|
|
 UNDERGRADSMain Page2007 RankingsAdmissions Q&AsCareer Q&AsUndergrad ForumReading ListRecruiter Q&AsSchool Report CardsSchool ToursUndergrad 24-7Undergrad VideosNews HeadlinesPREMIUM CONTENT
| |
SEPTEMBER 2002 MBA JOURNAL: INTRODUCTION Rich Morris: Who I Am, and Why B-School Is for Me "From everything I hear and read, the knowledge you gain from the experiences shared by your classmates is as important as the theory you are taught in school. That's what I'm looking for." Things weren't always so clear, however. My interest in business initially started as a meandering quest to become a Wall Street hotshot that began during my freshman year at Boston University. Okay, make that my sophomore year. I spent my first two semesters dabbling in liberal arts courses like Bioastronomy and Political Philosophy. While the study of alien life and Social Contract Theorists was interesting, in my eyes it wasn't exactly getting me any closer to landing a "real" job, whatever that meant. So I transferred to the School of Management, hoping to enter the exciting world of high finance. Finance - that sure sounded real. The only problem was, I had no idea what it entailed. I knew it involved fancy suits and expense accounts, though, and that was good enough for me. Three years later, I emerged with my "real" degree and moved back home to New Jersey to begin my quest for my first million. My job search basically entailed sending resumes to any position that had "Wall Street" in the job description. And that's precisely where I ended up - 67 Wall St. to be exact. I took a position as a junior broker at a company called M.S. Farrell & Co. Okay, stockbroker - now there's a job to sink your teeth into. If Charlie Sheen could do it, there's no way I wouldn't be putting the down payment on a Ferrari by Columbus Day. My Gordon Gekko was right around the corner. Piece of cake, right? I lasted 12 hours. That's it. One day of relentless cold calls and sales pitches was all it took to make me realize that I wasn't cut out to be the next Bud Fox. Or Bud Bundy, for that matter. Suddenly, social contract theory wasn't sounding all that bad. So, with visions of instant riches dashed and an ego badly bruised, I cut my losses on the Street and began looking for jobs that didn't involve harassing millionaires during dinner. I bounced around a little until I was offered a position in the Retirement Services division at Prudential Investments as a benefits representative. While not quite as sexy as "Rich Morris - Wall Street Mogul", it did offer a steady paycheck, which was more than I had at the time, so I accepted. I spent the next year-and-a-half dealing with pensioners and filling my head with exciting terms like ERISA, 403b, and IRA Rollover. Actually, I did learn a lot during my tenure there, but I also realized that it was not something I wanted to make a career of. So, deciding to see if maybe the investment world had something to offer other than a headache, I transferred to the investment management division as a portfolio accountant. Equity, options, futures - now we're talking! While the position itself wasn't quite as exhilarating as some of the terminology, it did allow me to get my feet wet and really start to understand the business. Just walking around the trading floors and interacting with the portfolio managers was exciting, and made me realize that Wall Street was more than fancy suits and freewheeling brokers. Investing, especially on such a large scale, involved extensive, meticulous research, highly trained professionals, and dedicated support staff. And yes, gobs and gobs of money. But the point is, I finally found something that stuck. I've spent the past four years in various roles in the asset management units at Prudential and, presently, Morgan Stanley. My current position as a performance analyst deals with the elusive question of "What drives investment returns?" My job is to gather, analyze, and present portfolio and market returns, and factors that cause one to outperform the other. It's somewhat of a nebulous position, with facets that involve operations and marketing, but it's interesting and offers great insight into the investment process. So why am I returning to school? That's the easy part. Keggers and chicks! Just kidding. My time in investment management has made me realize that it is a challenging, educational, and highly rewarding business. My goal is to pursue a career in research and portfolio management. The ability to pick good companies, along with implementing sound investment strategies, is what drives success in this industry. And for me, that's the exciting part. To get to the point, though, where I can evaluate the strength of a company, be it an agricultural plant in Idaho or a chipmaker in Tokyo. And to do that, I need to have a more thorough knowledge of how they operate. That's where an MBA comes in. And in my case, a full-time program is the way to go. I can't think of a better way to gain business insight than spending two years studying management with intelligent, motivated people from every imaginable industry. From everything I hear and read, the knowledge you gain from the experiences shared by your classmates is as important as the theory you are taught in school. That's what I'm looking for. Why Carnegie Mellon? Well, they accepted me, which was a big selling point. Also, GSIA has an excellent finance program and a heavy quantitative focus - two musts for someone in my field. Two other aspects of GSIA's curriculum that really interested me were the mini-semesters that allows students to take (gulp) eight classes a semester [read: tons of electives!] and Management Game. Management Game is a two-semester class where students get to run a simulated company, complete with presentations to an actual board of directors. That just sounds cool. Ultimately, I think it all comes down to "fit" and "feel". If I could give one piece of advice to aspiring applicants, it would be to really get to know the schools you are applying to. Don't just read the brochures, and don't strictly depend on rankings (sorry, BusinessWeek!). Visit the campuses. Contact current students. Talk to alumni. I was fortunate enough to have a (now former) senior employee at my firm who had been a professor at GSIA and who shared invaluable insight into the program, the school, the students, etc. Just be sure you are making an informed decision, because it is a big one. And an expensive one - just ask my mother.  Get BusinessWeek directly on your desktop with our RSS feeds.  Add BusinessWeek news to your Web site with our headline feed. Click to buy an e-print or reprint of a BusinessWeek or BusinessWeek Online story or video. To subscribe online to BusinessWeek magazine, please click here. Learn more, go to the BusinessWeekOnline home page  | | SEPTEMBER Learn about your online education options |
 Copyright 2002, Bloomberg L.P.Terms of Use | Privacy Policy |
MBA Insider
Printer-Friendly Version
