“W
e can’t afford to subsidize your education. Go to business school.” After hearing this advice enough times from investment managers from whom I had sought employment, I acted on it and began the b-school application process. At the time, I was a Wealth Management Advisor, advising individuals and small businesses on how to achieve their financial goals as well as invest their savings. Though I loved the relationships I had developed with my clients, I had the bug for equity research. I was working my way through the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) curriculum and felt that if I was going to take on the expenses of business school (and forego two years of income), I needed to get more than just theory. I needed an ‘experiential’ learning program, one where I could spend two years doing real equity research, learning and acquiring the skills of a research analyst. Based upon this criterion, the Johnson School became the obvious choice, and it has not disappointed. This fall, my classmates and I were immediately thrown into the fire, whether pitching stocks to the Investment Management Club, taking job Treks to New York and Boston or debating investment ideas in the Parker Center. But honestly, the Cayuga Fund (the only MBA-run, market-neutral hedge fund) has been has been the most influential experience for me here at Cornell. I was fortunate enough to be one of seven first-years selected (after a rigorous interview process) to be a Sector Analyst and I am assisting a second-year Portfolio Manager covering the Telecom sector.
In the Capital Markets & Asset Management Immersion or CMAM (pronounced “see-ma’am”) this spring, I am surrounded by smart and driven people passionate about the markets and investing, whether they are pursuing careers in research, investment management, sales & trading or private wealth. CMAM is kicked off in January with our Week on Wall Street, where we got to spend several days meeting with hedge fund managers, buy side PMs, sell-side analysts, traders, etc., gleaning advice from Johnson alumni on both our careers and the markets. Now back in Ithaca, CMAM has allowed us some customization in our classes to fill in our specific knowledge gaps. While I am taking Intermediate Accounting (surprisingly a student favorite), many friends are taking Financial Statement Analysis or Financial Modeling. In addition, the CMAM Practicum is run by a practitioner turned academic, Bob Andolina, and the curriculum’s focus on real-world applications reflects this. Guest lecturers are coming in nearly weekly, and many sessions have turned into hour-long debates about whatever may be driving the market that day. It has been a tremendously rewarding experience for me thus far, and I look forward to sharing it with many of you next year!
Sean Meakim, CFA
Class of 2011
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