Close, but not a banana

Or, how a Finance lecture on M&A can be fun!

Yesterday saw our first lecture of the second term (very optimistically called 'Spring Term'... we're in the dead of winter!) which was the continuation of our Finance I course that started last term. And I loved it. It was an interesting subject (M&A) and I like professor Cocco's teaching style, dry with the occasional touch of sarcastic humour. Main take-aways: in M&A you really only need to remember three words, synergies and pre-emptive move.

This morning we had our first lecture on Operations and Technology Management (OTM) which I really liked too. This semester is shaping up to be a good one.

The suit-parade has started on campus with the first of the Milkround recruiting sessions today: Citigroup is coming this lunchtime and Deutsche Bank tonight. I'm having a field day, cause I *love* guys in suits (it's like art, they're nice to look at)(does that sound sexist in any way shape or form)(h*ll, what do I care about sexist, it's a compliment :-) and there's a lot of people dressed up that I thought for sure weren't interested in banking. I reckon there's a couple reasons why people attend these sessions:
* they are genuinely interested in these companies
* they are not sure what they want to do so they want to gather information (although I'm not sure that you'll find what it is you want to do by going to these presentations)
* they want a free lunch (that is technically speaking not a free lunch, we learnt in Finance that there is no thing like a free lunch, I reckonn we're paying 40K pounds for those lunches!)

For those of my colleagues that are going to these presentations, and even more importantly to the receptions afterwards, a few words from my own experience being on the other side (ie the party that is being wooed, not the party wooeing (spelling?)):
You're talking to a person, not a company
This person woke up this morning, had breakfast, put on a suit and went out. Maybe they're having a bad day. Maybe they had a fight with their spouse. Take it from me, it's much nicer talking to a person who thinks you're a person, as opposed to a person that thinks you're a company. This person might want a drink, or to talk about something not directly related to their job. Keep that in mind and you'll make a much better impression than elbowing your way in only to ask the same old question that everyone asks and which answer you can look up in the company brochure. End of rant.

PS The title of the post is a quote from Prof Cocco.