An Interview with Daniel Jones

The above is Mr. Daniel Jones. He has graciously allowed me to interview him. Please excuse my interviewing abilities.

Hi Danny, tell me a little about yourself:

-I am a current MSF student. I was an accounting undergraduate major at Marquette and worked in the field as an auditor for three years before coming to Boston College. 

Why did you decide to come to Boston College?

-I want to switch my career to one in investment management. BC has one of the top Finance programs in the country and Boston is a major hub for the asset management industry. BC offers an exhaustive alumni network that is always willing to help and I embrace its Jesuit philosophy. 

What class are you enjoying this semester?

I really enjoy CIRM. 

What’s CIRM?
Curriculum in Investment Research Management

Can you describe the class a bit?

It is a three stage course. The first stage is an introduction to investment research and the second stage is a competition where the teams in the class compete to manage the Boston College Endowment. Throughout the semester we had various industry professionals come in and speak to the class about their experiences. These individuals were aware of the competition we were in and provided us with advice to help formulate our strategies.  

Interesting, what is the competition process?

-We had four teams in the class and each team came up with an investment philosophy/strategy. We each then conveyed our strategies to the Board of Trustees through an RFP (request for proposal ) and presentation. 

Was that nerve racking?  How did you guys do?

-A little bit but we were confident in our strategy and proud of work regardless of the outcome. We ended up earning one of the two spots and we are currently managing part of the endowment.

Wow, congratulations! You mentioned three phases, what is the third phase? 

-The third phase is the actual management of the endowment. Our group meets on a weekly basis and we discuss specific investment ideas such as stock and bond holdings. Based on our research and discussions, we have created a portfolio and we report our performance to Professor Howe monthly. We have two scheduled presentations with him throughout the semester where he asks us about our meetings and why we chose different stocks; he acts as the client.

So CIRM perfectly correlates with your career goals.
-Absolutely.

Spring Semester Kick Off

It is two weeks away from Spring Break and I can honestly say I am truly enjoining all of my classes this semester. I am finishing up my MSA degree this semester by taking my last three required courses and I am starting to delve into my MSF degree with my second course. I am taking Financial Statement Analysis with Professor Bradshaw which is a case-based class with tons of class discussion. He really expects his students to come to class prepared and ready talk. My second accounting course is Assurance and Consulting Services with Professor Husk which is a mixture between cases and lectures.  My third and last accounting course is Management of Financial Institutions with Professor Manzon. This class is great because you truly get a deeper understanding of the effects of taxes on various investment opportunities. My fourth and last class is Investments with professor Muravyev.

I am not sure if I have already mentioned this in my previous post but I am a MSA/MSF representative on the Graduate Management Association. The GMA is the elected student government of CSOM and its mission is to "enhance the professional, academic and social graduate student experience through, but not limited to, club activities, programming recommendations, and social events." (For more information on the GMA, check out its homepage: http://www.bc.edu/clubs/gma/index.htm).

Each semester, every program in the Graduate Carroll School of Management is provided with funds to put on some sort of activity for current students. Since we did not use our funds from the previous semester, we decided to have two events this semester. Our first event was a "Welcome Back" event at Jose McIntyre's where students were given drink tickets, finger foods and the opportunity to interact with current classmates outside of a school setting. We had an amazing turnout from both the MSA program and the MSF program and I'm positive everyone had a great time.

MSA/MSF?

If you've read my "About Me", I am sure you are wondering why is a Biology graduate pursuing her MSA/MSF? Why the change?

You are definitely not the first nor the last individual to ask that question. I always excelled in the Sciences throughout High School and figured that a career in the Healthcare industry would provide me with a stable job that will always be in demand around the world (my family is from Brazil and I thought that I might want to live there in the future). I decided to pursue a BS in Biology during my undergraduate career and to look into the various career paths available. During my summers, I worked in research labs and at the end of the second summer, I decided that research was not for me: I was on the wrong side of the Healthcare Industry.

A friend of mine in CSOM suggested that I take a couple business courses to see if they would interest me. With her recommendation I took a course called Persepectives on Management taught by John Clavin and Richard Powers, both graduates of Boston College who have gone on to have very successful careers. This class was a combination of case studies, lectures and a weekly outside speaker (usually a BC alumnus). It provided me with the opportunity to learn about the management of a variety of different industries including not-for-profits, large accounting firms, entrepeneiural ventures, the healthcare industry, etc. The experiences of the our guest speakers really resonated with me. After enjoying and exceeding in this class I went on to take Accounting and Finance courses in CSOM.

With my senior year underway, I decided that I should continue my academic career after graduation. I began looking into Master's degree programs and I was excited to find that Boston College had a MSA/MSF degree that could be tailored to a non-business degree undergraduate. I felt as though the MSA degree would provide me with a strong foundation in the "language of business" and that the MSF degree would allow me to pursue my goal of working on the corporate finance side of a pharmaceutical or healthscience company. December came around, I applied and I was accepted!

With that said and done, its been a crazy 6 months with my May graduation, summer classes and now my fall classes. Luckily, I have managed to meet some great new people in my classes as well as others through the Graduate Management Association (I'm a rep woot woot!).