Thirty students interested in finance gathered in Druckenmiller Hall on a recent Saturday afternoon to learn the financial models they’ll need to know for entry-level finance positions.
The workshop was put on by Training the Street, a New York City-based firm that provides courses in applied finance fundamentals to students and newly hired graduates. The student-run club, Bowdoin Finance Society, sponsors a Training the Street workshop each semester to provide interested students with technical skills beyond those covered in their economics courses.
“While the program cannot cover as much on modeling as semester-long classes would, it teaches very helpful tools for rising juniors and seniors to have as they undertake the recruiting process on Wall Street: financial modeling, basics of accounting and corporate finance,” explained Hugo Tran ‘13, president of the Finance Society.
A variety of students attended Saturday’s workshop, including both those specifically interested in finance and some who said the skills taught by Training the Street would benefit them in other fields. “I signed up to get exposure to how Excel is used in the business/finance world,” Uche Esonu ’13 said. “Although most the jobs I’ve been exploring don’t deal with finance directly, they maintain close links with the business world. I also did it so that when I am talking with different alums about the tasks associated with their jobs/companies I have a gauge of what quantitative or business skills are required.”
Hunter Clark ’13 said he found the training to be widely applicable: “I thought the workshop was effective at familiarizing students with typical work done by first-year analysts in finance, but the Excel skills covered throughout the four hours were definitely a highlight, as a familiarity with Excel is essential in a large portion of jobs nowadays.”
The workshop is just one of many programs sponsored by the Finance Society, which also holds weekly lectures on finance and investing, as well as semester-long virtual trading contests.
Though Training the Street programs usually cost hundreds of dollars per student, Bowdoin students have access to them free of charge. Director of Career Planning Tim Diehl said the program is financially supported by Student Activities Fund Committee grants to the Finance Society and by an anonymous alumnus donor fund administered by Bowdoin Career Planning.
Story by Lidey Heuck ’13
