SFU Finance Club - Finance Night

Last night I stayed late at work. Instead of taking my usual 3:50 train I trundled across the street to the Four Season's Hotel (a heckuva lot better place than we had our Finance Nights at when I was President of the Finance Club (we were always at the Diamond Club up at the school). Finally, maybe because of the downtown focus of SFU now, things are starting to come off of The Hill. Sponsors of the evening were Schweser (the CFA prep people) and SFU's new Global Asset Wealth Management MBA.

Anyways, there were some speakers from various firm:

Gordon Gibbons from Leith Wheeler: He did the talk on research analysts and how everyone wanted to be one in 1999 but no one wanted to touch it in 2000. Makes us finance guys sound like real estate agents coming into a hot market, but it's human. He noted, interestingly, that there are about 100 research analyst jobs in Vancouver, which is disproportionately high compared to Toronto and other major centres. It's also one of the largest areas for finance types to get into (either research or sales in finance) because many of the large corporations based here have been gobbled up by firms in Calgary, Toronto or the U.S.

Robert Fairweather, with International Finance Centre for BC, is the old-timer of the group. He was with the government on overseas assignments for a while (including a stint in Seoul) and then came back and worked in investment banking and then on the IFC initiative. His advice to the students was similar: work hard, be smart and know how to communicate with people. He also added that community involvement (charity and such) is a good idea. It rounds you out and can get you some pretty influential contacts.

Johan Lemmer, Finance VP with VanCity credit union, was the 'kid'. Unfortunately, much of his advice was just like the first two speakers and I think he was also the least comfortable in front of a group. Hint to organizers: put your best speaker first to get things going and your second-best one last to end with a bang. Basically he loved VanCity (which is owned by members and had a decidedly pro-community, granola-like bent to it). This love for firm, however, made him seem a little needy: as if he was just glad to be there...but of course he has a good background as a CA, but I think (at least for me) finance-types can be either (i) 'greedy' guys who are sharp or (ii) elder statesmen who know how the world works and have enough production/revenue to get above it. But to be an activist? No, this is not the kind of thing that I think resonates with finance-types.

All of the speakers said one thing, and it's something that I whole-heartedly agree on: go out and meet with people in the business. Booksmarts are useless without being able to talk the talk and put things in the context of (i) the currrent market, (ii) the sentiment of business in general and (iii) most importantly, the listener. I got my 'big break' at a Finance Night about 11 years ago when I could recite how much the underwriters of a recent deal made out in fees. That got me a meeting with an institutional sales guy downtown and entry into the business. I was asked for my card from a few students (ya, some were shy, but I was feeling a little out of place too--think of that!) so we'll see how many give me a call or email.

It was really interesting to meet some of the students. One of them, a co-president, was very good at speaking and really impressed me. One of the other Past Presidents was also in attendance and her talk was, well, youngish...not quite straight from the mall but not near as polished as the others. But, these things can be learned. I was certainly the same way before getting some real-life experience.

Tomorrow I'll add more on tips to the students (if you're a recent finance grad it may be a good read). Got to work now, later.