moments of truth...

Last week it was used car salesman week. We had banks, consultancies, and big industry companies coming to campus to present themselves and try to attract the brightest minds of yesterday, today and tomorrow: MBA students. In the so-called milkround, companies tour the top business schools on Earth trying to lure students with promises of bright careers, high compensation packages, challenging workplaces, and so on.

Myself, I am trying to decide now what to do. Finance careers look interesting, but I lack any experience in the industry. An Investment Banking internship would, therefore, be a great way to learn more and also a door to enter as a full-time associate later, if I perform well. I am not 100% convinced that I can 'fit' easily in a bank, though. Moreover, the current bullish markets suggest that there will be a slowdown in M&A activity (or corporate finance activity, in general), which might lead many banks to cut back their hires in the near term. Pity, it happened in 2001 when I just graduated from engineering school, and it might happen now as well.

I guess the only interesting department where I see myself working in a bank is the advisory business. M&A or corporate finance. Sales & Trading or Capital Markets don't look so interesting to me. This makes the challenge of getting an internship even higher, since M&A is traditionally one of the most competitive careers.

On the social side, I must say that I was greatly impressed by several bankers that I met last week. In the networking events, the people from Morgan Stanley and Lehman Brothers appeared as completely normal human beings, and were very helpful with hints and tips on how to approach the upcoming recruiting season. I guess I wouldn't mind working with such bright, nice folks.

On another front, there have been few strategy consulting firms as well. Some did a terrible job in presenting themselves, appearing as disorganized and pretty chaotic. Others, however, looked really professional and appealing. Given my engineering/management background, I think this is also a very suitable career path for me. And it has a very big advantage: it is much easier to return to Spain, if I wished to.

So, it looks like it's the moment of truth...am I going to do NPVs or two-by-two matrices next summer??