May 6, 1998
Graduates of MBA Investment Fund reap top jobs
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AUSTIN, TX. - The graduating managers of UT's MBA Investment Fund have already proven their skills at overseeing financial investments. Now they are reaping the rewards of their educational investments.
Those rewards came in the form of accepted job offers from Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs, and ten other prestigious financial firms. "The offers definitely exceeded my expectations, I couldn't have had it play out better," says Mark Wang, who took a position in fixed-income trading with Merrill Lynch.
Paul Burkhardt, who will be working for Enron in capital and trade, agrees with Wang, saying that as a group the graduating managers are extremely happy with their job offers. Without flaunting numbers, the graduates say their compensation packages slightly exceed averages for their MBA class as a whole, which is currently reporting a $73,000 average salary with bonuses that push the numbers into the 80s.
Burkhardt felt that his experience on the Fund helped during interviews, in part because Fund managers come to the table having already tracked specific industries. "I concentrated on health care and financial institutions, and that gave me something to talk about and focus on in the interviews," says Burkhardt.
"It definitely helps to be in tune with the market," adds Wang, who fielded questions about the S&P's daily performance during his interviews. Wang noted that mutual fund companies in particular appreciate time on the Fund, since they view it as direct work experience.
Fund Manager Tom Fletcher, who will be working in money management with AMVESCAP, was a military engineer before enrolling at UT. His experience on the Fund helped him pull of a transition "that would have been hard to manage otherwise -- to go from nuclear engineering to money management was a big jump."
AMVESCAP was one of several firms that came to the Business School specifically to interview Fund managers and then ended up hiring other MBAs as well. In this way, the Fund benefits many UT finance students.
This is the third class to graduate since the Fund's inception and the second since the opening of the EDS Financial Trading & Technology Center. Student managers are selected through a competitive application process during their first year of business school.
Contact: Dr. George Gau, Chairman, Finance Department, Director, EDS Financial Trading & Technology Center, 512-471-7973.
For information on specific programs at the McCombs School, consult our contacts page. For media information, contact the Communications Director by phone at 512-471-3314 or by email at CommunicationsDirector@mccombs.utexas.edu.
