Be Involved
"Read page one of The Wall Street Journal every day" was a consistent refrain. At least for students studying finance. The idea was modest: stockpile headlines so when The Recruiter at your desired firm inquired about the comings-and-goings of GP secondaries, you could rattle off references and leave the impression of someone who had spent their tuition in the library rather than the bar. Or if you did frequent the College Delly (there are much worse options), at least it didn't inhibit your ability to show industry and brainpower required to follow the career center who sounded this advice. Appear sharp enough, and maybe this was the start of a promising career.
This always rubbed me the wrong way. It felt like an inefficient detour to a simple goal. Ultimately, there are much more effective ways to break into this industry.
§Getting involved is about surrounding yourself with the trade
Really pursue it. Become enveloped in the world you aspire to. This doesn't stop at reciting headlines or subscribing to a Substack or two. Instead, this includes devouring what you can get your hands on. Producing proof of work. And talking to practitioners. Don't worry about playing the usual routine to show you are indeed trying. Become so acclimated with the industry, you naturally assimilate into it.
Of my peers, those who picked their spots and became involved have had the quickest and most prolific kickoff after seizing their diploma. Some went to prestigious and storied firms. Others went into weird areas of the markets. But all came out of school prepared and well adjusted for the world they were walking into. It's the difference between studying for an exam the morning of, and preparing for years beforehand. And in a competitive environment with so few spots for too many students, being able to be a natural extension of the industry becomes a formidable edge.
Get in there any way you can. Being involved is not about reading dusty textbooks alone. Surround yourself with the craft. Absorb foundational texts. Build a small tool for yourself. And then a few more. Reach out to practitioners and ask real questions (ones which only they can answer!). Wrap yourself in the world you plan to spend decades in, learn all there is to learn, and then go to class. This constant attention and deliberate thinking will produce two by-products over a long enough timeline:
- You will have surpassed your rivals.
- You will have stumbled into an original idea.
If you still need convincing, consider this: nobody is interested in hearing you parrot Matt Levine's memetics. We know you can read. We know you took the ten minutes to query "most interesting finance blogs". I want something new. Show you have sharpened your own thinking and arrived at a perspective worth hearing. This doesn't mean you shouldn't read Matt's superb writing. Nor is this an excuse to refuse the influence offered by those smarter than you or I. The aim is to be so involved, you start to form your own opinions.
Everybody is helpful in this new mission of yours! Even if they are wrong (many such cases), as you will surely be wrong in time (ask me how I know!), take this as an opportunity to learn. These are undermonetized learning opportunities. Don't let them go to waste! Why were they wrong? What was the right point of view? What is their underlying worldview? Becoming curious and earnest with these questions will open up plenty of doors. And it becomes benign to show you have "done the work". A fleeting conversation with you will showcase the notions and process you have started to develop.
§My approach during my undergraduate years varied between reading, writing, and learning from others
Early in my freshman year, I stumbled across the wonderful Bloomberg markets room. It was filled with Bloomberg terminals, rarely hosted classes, and was seldom locked. The business school, on the other hand, started to have strict hours during Covid. A side effect of being involved is when you want to get in somewhere, and people notice how into the world and how persistent you are, metaphorical and physical doors will appear ajar. It was there, where I was able to start getting involved in a big way.
Producing stock pitches, keeping up with the daily news, and being about one-hundred-and-nineteen steps from the library full of the finest reference texts any finance student could get their hands on. And I wasn't the only one! Every day, there were a few peers bumming around in this room. Previously, my finance experience consisted of dissecting books and watching annual meetings alone. But talking with other students in real-time—debating and getting excited about different ideas—accelerated my learning.
Being able to intelligently disagree. Or to hold an even stronger opinion. Perhaps to make a bold prediction and observe how reality unfolds...this is what it is about. We were able to gain new understandings of the world. Wrestling with hard questions. Without a clear answer and no "professional" supervision. Being surrounded by a cabal and taking in information, processing it, and outputting it is the best way to be involved! We would look over the same companies, break out, and then come back together to compare our views.
Lectures became boring. The answers came like molasses. And certainly contained no stakes. Projects became nuisances. Presentations were futile. The goal was to complete them quick enough so we could get back to our Bloomberg machines. We were able to move past the simulacra of the classroom. Now, when it came to recruiting, we were ready! We could speak to ideas we had worked on, why some had failed, what we would have done differently. If somebody knew a field we had an interest in, conversations could become even more exciting. Perhaps it led to interrogation-territory, a few times.
Which brings me to the final reason to become involved. It's fun! Perhaps you wish to optimize for starting salary, or prestige. Even if you have to go through the droll and drag of all the other exercises which come from the university undergraduate careers firing squad, you should enjoy getting involved. Being able to dive deep into the industry, there will be plenty of niches which may ignite your curiosity. But nobody will find them for you. Perhaps new people to meet and new ways of looking at the world. So even if you want to become the best recruit coming out of campus, or you wish to just find the first person who will hire you, Get Involved!