OFW Business Tour 2007, Deutsche Bank and Anschreiben

Of all the crazy things that happened during the last two days, I will start with the craziest. On the evening of 6th Nov, I got an email from Organisationsforum Wirtschaftskongress (OFW) Business Tour 2007, saying something in German which didn't sound like a rejection. I didn't exactly understand the message because I was shivering with excitement. So I EMAILED the message to my apartment mate, waited a full 5 minutes for a response, then went to her door and started banging it!! And she came out and I explained. She read my email and told me that the decision has been delayed for one day because of an extraordinary number of applicants. She wished me luck and asked me to tell her whatever decision comes. I told her that she'd know from my screams if I get accepted...

The next evening, I went to the library to check my email. And there was an email. And it told me that Cologne Main Railway Station was the meeting point. I'D BEEN ACCEPTED. I spent 10 minutes punching in the air, grinning like mad and all the while thinking if I should go out of the library and let the screams out.....Before my readers start wondering what the heck I've been accepted for, here are some pictures which will give you some idea.......

Only 20 students from the whole Germany have been selected. And I don't remember if I was ever so happy. I will be visiting the offices of the top firms in the world, all over Germany (that is, Cologne, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt and Munich) and working with M&A Experts and the best students in Germany on case studies, and presenting our solutions.

I screamed the news to Eva when I returned home. After I'd 'returned to the ground', I decided to seek advice. So I sent messages to Rameez Ansar and Nedim. Rameez bhai is my ideal globe-trotting management consultant at BCG, and is probably the busiest, and nevertheless, the most helpful person I've ever met. Nedim, is a French Muslim, working in McKinsey Paris right now.

My friendship with Nedim is as crazy as me :D. I was standing at Buona Vista bus stop this July. And I saw a French girl wearing an INSEAD shirt. I decided to talk to her, because I'd spent the last few months thinking I need to talk to some INSEAD students. Bad for me, she started boarding a bus. Good for me, I made my decision 'like a fighter pilot' ("Make Decisions Like A Fighter Pilot" is the title of an article, by a management consultant I believe, that tells about studies done by US Air Force that show that the performance of fighter pilots in combat is directly dependent on the speed of their decision making) and boarded the bus. (This is still one of the most memorable decisions of my life and I'm totally proud of it :P)

Anyway I talked to the girl, Claire, and discovered that she was the fiancee of an INSEAD student. She offered to give me a tour of the campus. So we got off the bus at the next stop. She showed me around the campus, told me about her fiancee, Nedim, and gave me his contact number. I basically wanted to find out how the school was, and its reputation in France and Europe.

So I contacted Nedim, and we met in Raffles Place. During the first few minutes, I learned that he was working on M&As in a boutique investment bank. And just like I am completely off the track right now, I completely forgot at that time that I was there to talk about INSEAD. We spent the whole time talking about investment banking and management consultancies. The word 'INSEAD' was spoken exactly ZERO TIMES during our conversation.

Anyway, coming back to the ground, I received super-prompt replies from both guys, for which I'm indebted to them. And I formulated my strategy. Which is my usual brute-force idea. Improve financial-German. Devour as much material on M&As as possible. Impress the companies enough to get an internship, and maybe a permanent offer. Maybe I'm going too far now, but when 5 companies select 20 students from the country, they should have something in mind for them...atleast I hope so.

I started reading lecture notes, watching lectures on DCF, FCFE, WACC and stuff life Poison Pill, Greenmail, Bear Hug and Pacman Defense. 2 hours sleep in the first night. Good good. The next day, I was in super high spirits. But in the afternoon, I received my anticlimax. A rejection from Deutsche Bank. After less than 30 minutes, I received a call from Roland Berger Strategy Consultants. I was informed that to do an internship in Germany, I need to be fluent in Germany. Grosse Scheisse.... Anyway, after some whining, convincing and negotiating, he asked me to send my cover letter and transcripts. I spent 2 hours in the evening with my German teacher after class, and we ironed out my cover letter and resume in German. Let's see how things out.

And I was super-alert (as usual) in my M&A lecture that afternoon. Apart from being an MBA course, it also happens to be a 3 hour lecture completely in German. However, I can understand quite well now, and I know enough on the subject to barrage my professor (an investment banker who happens to have worked with Morgan Stanley, and is working with some top investment bank right now as well) with questions, and to invite the remark "good question!!" with every question. He told me that he will have a lot more time after the next class, and we can have a longer one-on-one.

I think this is the most random posts so far. Anyway, I once again request all my readers to keep this blog confidential. I blabber all the frustration in me here, and its not for everyone :) Thankuss.