Financial Crisis: As seen from the eye of undergraduate

Everyone is fed up of all this. There are thousands of blogs on the current turmoil, but this post will have the perspective of student looking for a job in finance. So lets see how a student will describe this global recession( ooh i forgot to ask – has it arrived?????)

“Finance” is too scary a word for me now.

Every since I saw an investment banker, I wanted to be like him. Million dollars, sexy cars, girls, beer…. it has everything. I also wanted all this luxury. I didn’t know what banking was all about. All I cared was a penthouse, porsche, best gadget and unlimited credit limit. Frankly, speaking this is all one want. So I thought why not banking. But what is banking? I didn’t know. So what. I can get all the information from Vault, WetFeet.. My seniors got through interviews reading those guides. I got GPA of 3.8. I know I can easily get through.

With all the dreams in my eyes, I enrolled myself into the finance program. Why finance? Because if liberal arts guys can get into banks, I can definitely get in one of the top firm on Wall Street. I still don’t understand why the hell people hire history major in Wall Street.  I recently met a Managing Director of top investment bank whose major is Chinese histroy. He is smart(So am I). He has experience(that I will get with time). It seems to me that I will be better qualified than him after graduation. Wow!!! I can definitely join IB. But what is IB?? I didn’t know.

Things are going on pretty well…. Suddenly, I heard of some weird names- MBS, CDO… What the hell is this? Why do I care about it? I have to goto Investment Bank. I should not be bothered by this ABCD. I want to do Merger & Acquisition. It sounds pretty cool. Yeah…. its very sexy.

In the meantime things started getting bad. Lead by Freddie and Fannie, came the mortgage crisis. It started hurting companies involved in mortgage securities. Billions of dollars flowing out of the market. Investors going crazy. Then came credit crunch – Reduction in availability of loans. US tumbling. Companies writing down millions of dollars. Low profit in Quarterly report. Next quarter prediction of huge losses. Then came the biggest downfall. Bear Stern fallout. Things started worsening even more. Reduction on fed rate posing inflation threat. Fed trying everything to calm the market. Bailout plans within Fed. At the same time many regional banks getting bankrupt. Seeking mercy. IndiMac fallout. Then came one of the biggest shock – government bailout of freddie and fannie. At the same time Lehman bankruptcy. End of wall street. AIG – the biggest insurer fails. Fed takes over. Infuses $80billion. Government planning for $700bn bailout plan. Tax payer money at risk. Fallout of Investment Banking model. Firms running crazy, begging for help. Can it get any worse? Yes. Every bank started falling like a pack of card. Merrly Lynch, Wachovia.. merging with other weak firms. Then came question of recession,Inflation. In the meantime – oil price went above $140 in july to come back at $67 in October. Fear spreads all over. Major indexes dropping. Foreign banks falling, looking for help from government. Fortis bailout. Iceland bankruptcy. Dow Jones dropping 22% in a week; worst performance ever. Technology sector started affecting after hard hit auto sector.

In all this I missed job reduction. At every point- companies reducing their headcount. As of now 110,000 people displaced from their job since last september in finance firm. Particularly in Wall street 10,000 people shown the pink slip.

My dream shattered. No more M&A. No more hot job. I am helpless. I am clueless. I am jobless

Testing Times

This is one of the toughest time of my life. Tough because I want to achieve something and now realize its not easy to achieve what you want. Sometimes you are governed by people around you- be it good or bad. This is exactly what is happening to me right now. Whole throughout my life I was governed by people around me, chose the route that was easy. Now I feel I have wasted all. Should have understood what was good for me. Whom do I blame? Me ofcourse. When I cant see what’s good and what’s bad, I have no one to blame. Things are not as bad as it could have been. Still have time to do what I want. Want to say one line that I love using now a days- I am still 22. This line relieves me and pushes me hard to do good things. I feel time is still in my hand. And once you feel you have time you can do things that you want. There comes a point in your life when you crib about time and loose faith in destiny. Thankfully I am not in that phase. I don’t believe in destiny and know only one thing- what you sow, so shall you reap.

I am filled with zillion of thoughts. The desire to succeed has filled me with passion, hunger. I WANT TO SUCCEED AT ANY COST.

Life comes full circle. It pays what you do. Every action has equal and opposite reaction. So take each step only in the direction of your destination. And make sure your destination is what you want. Destination may not be known. Even if you follow the path which is not your destination, be wise enough to carve out a path in the middle towards your final destination. The greatest strength of the person is in realizing what he want and having the strength to take a full U-turn to reach the route of success.

All that I have written has given me strength. Didn’t know writing can be such a pleasure. Brain can store everything. But when your brain is composed of interwoven threads of confusion, even Einstein’s brain will become bottleneck!! So blog is the perfect OS. Ctrl + X thread from your brain and Ctrl + V in words.