Your chance to help me....

So this is where the readers of my blog - should there be any these days - can help me out. Here's my dilemma:

I would like to obtain an internship for the summer. I prefer to work in equity research, portfolio management or proprietary trading - focused on portfolio management. The problem is that my current work experience comes from 7 years in the engineering field at two fortune 500 companies.

I'm not worried about meeting contacts in the business. UW can hook me up there - that's why I am here. What I am a little bit worried about it my blank resume, as far as professional experience in investing is concerned (I have lots of personal experience, but they are different). As compared to others, my experience is limited.

So, what should I focus on during my resume?

What other tips can you out there offer? Anyone else gone through a similar experience?

This just in - B-School isn't ALL about the books!

In reality, you go to either
a) Change careers and do something you like or
b) To further your current career

So, you study and worry about exams and spend countless cash on books that will be mere paperweights in months, not even years. When...

The reality is - it's about your resume and who knows you (note that this IS different than the "who you know" thing that people always talk about).

Your resume is important, and you need to focus on finding, or if you possess confidence and perseverance - creating - a job. It's also about networking. And, at some schools, you just get "networking" as part of the package, whether you want it or not - and it's FUN. 'Sconnie (that's yet another nickname for Wisconsin) is one of those schools - even Sports Illustrated calls it the best college sports town in America. And, for a more recent article on "networking" in Madtown, check out Luke Winn's article on today's version of CNNSI.com.

WISCONSIN 23
MICHIGAN 20

I think I did 11 hours of homework today...

Just brutal. Accounting - 5.5 hours, Finance - 4 hours, Marketing - .5 hrs, misc - 1 hr.

Gotta keep up with the stuff, or I'll get lost. But, I'm tired now, and class starts up again in 10 hrs.

Meanwhile, my fantasy football teams are now 2-1 and 0-3. I love/hate that silly game!

Adam Smith would be proud...

I'm sleepy. I still feel disorganized, make that routineless. That's actually a good thing. The day goes fast. This is something that didn't happen to me while in my previous life as an engineer - where I lived Dilbert^3.

The big difference is that, despite my non-stop feeling of never having everything done, I relish in the fact that everything I'm doing is for me again. It's not to make some manager look good to some other manager who just wants to look good... In fact, life in the huge corporate cog is like looking into a kaleidoscope seeing managers everywhere. Half of them are idiots. Rather, they are probably fairly smart people who make idiotic decisions for emotional reasons which they are unaware of.

My ultimate goal is to be a philanthropist, but even that is for selfish reasons in many ways. So today, and for my next 21 months in b-school, my studies are for me. Adam Smith would be so proud...

Right into the fire...

Today we had the pleasure of attending the Director's Summit - an event that spans two days and discusses issues concerning corporate governance.

I had a chance to meet some interesting people, investment professionals, corporate board members, and a CEO of a small cap company traded on the Nasdaq.

I also had a chance to listen to a presentation about the Nasdaq / Reuters joint venture called the Independent Research Network (IRN). The idea for the IRN is to provide unbiased analyst coverage of stocks that have little or no coverage. It was an interesting idea, but not one without issues that need to be worked out. Overall, I believe that something does need to be done to make equity research a little more unbiased, so I had quite a bit of interest in the topic, despite the fact that some of it was over my head.

It's going fast. Just 6 weeks ago I was still an Engineer. Suddenly I'm in the securities business. Sort of. It's fun, and slightly intimidating at the same time.

But I wouldn't be here if I didn't love this stuff...and if it were easy, everyone would be doing it.

Panera Bread (PNRA) it is...

Our group will be using Panera Bread as the firm of study for the semester in all of our core classes: Finance, Accounting, and Marketing.

The MBA program moved operations to the 2nd semester, thus we won't be studying that this semester like last year.

Woo hoo! Cinnamon Crunch bagels are now homework. How awesome is that?????

Class has started

I started off the b-school career in great fashion - Finance. It turns out we get to follow a stock all year through the core, and our group is supposed to know all about it. I don't care what we do, as long as it's not a boring stock. I'll update you on what it will be.

Last weekend I spent my time driving through Chicago, which actually wasn't to bad for once, en route to Grand Rapids, Michigan. Then it was on to Manistee, Michigan. Then Pontiac, Michigan. Then Milwaukee, WI, then back to Madtown.



It was a long, long trip. But - I drafted a good fantasy football team, anchored by Peyton Manning, Domanick Davis, and Curtis Martin (Yeah, I know...how??? - I wonder that myself, since my league has 10 guys, all who've played for more than 7 years).

As for our big ASAP (Applied Security Analysis Program) field trip - well, it turns out that it is a go. I still am hesitant to discuss the details for now, but if and when it happens, rest assured the world will get its information!

The apartment is coming together. It's still not great, but it's getting close. Now, I just need to figure out how the constant outflow of cash can be slowed!