Skipping the States

(page 2 of 2)

John Clayton Condon
Analyst, ExxonMobil Qatar Inc.
BS, Class of May 2005
University of Arizona Eller College of Management

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6 p.m.—An urgent request from Houston comes in by e-mail, and then a follow-up phone call almost immediately. After a short search, I find what I am looking for, check quickly to make sure the information is still current, and then send it off. Most of my responsibilities are eventually tied to some sort of cash-flow analysis.

7 p.m.—After sending off a few last e-mails to Houston, I am out of the office. Today, things are going well, so I make it out before 8 p.m.

7:30 p.m.—I go for a run along the Doha Corniche and then head to a friend’s house to work on plans for an upcoming vacation to Oman. Depending on the day and my motivation level, I usually head to the gym for a couple hours after work.

11 p.m.—Always up later than I should be, I send e-mails and talk on Skype in order to touch base with friends and family back home. When I do go to bed, I’m out like a light.

Like most new hires, I started in an industry in which I did not have any specific experience. It can be daunting, at first, when you start working on something you know nothing about, but by digging into industry publications and asking as many questions as you can, it is surprising how quickly you can learn. As you build that knowledge it allows you to better understand what drives the business. Being able to hear or read something, understand what could happen as a result, and then how that could impact your business only comes after you start to develop a base of industry knowledge. Business classes help to ground you in the fundamentals, but be ready to keep on learning long after you show up for the first day of your job.

In the mix of work on any given day are: long-term analysis projects, quick analyses to follow up on management questions, reading through terms of new contracts to update a model, and glancing over industry publications to gather market intelligence. The work is never the same, and rarely dull. If it ever is, I just have to look out my window and remember that I am living in the Middle East and getting to experience a whole different culture.

John Clayton Condon can be reached at claycondon@hotmail.com.