When I arrived at Goizueta in August of 2009, I had a pretty good idea that I wanted to be an “international businessman” when I grew up. Now, if you had asked me at the time to define both “international” and “businessman”, I could not give you a 100% accurate description. As a matter of fact even today my concept lacks absolute clarity. That said, I knew that I wanted my career to be centered in finance- working with global companies as they handled complex, global financial projects.
To give you some background, I graduated in 2000 with engineering and mathematics degrees and promptly dropped the scientific field to go work for 2 years in New York City in investment banking as an analyst. The hours were tough, but the work was challenging and I liked the people with whom I worked. After my two years were up, I decided to start my own company. I still believe I was ahead of my time (it was an internet site with a social networking angle), but unfortunately my company’s profits were behind their time… meaning the business ran out of money in a year and I was back looking for a corporate job. I ended up working in information technology for 6 years before deciding to return B-school and get back into finance.
Now, back to me becoming an “international businessman”. For my summer internship, I decided that I wanted to work in investment banking again to learn some of the technical and deal experience that would allow me to work with international companies later in my career. This summer, I worked in New York at a “large, multi-national investment bank committed to providing quality service to its clients” (funny how sensitive you have to be about company names/images now-adays, but hit me up personally if you want the name of the company and we can discuss offline). I thoroughly enjoyed my experience. Yes, the hours were a bit strenuous (you tend to lose count after multiple 100-hour weeks) but the projects I was working on were truly global in nature. One project was for a French company looking to sell, IPO, or Joint Venture an American division. I worked on European solar company that was looking for strategic options. I worked on a US-based metals and mining company that was trying to compete against companies from Brazil, China, and India. So in essence I was doing international business, while based in NYC.
Summer experience aside, I also worked to attend an exchange program to get some international experience. So after I finished my internship, I packed my bags and headed to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to gain a truly international experience. Learning a new culture – language, way of dress, social interactions, how business is done – has been invaluable. I have a few more months left in Brazil, but believe that I am certainly on the right path to become an “international businessman”.
Read the full article: Transforming into an International Businessman