And another year goes by

Wow. The term “busy” doesn’t even begin to describe how I’ve been. It’s one of those dark chilly wet Autumn days that remind you that Winter is only a stone’s throw away….and these kinds of days make me wistful for the opportunity to curl up on the couch with a good book; however other more important tasks call for my attention – namely the three assignments catching dust on my shelf!

Summer was amazing. My internship in mergers & acquisitions was more than I ever hoped it would be. The learning curve was immense and from the first day I was doing real work that was going into presentations out to clients. (An exciting but nerve-racking thing!) My strong research into the industry prepared me with realistic expectations….let me tell you Powerpoint and Excel DO become your best friends! But I actually enjoyed learning new tricks with Excel and improving upon my formatting skills by watching one of my colleagues who is “The Master” of Powerpoint in the office! He can tell in a second if something is mis-aligned by one millimeter on your page!

It was fascinating to learn how deals began from start to finish and being the only intern and in the Melbourne office (which is a smaller M&A team compared to our other offices or other firms), I got the opportunity to see and hear EVERYTHING that was going on. I couldn’t believe what I was being exposed to from the first day with deals worth millions and billions of dollars being spoken of like they were one dollar gold coins on the table! As a newbie to it all, the sums of money seem quite overwhelming, but you quickly find your face that says “1 billion?! That’s nothing!!”!

I also found myself connecting with the market in a way totally impossible to do whilst studying at Uni – when you work in the industry, every bit of financial news matters – because it could affect real-life decisions you need to make. I learned so much about the market in general and particularly things to do with all the sub-prime chaos. I would watch the screens in the office with listed stocks turn completely red on bad days such as January 22nd 2008….the 4th worst day in ASX history.

Most of all, I think the best part of the entire experience was feeling like part of the team right from the start. Everyone was just so much fun and so incredibly welcoming to me. I felt a bit awkward on my first day as I realised how experienced and intelligent my colleagues were – and how in reality, with only 2 years of an academic degree under my belt, I knew absolutely NOTHING useful. However, my boss had told me to expect that, and he told me repeatedly in that first week “I don’t care what you’re doing, as long as you’re learning something”. To have a boss with that kind of perspective in a business that focuses so strongly on the bottom-line, really meant a lot to me, and showed me something of the culture in the company I was entering into.

It’s all such HR-speak but “culture” does exist in companies, it can be very different between firms, and it does mean something. I’ve spoken to a lot of people from many different companies and the hard part is deciphering what is just PR-speak and what is real. Doing an internship is a great way to test what really goes on and I was incredibly impressed with what I experienced as I worked. In my second week of working, I attended the staff Christmas Party which was held at an impressive Melbourne venue with waiters coming round with drinks and circus performers on stilts waving colourful bits of material around. I knew basically no one. So I went around introducing myself to total strangers who worked in many different areas of the organisation – many of whom, were not even in my office building. Through this one experience alone I immediately found people to be friendly, down-to-earth, respectful, honest and holders of a sense of humour. These characteristics carried through from event to event that I attended during my time working and were good indicator to me of the organisation’s culture that it worked hard to maintain.

In opposition to that is the comments I have heard from friends and acquaintances who worked at other well-known companies. I cringed upon hearing the term “boy’s club” mentioned about the Melbourne office of one bank. I felt sorry for those who felt “lost in the crowd” at another bank. And “none of the interns dared leave until at least midnight – after everyone else had left” were the words of another.

M&A work is inevitably, at times, full of time-pressures and long hours. I don’t know how I could feel happy working if I had to deal with work culture pressures on top of that – taking away from the focus one needs to have on the jobs itself. So I definitely feel concerned for anyone who has to endure that in their future.

Me on the other hand, I’m excited about the future!

So many places rejected me for internships on the basis of my age. At 20, it was “we love you, lets stay in touch but you’re too young, give it another year”….they put you through your paces that is for sure. You have to be determined to survive the rejection in this game. And you need a bit of luck.

My boss met me and created the internship for me in the Melbourne Office after I basically told HR I would move inter-state if necessary (they were only going to have a position in Sydney!). My boss took a chance on me, and for that I always grateful. Grateful to be looked at with an eye for a potential, not an eye for the number of years I’ve spent at university.

Sometimes though, trying your best and working hard does get you through. And after the summer doing just that, I was fortunate enough to find myself in a position to decide where I wanted my future as a graduate to be. Without a moment’s hesitation I knew I wanted to stay with the company.

So here I am. In my third and final year.
Compared to my first year, so much has happened, and so much has changed.
My career path has stayed the same but it worked out in a way I could never have planned for.
But I think the overall lesson is that everything works out in the end, and life from First Year to Third Year has been totally awesome!