Week One

Only a week of the internship at Merrill has gone by....9 more weeks to go! I was busy the first three days of last week with an orientation required for all interns. There were students there who will be working all over the country (the networking skills that Ross has ingrained in me definitely came in handy). To be honest, it was kinda dry but that's neither here nor there. After the orientation, on Thursday, I had the pleasure of meeting the actual people I will be working with this summer. My manager's name is Rich and I work with two guys named Alex and Rafael. They are actually all pretty cool and I feel like we are developing a great relationship. I work on a huge sales desk. There are no cubicles in the office, just one big open space where everyone sits....kinda cool. My particular group works with concentrated equity. Our job is to create different structured products around this equity that are tailored to a clients specific needs. For example, a client may want to hedge against downside market risk. We can create a specialized product using derivatives to help him/her do this. In effect, our clients are actually financial advisors who have clients with large equity holdings. I am in the learning process right now, trying to figure out the ins and the outs of this business. It is interesting to me and I intend to ask a lot of questions! My office is located in the World Financial Center right on the Hudson River. When I look out the window, I see the Hudson on one side and the World Trade Center construction  on the other. The other day, I decided to walk home. It was absolutely beautiful walking along the river and looking at the water and New Jersey City on the other side. I walked all the way back to my cozy NYU dorm. With two roommates, one being a Ross student, we are packed into one room. It's cozy though and I am enjoying myself. Other than that, NYC is a crazy place, from the high roller night clubs to the underground subways. But I love it all. It's a great city with a lot of opportunity waiting to be taken. That's all for now, talk to you guys soon!