hi all - it keeps on amazing me how many visitors this blog still has! i am glad the content on McKinsey, hedge funds, trading, interviewing and life at London Business School is still useful for many people - at least I know I didn't waste my time blogging (I knew anyway since I won the ipod for the best MBA blog in 2006, the ipod still works by the way :-) - thanks clearadmit.com!!!
I remembered this blog yesterday when I was filling in the FT Alumni Survey about my MBA at London Business School, hopefully we will be again number 1!
I told you to watch this space, and much more time than I expected has passed and I am still nowhere near where I wanted to be on my projects. Life has been busy. The markets are crazy. Not crazy, but volatile. I have a new website for women in business, it doesn't have much content yet but I am hoping to add a lot more over the next couple of weeks. The address is www.highflyingladies.com - check it out! I am working on writing several books actually. One is my McKinsey diaries combined with lessons learnt (you could say "how not to do it at McKinsey ;-) ), and another one is on my life in trading during the financial crisis - the problem is it is a never ending story :-). I was thinking of finding a publisher and all these things but have now decided to just design ebooks myself and self-market them eventually, there is so much for me to learn! I can't wait to finish them, I enjoy writing so much and blogging has always been fun but it would be great to publish a couple of books. I wish I had more time.
I am hoping to let you know soon once the McKinsey book is finished. Leave a comment here if you are interested - maybe I could have some of the readers of this blog to get a free preview of the book and let me know what you think about it?
Hope you're all well!
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Thursday, May 26, 2011
watch this space
Hi all. Haven't posted in a LOOOOONG time, I know. You can see trading really is a full-time job. A lot of my MBA classmates have switched jobs and countries by now but I am still in London, still trading away :-). I was just checking and realised that there is still a pretty decent stream of visitors to this blog, I am amazed. Unfortunately a lot of the comment sections have become hijacked by spam so I need to enable comment moderation again and delete a lot of spam.
anyway, I just wanted to say I am finally working on something new and hope you will watch this space. It will be something completely separate, but very much related (remember my original "about me" was about finding money and happiness, and these are still very much aspirations I follow and I think a lot of readers strive for. It may take a month or two or three till I can share a new link, but I just wanted to say watch this space, angel angie is alive and kicking.
anyway, I just wanted to say I am finally working on something new and hope you will watch this space. It will be something completely separate, but very much related (remember my original "about me" was about finding money and happiness, and these are still very much aspirations I follow and I think a lot of readers strive for. It may take a month or two or three till I can share a new link, but I just wanted to say watch this space, angel angie is alive and kicking.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
update
hello my friends... you can imagine my life has been very exciting over the last 6 months, and i decided to give everyone a short update, just in case you were wondering what happened during the financial fireworks over the last months. times have been very tough and it has been very difficult to keep going and hope for the best while watching the financial world crashing. It has been an incredible experience watching the crisis unfold from inside the trading floor, and I am happy to say that I still have a job and was able to land a position as a trader, so I am very very very happy and lucky. I will not share all the crazy stories on this blog or any other blog, but am writing down all my stories and hope to publish a proper book some time next year, if I ever get time to finish it - life is very busy now. Hope you are all well and keep your spirits high! all the best!
Monday, July 07, 2008
Last party of the MBA and the end of my blog
My friends, the MBA is over. The summer ball on Saturday was the final party at London Business School that I will attend in a long time. Of course, I may come back to Tattoo or Diwali next year, but it will not be the same anymore. I will miss those friends of mine who have left London for the Philippines, Italy, Russia, India and other places. Luckily, most of my friends remain in London, but we will hang out less than before.This is not only the end of my MBA, but also the end of this blog. I want to keep writing, but since I now start my job I will want to have an anonymous blog so I can express my ideas freely without being associated with a specific bank - I would not be able to write what I really think. For the same reason, I have always maintained this blog rather than blogging on the official London business school blog - simply to write whatever I felt without feeling I need to censor my thoughts. I am starting my new job on Wednesday, starting with a training in New York, and then joining the trading floor in London in October, and therefore this is my last post.
Thank you all to those who have followed this blog and sent messages of support over the years. I wish you all the best in achieving your dreams. I close with my favourite quote by the Nigerian writer Ben Okri:
OUR FUTURE IS GREATER THAN OUR PAST
- Ben Okri -
All the best,
angie.
Saturday, July 05, 2008
Graduation from London Business School
Can you believe it? Angel Angie, who two years ago was blogging about her miseries in the consulting world, then came to London Business School to move to London and find a new career has graduated today! I had a beautiful day celebrating with my friends! You can see all you need to see from these pictures.
Monday, June 02, 2008
MBA finances
I am graduating in 4 weeks, and am quite impressed by the cash flows I projected before starting the MBA. Though there were lots of deviations along the way, I had estimated that I should end the MBA with a balance of approximately 0, and this is what happened. I am disclosing my "profit and loss statement" for the 21 months of my MBA at London Business School. It is obviously rounded and approximated to the nearest 1000, and I have omitted holidays, clothes shopping etc.
Overall, you can see that I have managed to end the MBA without any debt. Actually the balance is higher than what I show because in reality my husband found a good job here after a while and we split the rent and other living expenses. So if you are coming to London Business School and want to make estimates, here's my recommendation for adapting the numbers to your situation:
- obviously, most of you won't be lucky enough to be paid by McKinsey without obligation to return ;-)
- if you have a partner, expect him/her to find a job after 3-6 months and enjoy :-)
- most banks and consultancies pay the sign on bonus tax free, somehow my bank refused to, so it was taxed which makes a big difference unfortunately
- Rent is one very big factor which will change the outcome. Even though I came here with my husband, we started off sharing, since he didn't have a job yet and we also didn't find studios that were cheap enough (we were willing to pay up to 230 pounds per week). I only knew one other couple that did that for the first year, and I think we were the only ones who did that for the two years. It's not easy of course, but that way we paid a rent of 837 pounds per month instead of 1200-1500 that we would have had to pay for a studio/1bedroom in this area. There were a lot of couples who had no income (and no McKinsey sponsorship and no scholarship) but opted for a 350 per week 1 bedroom. Of course it is more comfortable, but then I would have had about 15,000 pounds debt upon graduation, and now I am debt free, which feels great
So you see what to focus on: on the income side, internship salary, scholarships and bonuses are very important (I did two internships and obviously earned more than others), on the cost side, rent in London is the major factor (given that tuition fees are beyond your control).
I hope this helps. All numbers are given in GBP.
Net Income
McKinsey living expenses 15,000
Scholarship for tuition 20,000
Internship salary (20 weeks) 22,000
Internship bonus (so far) 15,000
Second year project 2,500
Total income 74,500
(excludes around 7,000 GBP in outstanding summer bonus and relocation allowance)
Cost
Tuition fees 41,000
Rent 17,640
Living expenses 18,900
Bills, phone etc. 1,050
Transport 1,050
Sum 79,640
Overall, you can see that I have managed to end the MBA without any debt. Actually the balance is higher than what I show because in reality my husband found a good job here after a while and we split the rent and other living expenses. So if you are coming to London Business School and want to make estimates, here's my recommendation for adapting the numbers to your situation:
- obviously, most of you won't be lucky enough to be paid by McKinsey without obligation to return ;-)
- if you have a partner, expect him/her to find a job after 3-6 months and enjoy :-)
- most banks and consultancies pay the sign on bonus tax free, somehow my bank refused to, so it was taxed which makes a big difference unfortunately
- Rent is one very big factor which will change the outcome. Even though I came here with my husband, we started off sharing, since he didn't have a job yet and we also didn't find studios that were cheap enough (we were willing to pay up to 230 pounds per week). I only knew one other couple that did that for the first year, and I think we were the only ones who did that for the two years. It's not easy of course, but that way we paid a rent of 837 pounds per month instead of 1200-1500 that we would have had to pay for a studio/1bedroom in this area. There were a lot of couples who had no income (and no McKinsey sponsorship and no scholarship) but opted for a 350 per week 1 bedroom. Of course it is more comfortable, but then I would have had about 15,000 pounds debt upon graduation, and now I am debt free, which feels great
So you see what to focus on: on the income side, internship salary, scholarships and bonuses are very important (I did two internships and obviously earned more than others), on the cost side, rent in London is the major factor (given that tuition fees are beyond your control).
I hope this helps. All numbers are given in GBP.
Net Income
McKinsey living expenses 15,000
Scholarship for tuition 20,000
Internship salary (20 weeks) 22,000
Internship bonus (so far) 15,000
Second year project 2,500
Total income 74,500
(excludes around 7,000 GBP in outstanding summer bonus and relocation allowance)
Cost
Tuition fees 41,000
Rent 17,640
Living expenses 18,900
Bills, phone etc. 1,050
Transport 1,050
Sum 79,640
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