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AUGUST 1999 MBA JOURNAL: SUMMER INTERNSHIP Raghu Ponnapalli: Learning in the Real World Classroom
My First Day on the Job ABN Amro's offices are located in what's known as the City (a reference to London's financial district). It's an area in East-Central London that is packed with investment banks and law firms. I arrived at the offices at 9 a.m. sharp and was greeted by one of the directors in FIG (financial institutions group, the group I was hired to join.) This cluster concentrates on the banking and insurance sector globally. Its main goal is to advise companies on mergers & acquisitions, as well as helping with financing issues. Since this was the first time that ABN had run a summer internship program, there were no formal training or rotation processes in place. I was starting with only one other summer associate (also from LBS) and two other full-time associates. After meeting all of my colleagues and taking a tour of the offices and research library, we got right down to work. I was assigned to help a director with research for a pitch he was preparing that was due that Friday. I was given a company to research, and I had to use as many resources as I could to present a clear picture of the status and strategy of this firm. Needless to say, the learning curve was steep. An accounting background is a huge asset in this business, since a lot of time is spent analyzing company accounts. The accounting courses I took at LBS gave me some measure of confidence that I was doing things right. Still, I wish I had paid even more attention in those classes, since I realized that there was a lot I didn't know. On the other hand, all the practice I gained during the year writing strategy and marketing papers came in real handy. Some of the analysis, concepts, and terminology that go into writing a pitch were remarkably similar to what I had learned in those classes. My first day ended at 1:30 a.m., and the project had only started. It wasn't anything like I had expected: No fancy lunches or welcome drinks, just hard work (although the fancy lunches would come later). The rest of the week went much the same as the first day, with Thursday being the worst (working from 8 a.m. to 4:30 a.m. the next day). Did I like the hours? No. But I did learn an enormous amount about the fundamental work that occurs in M&A in that first week. As far as I was concerned, this was better than any training program. The summer is so short as it is, I didn't want to waste a couple of weeks in a classroom. My colleagues were always there to help me when I had a question, and I prefer the on-the-job training. Going Live After my second week, my supervisors felt that I had gained enough exposure to the research and pitching side of the business, and they put me to work on a live transaction instead. A company we were working for was interested in selling off the pieces of a major subsidiary. The pieces were in Germany, France, Spain, and Belgium. Two other associates and one director were working with me on this deal, and off we went, flying around Europe, learning about the company, meeting with executives, and doing our due diligence. This deal was a great learning opportunity for me. I was able to work on almost every aspect from gathering the information, to writing the sales documents, to working on the valuation of the subsidiary. Analysis wasn't all I was exposed too either. The human element was also extremely interesting.... There were all types of personalities involved in this deal, and some had competing interests. Some were trying to resist change, others were pushing for a quick resolution to issues, and still others just made life difficult (it was very hard to persuade the French executives to come in on weekends). Bringing together so many people from four different cultures in Europe and trying to organize and present one coherent vision was challenging to say the least! Here I was, operating in a multicultural environment, with real business issues on the line. I don't believe that any classroom training could have taught me how to behave and adapt in these kinds of situations. If I were to have started on a job like this a year ago, I would have felt out of place. But because of my year at LBS, and because of the very nature of the school, I felt prepared. Those of you reading this journal entry who have doubts about the value of international exposure during your MBA, let me set you straight: It's valuable. Trust me, this comes from first-hand experience. Working on this project was physically grueling, I rarely got home before 2 a.m., regardless of which city I was in. I was working every weekend as well as doing a couple of all-nighters. But the process was worth it simply because I learned such an immense amount from it. Moving Again By my eighth week, our work on the transaction was over, and I was allowed a rotation to the debt capital markets (DCM) area. This was an area I had been interested in earlier in the year, and I wanted to gain some exposure to it. DCM was located on the fixed income trading floor. A lot of my time in my previous job had involved working in a support role on the trading floor, and it felt very familiar to be coming back here. When I told some of my new colleagues what I had been up to in M&A, they shook their heads and told me: "There are easier ways to make money." I spent a lot of time on the fixed income floor (extending my summer internship by two weeks) and got to rotate through DCM, credit trading, and credit derivatives. This was a pretty relaxed time for me -- there was no real hard work, just time spent listening in on sales calls and learning about all the different fixed income products. Once, a director in DCM told me that he needed help putting together a pitch for a large sterling issue. He told me that we would be working late, so I assumed he meant after midnight. Imagine my relief when at 7 p.m., he turned to me and said: "OK, we're done. Let's go home." Summer's Conclusion My summer ended with an informal party thrown by my colleagues in FIG. I left the company having had a great experience and a comprehensive exposure to M&A and fixed income in one go. I feel the experience was invaluable. You really have to set your expectations correctly before you make a decision about whether or not to get into investment banking. It's hard to do that, if you can't experience it firsthand. Investment banking is a career which requires a huge sacrifice in terms of time and lifestyle, and the summer enabled me to decide on which areas I want to focus on within the industry.  Raghu Ponnapalli  | | [an error occurred while processing this directive] Learn about your online education options |
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