UCL Finance Conference 2012 – a unique student experience

On February 3rd, University College London arranged one of the largest and most prestigious student led finance conferences in Europe, UCL Finance Conference 2012. SSE MSc of Finance student Etienne Brunet was one of the succesful 200 (among 1650) applicants selected to attend. He has generously offered to share his experience in order to inspire fellow students to take part in similar events. 

 Read Etienne’s own narrative below:

“Have you ever wanted to listen to top finance professionals in London? Have you ever wanted to have a chance to have an internship in London or Singapore? If you have answered yes to one or both of these questions, the UCL Finance conference might be the event that you should not miss next year.

    After sending my CV, I was selected as one of 200 students among 1650 applicants to attend the UCL Finance Conference. On the 2nd of February I flew to London. At 8am of the following day, I was at the BMA House where the conference was held. The BMA House, which is located between Euston Square and Russell Square, is a spectacular building recently renovated by a great British architect. Before the conference started we were invited to a networking tea party with other students. I had the chance to interact with students from Oxford, Queen’s university and LSE. We discussed the current economy situation, internships and so on.       
 The conference started with a welcome speech about leadership and the importance of having a career goal. The speech was greatly appreciated by the audience. Today, having an internship offer or a graduate job in London is getting really rare, as many banks have cut down jobs or even complete departments.

 The next speaker was from Credit Suisse. In less than an hour, he gave his point of view on the different current issues such as the Euro crisis, the future of Japan and China and many more.  Mr. Parker, senior adviser at Credit Suisse,was able to provide a good understanding of the future political and economic issues in a clear and succinct manner despite the time constraint. The following keynoter was the head of an asset management firm specialized in the emerging market. Mrs Donegan, Head of Threadneedle, gave a good insight of the change that had taken place since a few years ago and had been amplified with the crisis. The emerging market has been growing at a steady pace whereas many western economies are on the brink to collapse. The next lecturer, who was from Barclay’s, gave a presentation about the consequences of the credit crisis. He described the crisis’ impact on liquidity and other firms. 
     
  After lunch, we were divided into two groups: the Investment banking team; and the Sales Trading team. Interested in the M&A practice, I chose the first group. A managing director from JP Morgan gave us a presentation about the different roles in asset management and some tips on how to break into this sector. I admired her liberal style when she talked about the banking sector. She answered many questions and demystified the process of graduate hiring. Next, a manager from Morgan Stanley gave us an insight of the private equity department, which is called the alternative investment fund in the bulge bracket bank.
     

   At 5pm, we had a tea break, which again gave us a time to network with other students before the end of the conference, which consisted of two-discussion panel sessions. The first one was about financial seismic shift. Each of the speakers is head of a department at a bank such as Macquarie, Deutsche Bank. The second panel discussed the questions ‘’how have recent happenings across developed markers changed in the financial landscape?” and “what is the future of banking?” Being able to listen to the perspectives of leaders in the banking and private equity was really interesting. They emphasized that the best investment next year would be to invest in corporate banking and in the emerging banking.

 Attending the conference turned out to be a valuable experience during which I gained a good understanding of various current issues from a corporate point of view. The conference also served as an intersection where students from all over the world can collaborate and share their passion about finance.”