Grad's guide to graduate admissions essays - Colleen Reding 2015
University of California, Berkeley - Haas school of business
Business
1. If you could choose one song that expresses who you are, what is it and why?
In Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Wonka sings “Pure Imagination”: “If you want to view paradise/Simply look around and view it.” Although, unfortunately, our world is not comprised of chocolate rivers and schnozberries, it is, like Wonka’s factory, an astounding place that excites my inner dreamer and explorer. What began as a teenager obsessed with rock climbing in the Northeast expanded to a global fascination with pushing my limits and exploring some of the most remote parts of the world. This year, I have SCUBA dived in Iceland, mountain biked in the Moab desert, and backpacked Alaska. However, simply exploring is not enough. Wonka expresses the importance of sharing these experiences: “Come with me/And you’ll be/In a world of/Pure imagination.” I push my friends and family to join me on these excursions and, in doing so, have grown closer in my existing relationships as well as have made many new ones. The global opportunities at Haas are one of the main reasons I am so excited about the program.
My passion for innovation and belief in creating my own destiny is also asserted in the lines “Anything you want to/Do it/Wanta change the world?/There’s nothing/To it.” Working hard to go from a walk-on on Georgetown’s varsity baseball team to a 3-year starter while still being a cum-laude student and active Baker Scholar exemplifies my drive. This focus has now shifted toward pursuing an MBA at Berkeley where I will concentrate on global entrepreneurship with a goal to one day “change the world.”
2. What is your most significant accomplishment?
This year my line manager acknowledged my productivity and growth and gave me my own account list ahead of schedule. What makes this my most significant accomplishment, besides the sped up timeline, is that I have also considerably increased revenues with these accounts in my first year and have already surpassed the productivity of many of my peers. For example, one of my derivatives account’s volumes are up over 500% annualized in 2012 and Barclays has jumped to become their top-rated dealer. Now, the account does not even put us in competition with other dealers, which is a rarity in our business and a testament to the relationships that I have built with their traders. I have also received some challenging accounts; ones that were frustrated with Barclays in the past and had generally stopped trading with us. One index manager in Minnesota fit this description; however, within the first month of covering him, we printed a $20,000,000 trade, which was the largest trade any of my managers had seen from the account. He has remarked that his relationship with Barclays has been much better since we started working together. The successes that I have had so far with my account base have been very gratifying and the results have been my greatest accomplishment to date.
However, more important than my personal accomplishments has been the success of our Chicago rates team. The three of us in Chicago work seamlessly together and are currently way ahead of our 2012 revenue target, which is impressive given the current economic landscape.
3. Describe a time when you questioned an established practice or thought within an organization. How did your actions create a positive change?
Shortly after my move to Chicago with Barclays, the debt crises in Europe reemerged and created an unpredictable macroeconomic landscape that was susceptible to large swings from “headline risks.” Due to the uncertainty, our traditional Chicago institutional clients moved their money out of the market and trading volumes fell. As a result, our Chicago team experienced declining activity and revenues.
Fortunately, my background was perfect for the changed environment. Hedge funds, which were my specialty in New York, thrive in times of uncertainty and market dislocation. I quickly proposed that we should react by diversifying our client base to include more hedge funds and proprietary trading shops. I had already developed a strong relationship with a proprietary trader in Chicago, and my age, experience in New York, and personality aligned perfectly with these accounts, so I was confident that our group could build more “fast-money” relationships.
My managers trusted me and either sent me by myself or took me with them to prospect new clients, an invaluable learning experience since it was something that no one my age was doing. We established relationships with many new accounts, immediately increasing our fast-money coverage more than 10 times in the first 6 months. As the European crisis hit its pinnacle through late 2011 and into 2012, trading volumes from our traditional Midwest clients dried up and our new clients were the drivers of our revenue. In fact, despite the volatile market we are still running at 130% of budget.
4. Describe a time when you were a study of your own failure. What specific insight from this experience has shaped your development?
The sole propeller in our Cessna-172 windmilled lifelessly in the wind as I ran through my emergency procedures. “Mayday, mayday,” Matt, the pilot in the seat next to me, blurted over our radio.
A few hours earlier, I had been on the ground inspecting the plane to make sure it was safe for us to conduct our flight. The one red flag that I noted was that the fuel tanks were only half-filled. Doing some quick math, I calculated that the flight was doable, but without much room for error. When I pointed out our fuel situation to the pilot-in-command, he declared that there should be enough fuel for our flight, and we fired up the engine.
A few hours later we were forced to emergency land in a snowy backyard. Looking back on the situation, I had ignored my instincts and blindly accepted the pilot-in-command’s analysis of our fuel situation based on his seniority and flight experience.
Since the crash, I have encountered many similar situations. At Barclays, I will routinely price trades and come up with a different result than a senior trader. The plane crash taught me to be confident about my judgment and not be afraid to push back on a superior in the proper situation; one memorable incident saved our company $50,000 on the pricing of an amortizing swaption. The crash also reinforced the importance of perseverance. Two weeks later I was back up in the sky, making that same flight, and I have since continued to achieve more advanced ratings and licenses.
5. a. What are your post-MBA short-term and long-term career goals? How have your professional experiences prepared you to achieve these goals? b. How will an MBA from Haas help you achieve these goals?
Ever since my early days of dissecting old computers with my dad, technology has fascinated me. Later, this hobby inspired a degree in computer science at Georgetown, the foundation of my website development company, and the start of the website I created. The time I spent brainstorming ideas for the website, watching it organically grow, and seeing it receive the second most hits on ABCNews.com, were some of my most fun and rewarding times. I am currently in the planning and development stages of a new website idea, which provides entrepreneurs with a “start-up lab” and a social matching service to investors, engineers, lawyers, and more. I plan to concentrate my studies at Haas in entrepreneurship with the goal to join an early stage technology start-up and eventually found my own.
Although my goal is to switch industries, my time at Barclays has provided me with essential skills that will aid this transition. I have found many parallels between growing my client portfolio at Barclays and the experience that I had starting my website design company. To increase market share, I have needed to be knowledgeable about my customer base, deliver thorough work in a timely manner, and work well with my teammates. My role at Barclays is also very client facing, and I have built the confidence to provide my market opinion and trade suggestions to some of the most important money managers in the Midwest. This has been effective training for when I will need to pitch to investors or eventually try to hire someone away from a competitor.
Barclays has also forced me to mature as a businessman in an extremely demanding environment. The head of my division was sure to remind me of this my first day, warning me that “there are no safety nets in trading” and that “every day could be your last.” The work ethic and thick skin that I developed through decades of serious athletics has allowed me to succeed at Barclays. I know that if I can thrive in the fierce financial industry then I can work anywhere, so I am prepared to tackle any coming career challenges.
After Barclays, Haas will be a perfect progression for me both educationally and for my career. I elected to get a liberal arts degree at Georgetown because I knew I would later pursue an MBA. I have always had a very curious mind (my friends made fun of me for claiming that class selection time was one of the best times of the year), so the educational freedom at Georgetown College instantly appealed to me. The 12 core classes at Haas, such as financial accounting and strategic leadership, will allow me catch up on subjects that I forwent at Georgetown and that are essential for someone running his own business to take, while Haas’ 60% elective curriculum will satiate my intellectual curiosity.
Furthermore, Haas’ commitment to entrepreneurial studies, through classes such as the “Entrepreneurship Workshop for Start-ups,” will provide the educational foundation to help jumpstart a technology start-up. In addition to all the noteworthy classes, the numerous extracurricular activities and support systems that Haas offers will help cultivate my entrepreneurial spirit. Contests like The Intel Global Challenge would evoke my competitiveness and the Lester Center and its offerings, such as Skydeck, the speaker panels, and the opportunity to work with Jeff Burton, are all invaluable experiences for budding entrepreneurs. Whether inside or outside the classroom, I am genuinely excited about the opportunity to study in the epicenter of innovation and learn from Haas’ unparalleled faculty and staff.
Lastly, with the world becoming increasingly interconnected, it is clear that any future company will need to compete on a global scale. For instance, the new austerity measures in Europe should leave a lot of European entrepreneurs starved for a cheaper home to start and grow their business. Understanding foreign business practices will be crucial in effectively partnering with this market. I love that Haas encourages its students to learn abroad and am particularly excited about the IBD program, which would allow me to hone my innovative leadership skills on a global platform. I was unable to study abroad at Georgetown due to the yearlong commitment of a Division I sport, so I look forward to the international opportunities at Haas. Haas’ complete curriculum will help me further develop the business skills that I learned at Barclays, fill in my education gaps from Georgetown, and provide a springboard for a career in technological entrepreneurship.
