New Year, New Skills: What I’m Learning This Semester in the Fisher SMF Program
Winter break is always a hard adjustment. Going from working on courses, assignments, and projects with major time constraints to nothing requires a hard psychological reset. Some find it easier than others and are ready for a break, while others find it difficult to adapt to. While there were no courses or assignments to work on, there was plenty of work to be done, such as networking and continued searching for a summer internship. Winter break provided a great opportunity to apply many of the practices I learned through the Professional Development course taught in junction with the Office of Career Management at Fisher.
With the new semester having started, new classes, goals, and opportunities to refine my skills have surfaced. Within two weeks of class, Columbus and OSU and much of the Midwest and East Coast were hit with the largest snowstorm I think I have ever witnessed in my lifetime. After grinding through the cold, the storm brought at least a foot of snow in just a day, forcing many classes to cancel or be held online. With the first few weeks of elective classes under my belt and with things returning to business, I am excited to share some of the new skills that I hope to learn and refine this semester:
The first is stronger financial modeling and valuation skills. One of the biggest priorities for me this semester is becoming faster and more precise in building financial models. With the knowledge I learned from the core Financial Modeling course taught last semester, I am hoping to have the ability to apply this in the Student Investment Management (SIM) class, where each student is assigned a stock to cover and is assigned groups by sector. Having the ability to build clean models, understand value drivers in a specific firm, strengthening my DCF analysis, and connecting my assumptions to firm and sector specific performance will allow me to justify the University Endowment’s position in my stock (Chipotle or ticker CMG).
Another skill that I’d like to refine is a deeper understanding of markets and corporate finance. Two of my courses I am taking are very casework focused, M&A and Corporate Financing. These two courses are interesting to me as they both deal with decisions in how a firm’s management makes choices regarding its capital structure and if certain decisions create value for the firm, such as acquiring another firm to realize synergies or raising debt versus equity to finance its operations. What is also compelling is learning about the different perspectives of corporate financing: equity shareholders, a firm’s management, and a firm’s competitors all hold views on a firm’s capital structure. Understanding these perspectives gains valuable insights into how a specific firm employs its financial policy.
As the semester unfolds, I am excited to continue building on these skills, and making the most of everything Fisher has to offer.
