It's a verbal offer, and I am waiting for it to come in writing in the next two or three days, but I am extremely grateful and elated.
After applying to more than fifty different positions, talking to at least thirty five alumni, having at least fifteen different interviews, and exactly four superdays (lengthy back-to-back interviews in a company's office) in New York, Boston, and Raleigh, I am very grateful for the opportunity to join Atalaya Capital in NYC this summer.
Future me: When you are working hard and you feel you need the motivation to keep going, this is exactly why the past me is writing this blog post. (Other than the fact that he's still kind of excited and not being able to go to bed.. haha)
A few hundred words won't justify most of my junior year that I spent on trying to secure summer opportunities, but I guess at least two superdays are worth mentioning: Credit Suisse's at Raleigh and Fidelity Investments' at Boston. For the former, I had three back-to-back interviews, which is pretty decent, apart from the fact that it was held in Raleigh, North Carolina, which is a good two hours flight away from Bradley airport. I woke up at 3 am on a Friday, drove for an hour to Bradley airport, flew into Raleigh, rented a car there, interviewed, had chicken waffles (a local delicacy, wonderful separately but kinda weird when eaten together), and flew back on the same day. I reached Amherst close to midnight. The latter was a much friendlier trip, with Boston being slightly less than two hours drive from Amherst. But I had seven back-to-back half hour interviews on that Tuesday with veterans from Fidelity, followed by two case interviews with Bain (which I did in Fidelity's office building due to time constraints), and in the midst of a total of nine interviews that whole week.
I had a total of three interviews on three separate days with Atalaya. First was Thursday, I was really lucky that I was preparing for an Investment Banking (IB) superday on Friday which required finance technicals, allowing me to perform really well in the technical aspect first round interview. The turnover was quick, I was invited to speak with a Principal (turns out to be a super amazing dude) one day after my initial interview round. Since I was having the IB superday in New York that day, I was offered to speak in the office, which was great because meeting in person allowed me to connect really well with him. Monday was the President's Day, so I was nervously waiting on Tuesday until I received a call from the HR asking if I can speak with the COO during the early evening.
After around ten minutes into the call, a miracle happened. I can't remember his words verbatim, but he said something along the lines of "You're hired. Congratulations, have a nice afternoon. Now you at least have a place to go for the 8 weeks of summer." I was elated - I still am.. After everything I went through, it feels great to finally have my skills acknowledged and to be accepted. Without batting an eyelid, I verbally accepted the offer and asked a couple of questions, including some advice. The person I was interviewing with really liked Daniel Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow, so I figure I will spend some time reading it in the coming days.
Yup, that's it, folks. It's going to be my first stint, my first real work, and it's gonna be corporate America in New York City. I am blessed, and I am excited. I resolve to make use of this opportunity to the best of my capability, and to catch up on all the things that I have put aside when I was focusing on the job hunt. I'll go ahead with my other final round interview tomorrow morning, because it'll be too late to cancel it, but I think it's not too late to cancel my other super day next week. Thank you for all your support, prayers, and blessings, dear readers.
Finally, the funniest part about Atalaya is that I received the opportunity neither from Amherst alumni nor from networking, but from registering into an internship search startup called Snap! from a Facebook advertisement. Who would've thought procrastinating on Facebook could help you launch your career?
-R
