of the offices we visited in Lower Manhattan

One of the biggest criticisms of Anderson and a factor in why it isn't ranked higher as a full-time MBA program is that such a large percentage of students end up accepting jobs on the west coast.  There is a combination of factors at play here.  Part of the reason is that students enjoy Southern California, and the west coast in general, and want to stay out there.  However, less students looking for jobs in other parts of the country, diminishes the number of companies from other parts of the country from recruiting on campus.  This limits the number of students from the east coast (who know they want to return there post-graduation from applying or enrolling), which could lower the overall level of student body.  A lower quality student body could further hurt the school reputation and impact companies from recruiting on campus.  Less companies recruiting on campus, means more students will end up accepting local jobs.  It's a sick cycle carousel.  This isn't a significant factor in many industries, but the one it does affect the most is in finance, where companies are most heavily concentrated in New York (and to a lower extent, Chicago, Boston, or Charlotte).

One of the goals of the career center to reverse these trends (and being spearheaded by the Anderson Investment Association) is to create stronger connections between Anderson and the investment community on the east coast.  So for the first time this year, Anderson had an Investment Management "Days on the Jobs" (DOJ) trip to New York.  DOJs have existed at Anderson in a variety of industries in a variety of cities, and involve a group of students visiting a number of firms in a day (or over a course of multiple days) to meet management and learn more about specific companies and industries.  It is supposed to be a more personal setting than when recruiters come to campus and go through a standard Power Point slide deck in one of our classrooms.  These aren't recruiting trips because the companies aren't necessarily hiring, but it is supposed to create relationships and increase students' education of the industry. 

Our trip was organized as a two day, six firm visit on the first Wednesday and Thursday of winter break (December 14th and 15th) and around 25 students signed up. I flew into JFK Airport late Tuesday night, and early Wednesday morning I hopped on the LIRR donning my best suit (not saying much) with business cards in hand.  On the first day we visited with Credit Suisse, Oaktree Capital, and Ares Capital.  The meetings were informative, but Credit Suisse was the only one who said they would be hiring over the next year.

The second day we met with SunAmerica in Jersey City and a small startup hedge fund, Loch Cliff.  I found these a lot more interesting than the previous day's visits.  SunAmerica had four people meet with us including the Chief Investment Officer, the head of trading, and two portfolio managers.  The hedge fund was the type of place I would most be interested in working at, and I enjoyed their talk the most because they were especially open and honest about their investment strategies.  Alas, neither of these companies are currently hiring.  There was a third visit with a fixed income shop scheduled, but I wasn't as interested so I didn't go there, and instead met up with my parents for a Christmasy fun evening in the city.

I left my resume with Credit Suisse, and have since contacted someone with SunAmerica, but I don't necessarily expect these visits to lead to my next job.  Still, it was an enjoyable trip.  The weather was good for a lot of walking around the city. I got to spend some time with some of the 2nd years that I don't normally hang out with, and it was nice meeting all the first years (they made up the majority of the group).  I'll probably be working with a lot of the 1st years on various AIA events and a bunch of them will be the new class of SIF, so its good to get to know them now.

Despite enjoying the trip, I was also relieved to be done with the visits, because in my mind that marked the unofficial start to my winter break vacation.