Author: lamirhekma

This year’s Senior Career Panel featured 5 impressive Mawrtyrs from the Class of 2010, who each shared with us their plans for post-graduation, and the paths they each took to get to where they’re going! The panelists provided thorough insight into the process–ranging from applications to jobs, to grad schools, and even to Peace Corp! They discussed the nature of the interviews, with different types of interview styles across various different industries (i.e. the “case” interviews for consulting, the “stress” interviews for finance, etc.), and how to best prepare. Overall, the Senior Class of 2010 Career Panel was a huge success and we are all very proud of the soon-t0-be graduates and their success! Many Thanks and a Big Congratulations to the following panelists for their words of wisdom and encouragement!

Kira Gendlerman
Mgmt Trainee Program
McMaster-Carr
Kgendler@bmc

Yuliya Orlova
Analyst
Analysis group
Yorlova@bmc

Pauline Stern
Econ Masters Program
Oxford Univ
Pstern@bmc

Alyssa Martin
Risk Analyst
Munich Re America
Armartin@bmc

Lucy Sung
Peace Corps
Graduate School in Public Health
Lsung@bmc

Some Key Take-Aways and Words of Advice, regarding the Application Process, Courtesy of the 2010 Panelists:

*Take Initiative! This is something that you have to pursue individually!

*No need to be Selective (most of the panelists applied to a vast number of firms, anywhere from 50-80 and more applications!)

*The importance of Networking **Especially Alumni!

*Reach out beyond CDO!

*Practice and Get Good at Interviewing! Practice talking to people, reading people, interacting with people, etc. *Practice your general answers. Know terminology (especially important for Finance interviews!). Organize your thoughts ahead of time.

*Go to Thinktanks…just get out, Get Exposure! (interview questions often are geared to gage how you can handle stress, your team building skills, leadership skills, experience, strengths & weaknesses, how you work under a boss, the way you interact with a group of people, etc.)

*Grad school –> Necessary that you have some Research background, make use of your summers!

*In general –> Make use of your summers!

*Firms want to see that you actually know that you’re interested in the day to day activities that would be required of you. You must be able to demonstrate that you’ve done your research and that you’re interested.

*Get Started on Application Process Early (start in Fall or sooner!!) 

*Be Organized! Keep a detailed record of what emails were sent out/when/to who, etc.

*Resources/places to find job: Ocean, SLAC (Student Liberal Arts Consortium) = for full time jobs: apply for SLAC by October! =Great for people who don’t know exactly what they want to do, as it features many different firms across a variety of different industries.

*Application Process is a Huge Time Commitment –> treat it like another courseload.

*And, Most Importantly… Don’t Get Discouraged!!! You are all Brilliant, Impressive, and Amazing Women, with a LOT to offer! Just be patient, and stay focused on the future, for the right thing for you will come at the right time 🙂

Tonight, John Griffith, treasurer and CFO of Bryn Mawr College, gave a wonderfully helpful and interesting talk about our school’s endowment. Mr. Griffith discussed the differences between Bryn Mawr (and other similar small liberal arts colleges) versus the larger, well-known universities (Ivy Leagues, Top 10, and state schools). One factor John addressed was that when comparing endowments between schools, it isn’t so much the size of the endowment to look at, but rather the endowment per student. Bryn Mawr carries a 625 million dollar endowment, with a $22,000 endowment per student…while Pomona college (dubbed “the richest school in the country”) boasts a $44,000 endowment per student! Amongst some of the “richest” schools in the country include Williams, Amherst, Grinell, land our very own neighbor, Swarthmore College!

Be sure to join us at next week’s meeting, for Senior Career Panel! Come here about what all your senior friends are doing after they graduate, and pick up some insider tips on how to get a job in the current economy! Look forward to seeing you allll 🙂

**Tonight’s meeting began with a look at the current condition of our stock portfolio.

*China Educational Alliance (a recent addition to our portfolio) has thus far suffered a hefty drop of $300..that being said, analysts have faith that this stock will soon rise again, and continue in an upward trend.

*With the soon-to-be-released iPad, Apple shares have been on the rise.

*Mercadolibre (another recent buy) has also been performing quite well, and with its recent expansion into Portugal, we expect to see a continuous upward trend.

–Thoughts on stocks to sell? EROC? Nokia? Let’s hear your feedback on which stocks you think should stay and which ones should go!

**Lingyi gave an AWESOME presentation in which she pitched a stock soon to be listed on NYSE: KKR group, Kohlberg Kravis Robert & Co. KKR is a NYC-based private equity firm that invests primarily in leverage buyouts (i.e. using debt to acquire companies; high risk type of investment) and growth capital (i.e. helping mature companies grow; low risk type of investment). KKR completed 2 of the largest buyouts to date. KKR has invested in more than 160 companies. As of March 12, KKR has been filing for NYSE, planning to raise $7.5 billion, with the sale of 2.2 billion shares. It’s divisions include Asset Management and KKR Financial. In 2009, KKR’s pro forma net income was $1,953.9 billion. Lingyi believes that KKR will be a strong stock, noting that “as we are coming out of the recession, there will be a number of investment opportunites for private equity firms to take advantage of and profit from.” Great Job!!

**This past weekend, Swarthmore College held the LAX Entrepreneurship Conference. Meldon  attended this day long event, and brought back some very valuable insight to share with our group. She gathered that right now, there are an increading number of different opportunities for entrepreneurs, and particularly within the chemicals industry. Mel noted that her favorite event that day was the highly interactive and engaging twitter conference, where she met with Swarthmore alum and co-founder of Twitter, and was even able to ‘tweet’ her thoughts in real-time throughout the presentation. One particularly important peice of advice that Mel took with her: “D0 your research (and do so extensively!). Meldon will be posting commentary and more insight gathered from the conference in her blog at “Startphilly.com” — a fantastic resource for local entrepreneurs!  Be sure to check out the site, and please make sure to comment on Mel’s stuff! It’s great and quite insightful!! 🙂

**With fewer club donations than expected this year, OIG still had $2,000 left to donate… so, tonight, the members of OIG brainstormed a number of charities that would like to donate to, and then voted on 4 charities, each of which we will be donating $500 to.

And, the winning charities are….

*7 Sisters of China!! *Haiti/Disaster Relief!! *Chile Relief!! *Doctors without Borders!!

Thanks to all those who came out tonight! It was a productive and insightful meeting! Stay tuned for next week, as we have John Griffin (CFO of Bryn Mawr College!!) coming to talk to OIG about Bryn Mawr’s endowment! It’s quite an interesting talk, so be sure to invite friends, bring popcorn, sit back, and enjoy 🙂

See you next week!

This past Friday, March 26th, marked OIG’s Spring 2010 Semester Field Trip! OIG members had a wonderfully busy and informative day of visiting with several Bryn Mawr alumnae, who currently work at some of Philadelphia’s most prominent companies. It was quite inspiring to hear these women offer their perspectives on “Life-post-BMC”, as well as discuss the invaluable experience they had while at Bryn Mawr, and how their college experience truly paved their path to success.

We began our day at Accenture, where several recent graduates of Bryn Mawr presented the business strategies and structural breakdown of one of the largest consulting firms in the world. We later ventured to Sunoco, where we met with a Bryn Mawr alum (along with 2 of her colleagues) who discussed with us the business principles of a Fortune 500 company; in addition to providing us with some very valuable insight, stemming from a long line of success and accomplishments throughout her post-college career. Our final trip was a visit to the Wharton School of Business, at the University of Pennsylvania, where we met with the director of admissions, as well as 3 current MBA students (one of whom was a Mawrtyr!!). The women shared with us their experiences, as well as their reasons for choosing Wharton over other business schools, and provided us with some helpful advice in regards to applying to, and attending, business school.

It was quite an eventful and exciting day for OIG! Thank you to all those who came; please feel free to comment your thoughts and opinions on the trip. Feedback is always greatly appreciated! 

Looking forward to seeing you all at our next meeting!! 🙂

Tonight was Elections night!

It was certainly an emotional night for us all. Each candidate and OIG member who ran for a board position was certainly more than qualified to be apart of the OIG board; it seems almost unfair to elect just one person per position, seeing as each candidate was more than capable of doing an Incredible job! It was truly a wonderful sight to see the dedication, drive, intelligence, and passion that resonated in each of the OIG members. To all those who ran tonight, you should each be very proud of yourselves, for all of you have impacted OIG in more ways than you can imagine. Your presence and role in OIG is invaluable, and although a position title could not be awarded to every member tonight, the fact that each member’s voice is just as important and renders equal impact as any counter member (with or without board title) is undeniable. Thank you again to all those who ran, and thank you to each member of OIG for making our club the amazing and incredible club that it is. Now get excited for OIG  2010-2011!!!! It’s going to be an AMAZINGGG YEAR!!! 🙂

And, of course, a big CONGRATS to the members of the 2010-2011 BOARD OF OIG! CONGRATULATIONS LADIES!!! WOOT! 🙂

PRESIDENT: SASHA BEREZNAK, ’11

PORTFOLIO MANAGER: YUFAN WANG, ’11

SECRETARY: LILLY AMIRHEKMAT, ’11

TREASURER: RUILIN XU, ’11

PUBLICITY CHAIR: SOPHIA ABBOUD, ’12

..it’s going to be a great year ladies! 🙂

 

In addition, some equally exciting news to get pumped for….

THIS FRIDAY (MARCH 26TH) IS OIG’S SPRING SEMESTER FIELD TRIP!!!! YAYYYY!! 🙂  We will be exploring the (financial) heart of Philly….can’t wait!

During tonight’s meeting, we looked at our portfolio (which was down quite a bit… however keep in mind the markets have been VERY volatile –> the Dow fell below 10,000 points today for the first time in 3 months).

Let’s each do research on the stocks we are investing in! Each person should take on at least one of our stocks and research it, look up how it’s doing relative to its competitors, industry news, etc. and bring any info you find to our meetings! *Please see the ‘PORTFOLIO’ section of this blog to see which stocks we are currently investing in! Then, utilize google, as well as any of the websites listed under the ‘LINKS’ tab, as tools to research stocks we are currently investing in… as well as other new ones of course!

**Some stocks we are particularly interested in and looked at this past meeting: Eagle Rock Energy Partners (EROC), Nokia, as well as Infosys (in India) and China Mobile Limited (in China)… lets see if we can gather some more research for our next meeting so that we can further explore our options! (shall we buy? shall we sell? shall we hold?)

KEEPING OUR MAIN GOAL IN MIND: Diversification of Portfolio

-we’re mostly investing in larger companies, but we would like to start looking towards smaller to mid-cap companies to invest in.

-investing in other countries (such as BRIC -Brazil, Russia, India, China**, and other developing countries)

–various industries (right now, we are very focused on technology… I suggest we start looking more into Clean Tech and Energy..)

*Not sure how to decide which stocks to invest in? Nathalie will be presenting how to dissect an article on a stock, and how to act upon it!

IMPORTANT DATES:

**Club Donations –  MARCH 1ST (week before spring break)!

**Elections coming up – 2 weeks after Spring Break!

The lovely ladies of OIG participated in the FANTASY STOCKS LEAGUE, launch to OIG’s portfolio management competition for the semester! Each lady trader’s portfolio consists of $100,000; it is her responsibility to pick stocks (either at random, or based on one of the several valuation techniques**, or based upon qualitative analysis –which is what we most commonly used in OIG, where we analyze the current events of the economy and use that as a guide to predict which industries/companies are expected to rise and fall; be sure to keep updated on any recent blog posts in regards to the markets, as they are constantly changing each day!)

**If any one is interested in learning any of the valuation techniques, please feel free to shoot me an email (lamirhekma@brynmawr.edu), and I’d be more than happy to sit down with you and explain to you the different ways that financial analysts use to value a stock/company!

Synopsis of recent events:

-Cree, Inc. And Arrow Electronics, Inc. Signs Distribution Agreement To Serve Global Adoption Of Silicon Carbide-Based Power Electronics…expanding Cree product offerings to now include power products.  (Nov 21)

-Cree, Inc. Issues Q3 2010 Guidance Above Analysts’ Estimates…fiscal 2nd quarter profits tripled results

http://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/keyDevelopments?rpc=66&symbol=CREE.O&timestamp=20080824233600

WOW.. this past week’s markets were INSANE!!

For those of you who read my previous post from Wednesday about how all is looking good for the technology sector, as anticipation of Apple’s new iPad spurred a rise in shares, ultimately lifting Nasdaq by about 2 percent…well perhaps I spoke too soon…

“Apple reported stellar earnings on Monday. It received upgrades from analysts on Tuesday; Goldman Sachs issued a price target of $230; Deutsche Bank set a target of $250; Barclays expects a $265 price; and Credit Suisse raised its target to $275.

From its Monday opening of $202, Apple surged in the next three days on its earnings and in anticipation of the iPad, trading as high as $213 on Tuesday and $209 on Wednesday before erasing the gains [Thursday].”  http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/20100128/nasdaq-plunges-as-tech-stocks-drop-on-earnings-and-lower-orders.htm

Apple dropped even further on Friday, with the markets closing at a share price of $192.06; down roughly 4%. (Google finance)

**Why the sudden drop???

According to an article in Friday’s WSJ, “the tech sector’s drop came as investors registered their disappointment with Apple’s iPad a day after the company unveiled the highly anticipated tablet device. Traders said there was too much hype ahead of the release and that the product doesn’t appear to be as much of a “game-changer” as investors has hoped. Shares fell $8.59, or 4.1%, to $199.29.”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704194504575031640794027322.html?mod=WSJ_Stocks_LEFTTopNews 

 but on the upside… (and only to confuse you more, of course)… read Thursday’s article from the Int’l Business Times: “Wall Street calls iPad a ‘Grand Slam'” http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/20100128/wall-street-calls-ipadgrand-slam.htm

 

Hmm.. I guess we will just have to see what’s in store for us in the next couple of hours, when the markets open at 6 AM… stay tuned OIG! 🙂

Welcome Back OIG!!

Our first meeting of the spring 2010 semester (held on Jan 25, 2010) went Great!! It was so wonderful to see everyone and to hear  that everyone had a wonderful and relaxing break! Now we’re back and ready to get to business! 🙂

A few updates, for those who weren’t at the meeting (we missed you! but no worries, come join us next week!):

**OIG has relocated to a cooler, hipper, more exciting hot spot (or shall I say trading floor -seeing as that’s what we’ll be doing next week!): TAYLOR HALL, SECOND FLOOR, 1ST ROOM ON THE RIGHT! 0

**Next week = FANTASY STOCK LEAGUE! Join us as we will each be creating our own simulated stock portfolio! **This is a great opportunity to learn the basics of managing an investment portfolio and an inside look into the wonderful world of Trading!

**Spring semester field trip, somewhere in Philadelphia!! We welcome and encourage any and all ideas of places you’d be interested in going, seeing, learning more about, etc..

-Some options/ideas we’ve thought upon thus far: *a trip to Wharton, perhaps to speak with a professor/expert in the field of Finance.. *a trip to a private equity firm, hedge fund, Susquehanna prop trading firm, etc. Have an idea? Let us know!!

**We also took a look at our portfolio, which is doing quite well ladies! Woot! *In the last 6 months (and in fact, the last 2 years even), OIG has beat the S&P by a whopping 11% !!! That’s incredible. Total Warren Buffett status :).

-We are looking to update our portfolio, and buy/sell new stocks ! So, be sure to keep updated on the current state of the economy, what’s hot to buy, what’s not, which industries we should invest in, etc, etc.! A lot is going on in the news, this week especially (Obama’s State of the Union, annual earnings reports due, a lot of pertinent info coming out Friday, etc — so be alert and aware, as now’s the time when we can easily win or lose money, depending on whether or not we pay attention to whats going on)!

**We should start looking towards trading commodities (natural resources such as gold, oil), particularly known as the wise thing to invest in during bad market times.

**News in the housing market: Stocks weakened Wednesday following the release of data showing an unexpected drop in sales of new homes (11% decline in mortgage applications, despite extremely low interest rates). http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100127-710266.html?mod=WSJ_latestheadlines

**On a more exciting note: Apple presents the new iPad tablet! Shares of Apple stock rose 2.9% in anticipation of the announcement, lifting Nasdaq up by nearly 1 percent (.8 percent) (..say goodbye to paper..and say hello to an increase in profit for OIG!)

**Thoughts on what to do with CREE?? To sell or to hold?

-News from Jan 19: Cree’s fiscal second-quarter profit tripled as the semiconductor and light-emitting-diode company continued to benefit from surging demand for LEDs. http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100119-713763.html?mod=WSJ_latestheadlines

-Most recent news: The HB LED market will be strongly affected by demand from the LCD backlight market, and this demand will create shortages of both LEDs as well as their manufacturing equipment that will continue well into 2013. http://www.edn.com/blog/1470000147/post/880052288.html

**For those of you watched Obama’s State of the Union tonight… can anyone guess the one thing he repeated most during his speech?? that’s right folks… CLEAN ENERGY!!!!!

GOOD NEWS UPDATE!  *U.S. stocks rose on Wednesday after the U.S. Federal Reserve said it will keep interest rates near zero! http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN2719486720100127

**A quite interesting tie together: a news article discussing Apple’s plans to create a solar-powered ipod!  http://www.edn.com/blog/1470000147/post/420052242.html

**Another interesting find: Google has applied to become an electricity marketer, which gives the search company the authority to buy and sell bulk power at market prices. http://www.edn.com/blog/1470000147/post/530051853.html

It’s been quite a tumultuous week on both Wall Street and the Main Street…I’m curious to hear your opinions on the recent events of the economy. For one, where do you see the future of our economy/markets, in the next 6 months or so? Which industries do you think will prove to be successful? Keep updated ladies, and keep researching for new stocks! We look forward to hearing your opinions and ideas! Feel free to comment on the blog, email us, or bring your ideas/stocks/suggestions to meetings! We always love to hear what you have to say 🙂