It was a rainy day in Oxford...

25 November 2015

It was a rainy day in Oxford, but I saw excited and enthusiastic faces in the Saïd Business School concourse that morning. A few banners of the Oxbridge Finance Conference were standing near the long reception table, which was turned into a registration desk for the Conference. Some students were still queuing at the registration desk, while the others were enjoying the reception coffee and snacks, and trying to get to know the new friends they made.

The Oxbridge Finance Conference is a yearly event organized by Cambridge University Finance and Investment Society and Oxford Finance Society. This year’s theme, Frontiers of Finance, offered a unique insight into the direction of the industry in the near future, featuring leading top executives and industry leaders from across the financial sector. This prestigious conference brought together approximately 300 students from across the UK, who had been shortlisted by Dartmouth Partners.

In the session of Corporate Governance, Philip Yates, the founding Partner of Perella Weinberg Partners, emphasized the importance of quality, integrity and professionalism for success in the professional career journey. As a former Global Head of M&A at Merrill Lynch, he shared his experience working in M&A business and the pressure he had to win the M&A deals to bring revenue to the company. Nevertheless, he would always give objective recommendations to the clients, although sometimes it meant that the deal would be off and he would get nothing from months of his hard work. Integrity should always be on top of everything, and that’s what will bring you up.

Helena Morrissey, as the only female speaker in the Conference, was another inspiring speaker for me. Holding the position of CEO in Newton Investment Management, she was recently named one of Fortune Magazine’s World’s 50 Greatest Leaders and voted one of the 50 Most Influential People in Finance by Bloomberg Markets Magazine in 2013 and 2014. She shared that working in financial institutions would not be easy and that today’s greatest challenge is finding a way to navigate the market. Creative and innovative thinking is continuously required, as “what get us here won’t get us there”. In her presentation, she also gave some advice on time management and encouragement, especially to the female students, to have a big dream in pursuing careers.

In general, the other speakers talked about the nature of the business that they were in, the recent market condition, how it is going to be like in the future, and the general strategy being implemented. One consistent message was delivered: the financial industry is challenging and definitely not for the faint-hearted. After listening to the presentations and panel discussion, I became more convinced that financial industry, with its dynamics and challenging environment, would be a suitable place for me.

This conference also gave me a clearer idea on the wide range of jobs available in the financial institutions, which I have to explore and look into more closely to find where my passion is.

Last but not least, this conference gave us opportunity to build networks with the brightest talent from different UK universities during the break and networking sessions. Besides Cambridge and Oxford students, I also met students from London School of Economics, University of Warwick, University of Nottingham, coming from various countries such as UK, France, Spain, China, Bangladesh and Singapore.

It was a long yet fruitful day. I discovered many new interesting facts, obtained much insight about the financial industry, and also made new friends. This was definitely a valuable experience to prepare myself for my career journey. Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to the University of Edinburgh and the sponsor, without whom attending this conference would not have been possible.

Merry Kornelius, MSC Banking and Risk. Find more information about Santander funding under Opportunities on this website.