Monday: A typical day starts with the morning (it may actually be
mid morning) business newspaper. Half through the paper, I realize that I need
to complete the assignment due for submission that evening… a frantic search of
my desk to locate all those scrap papers that I did over the weekend to find
that one sheet which I thought was the right answer ... take a final look and
satisfy myself that indeed is the right answer. Some more reading of the last lecture and its 5:00 in the evening
and time for the classes… a fantastic and an interesting discussion on “Greeks”
continues in the class (one wonders would it have been better, if you were a
Greek and if some one says “Options is greek (and latin) to me”, he is
perfectly right, but you would never know what he actually meant). Atleast
there is one person in Class of 2006, who is comfortable with Greek (and yes we
are learning an additional language as well, did I hear some one mentioning
spinoff benefits). Post dinner, mostly a sandwich or a pizza, its time to read
the other half of the morning paper, if you are lucky that day.
Tuesday: Today is a day some of my classmates (me included!) spend
an hour at the fitness center (UofC has an excellent fitness center, a nice
place to de-stress). Coming out of the center, I’m already thinking (did I say
de-stress, sorry I take that back) of the next impending assignment, on the
Finance topics, that includes a liberal dose of programming. Monday was
definitely better (I need to model life as a super-martingale!!, yesterday was better).
Orignially I thought life is a zero sum game, then a zero NPV project and now
it appears to be something else altogether. On my way back, meet a classmate who
mentions about the Information session of a BB investment bank and a resume submission
deadline, which means more work on googling!!!! (a topical example of noun becoming a
verb) and some work on my resume. Rush to the classroom to attend a TA session.
Wednesday: “My tryst with
stochastic calculus” as well as another assignment for submission. As I sit at
the cafeteria and finalise the submission, I remember that a classmate
mentioned an alternative solution … call him to figure it out. An intellectual!
discussion on probability and I feel my solution is also fine. Attend the
lecture that evening and what you hear is a bit difficult to comprehend the
first time. Thanks to the videotaped lectures.
End of the lecture and its time to complete the finance homework. A
meeting of “Beautiful Minds” (our study group of “Mathematicians”) at the
corridor and hurrying down to the computer does not help … get a feel that it’s
going to be a long night ahead. After a couple of months here at UofC, I realised
that Hindi movies are screened on Wednesdays and the badmindon is the game of the
day at the athletic center. No chance buddy, if you are a finmath student.
Thursday: At 12’ AM, back home with a problem in hand. A nice coffee
(I do miss the south indian coffee) to get me going for the rest of the night.
Some hours later, the solution appears on the screen and by now anything that
broadly resemble numbers seems to be a good answer to the assignment. A small
celebration of sorts starts. We have a self styled commander in our group, who
does not tolerate these and we are back to assignment. May be I’m just wrong he
wants to crash a little early (before sunrise). We manage collectively to get
the codes in place and it works. Its
about 5 AM now and one of our teammates has to be at office in about 3 hours
from now. This schedule is a regular feature and we have come to terms with.
Not the end of the night buddy, need to read for the quiz at the class. The
quiz goes off fine.
Friday: The proof of the pudding is in its eating. You go home to
see a mail from a top-tier Wall Street bank for a phone interview…. time to
celebrate! Not too soon… there is probably a few more rounds of interview to go
before you can end up getting that much-awaited offer. Are interview processes
american puts!. (you have a short position). You always have an intruder in these
wonderful moments … a call from a depressed soul, who did not hear back after the
nth round of interviewing…. forces you to grab the books to prepare
for that call at 10:00 AM (ET and not local time) the next Tuesday.
Saturday: The morning session is normally the day to attend
workshops, an excellent opportunity for interaction with the industry
professionals. The later part of the day would have been ideally spent
partying. Not if you are an UC student. You have lot of other things to do and
deliver them the following week and just 2 days before the next cycle. Partying
takes a back seat (the last time I partied hard was with my friends way back in
August) and I have actually started to believe that life can still go on
without a weekend. But yes, there are some people in the class who play cricket
during the weekends and attend most, if not all the campus parties. Some more
reading and some more scrap sheets and few more coffees. I realize, the next
time I sign an apartment lease, I should ask for a price inclusive of
utilities.
Sunday: Gear up for the next week. A day to catch-up with most of
the events of the previous week. In hindsight, the week has been grueling, but
really enjoyable, if you love math and feel you can define real-life problems and
solve with Math.
Updated: February
24, 2006
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