The biggest challenge for me is to have a shift in mindset that leads to the realization of the importance of the responsibilities I was given. Coming straight from school, it’s easy to think every task that I was assigned is a practice. However, in real life, all that matters is the delivery of results. There are times that the tasks that I was assigned seemed so insignificant that I didn’t take time to consider their seriousness, which led to missed deadlines, and as a result of that, I wasn’t given any more tasks for an entire week. Later, I was told by my associate that in investment banking, attention to detail and ability to meet deadlines are the two most important traits of any successful analysts, since a small error in a number will raise a red flag for investors and a missing deadline might lose a client. She said, “Welcome to the real world.”
Xi Chun ’16 explored the Investment Banking Sector in New York City.