The brief I was given and what I did in the first 100 days at work

MY FIRST JOB after Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, was at JP Morgan in New York. As an investment banking M&A analyst, I was a part of the FIs and governments team providing financial advisory services to US banks, stock exchanges, insurance firms, AMCs and hedge funds. I supported marketing projects or potential deal situations with financial models and valuation analysis using discounted cash flow, dividend discount model, trading and transaction comparables. I was fortunate to get some great transaction execution experience relatively early in the job.

My biggest innovation

AS A NEWCOMER in the investment banking industry, there wasn’t much scope for innovation in the convention al sense. But I helped build a financial model for capital analysis to optimise certain processes and to generate financial output that was frequently required by the team for marketing projects.

The best leadership lessons I learnt

THE BIGGEST LESSON I learnt is that great leaders don’t like to surround themselves with ‘yes-men’. They actively encourage their ideas to be questioned. They are not afraid of criticism and welcome feedback openly. That’s how great ideas or initiatives are born.

The worst mistake I made

AS A FRESH graduate out of business school, I overestimated the importance of quantitative analysis in decision-making. Little did I know that qualitative factors also play a very important role and cannot be ignored.

How I managed my work-life balance

MANAGING A HEALTHY work-life balance was challenging be cause the average work week spanned 80-85 hours. But I made it a point to make most Fridays count by either organising a dinner with friends or by exploring New York’s parks, theatres, and different neighbourhoods.

How I had fun at work

EVERY ONCE IN a while we would create time for golf outings, for team lunches or dinners, and for catching some local sports events. It also helped to be working with an incredibly diverse group of colleagues, with whom I could bond while discussing non-work topics.

(Source: The Economic Times)