Thursday
8:30am
Once again, I began my day with a delicious breakfast! The SVP of Global Marketing & Branding who was supposed to speak with us ended up having to have a last-minute meeting with a client so was unable to speak with us. However, one of the women running the program still brought up the presentation and went through it since she knew so much about it! It was awesome to really see how much NYSE can, and does, promote brands which are listed here.
9:45am
Today is pretty much my last day of research! At this time I still had a lot to get done but I had to finish it by 4pm today so it was crunch time.
11:45am-1pm
A bunch of BA’s, I think there were six of them, all sat at a long table in the front of a room and we had a panel discussion. It was great to hear advice and stories from BA’s, who are our age or just a year older, to really put the real world into perspective and answer any of our questions. We talked about everything from what their interview process was like to get the BA position they are in to their favorite part of being in the city. Did I mention we ate lunch during this? It was a great lunch full of great advice, laughs, and conversation.
1-4pm
GUESS WHAT I DID BY 2:30?! FINISHED MY RESEARCH! It felt awesome to finish it a bit early! This gave Bobby and myself the perfect amount of time to place all of this into an organized and professional presentation. Our BA’s were so proud of us to see all we have accomplished.
5pm
Around this time we made our way uptown to Times Square. Making sure all 18 of us were on the subway was a challenge in itself but once we stepped foot into the heart of the city, we knew the night would be fun. Why were we in uptown? Ruby Foo’s was calling us for dinner! If you haven’t checked this place out, it’s a serious must. My favorite item on the menu was definitely the shrimp and lobster spring rolls…I can still taste them melting in my mouth. We had a full sit-down family style dinner….bon apetit! Oh! I forgot to mention! We were walking to the restaurant and had to walk by the big and infamous NASDAQ sign in the middle of Times Square. Simultaneously, we all began to “booooooo!”…never mind being already abnormal in a group of 18 in business suits but we caught a lot of attention from that. Too funny.
6:30pm
The night/day was finally coming to a close and we all jumped onto this huge bus called “The Ride”. It’s this glass bus that rides around Times Square for an hour, pointing out different buildings, people, and fun facts. It was definitely something which small kids would love but not so much us. I think we all got a little bit bored after a half hour. It was still a cool experience though! This is the description of The Ride on the website: THE RIDE uses New York City and its renowned landmarks as the backdrop for a theatrical event that blurs the boundary between tour and performance. The city becomes a stage, and soon you can’t tell where the street ends and the show begins! THE RIDE gives you a front-row seat to the streets of New York City in a multi-million dollar mo
tor coach that comes equipped with state-of-the-art audio/visual technology, including 40 plasma screen TVs and over 3000 LED lights. Enjoy the performance from the comfort of one-of-a-kind stadium seating and huge panoramic windows.
Friday
9am
Yes..I said 9am. It was awesome to sleep in and so strange to ride the subway when it wasn’t rush hour. Breakfast was taken over by two guys who gave an awesome presentation about the trading floor-James McGuire Manager NYSE Operations and Ronald Bohert Director of Global Corporate Client Group. After teaching us the in’s and out’s of the trading floor and expanding on ideas, thoughts, and questions we had, they brought us down, for the trillionth time that week, to let us talk to DMMs one-on-one. You would think that by now we would know everything about the trading floor but truth is, some of the DMMs still get confused.
11am
Bobby and I went back up to our desks to run through our presentation a few times and really practice before our big presentation!
11:45am
Lunch was of course delicious again and our speaker was HR Director, Lyuba Golberg, and she talked about “what makes a good candidate?”.
1-2pm
Presentations were given! Bobby and I killed ares, received a lot of high-fives and hand shakes, and congratulatory remarks from peers. Presenting was a lot less nerve-racking than I thought it would be.
2pm
Gregg Krowitz, VP of Global Listings, gave us our closing remarks, goodbyes, and graduation. We received an awesome medallion that CEOs of the companies that list with NYSE receive on their IPO listing date. Definitely keeping everything I learned, all the people I met, and this medallion in my heart for a very long time.
If you ever get the opportunity to participate in this program, do it with absolutely no regrets. It was hands down one of the most amazing experiences I have had thus far.
