Make Your Mark: Kick it Out

Also posted here, here and here.

It’s a different summer, in which I entered my favorite company to work. One month has passed. And I know it’s only a start.

For someone, it might not be a good choice to work for companies like GE, though it’s big and well-known. But from the perspective of salary, GE could be far behind from others, especially those investment banks and consulting firms. And what’s more, finance staff inside a company is totally different from outsiders, as Faye, the FMP intern recruiting HR pointed out during my interview. The job is extremely detail-oriented and even mechanic. Instead of creating profit in the frontier directly, like bankers or traders, finance people in industry act more as supporting team to maintain daily operation of business. The role is totally reversed. Neither rewarding nor dominant, corporate finance in industry is more or less the second or third place for superior job hunters. For some top ones, it’s only a backup.

I have experienced the application for investment banks. Fairly speaking, they are really tough. and I was not ready to join them. In the few interviews I attended, my performance was not right at all. Some kind of strong arbitrageur attitude was deep in my mind. With little persuasive reason to meet the challenge from the interviewer: “Why do you want to join us?” I lost the game just at the startline.

Fortunately, I was right when answering GE’s question. For the question “why do you want to do finance job?”, I was like “I don’t know, but I’ll find out. Please let me try.”

I kicked it out just one day after my last final exam. It was June 23rd 2006 Friday, only one week to Q2 closing deadline. Everyone was busy. They worked for every second, till very late. For me, it’s exciting thing to work in that context. I like being busy. It makes me feel respected.