Professional

Just saw this unconventional “Recession Index” on NY Magazine’s Intelligencer. Some of the more interesting YOY figures:

• # of people spending $2k+ per night @ Marquee: -50% (bottle sales down 10%)
• Average daily late-night subway ridership, midnight to 6 am: +4% (people still fighting for black car vouchers?)
• Average rent for studio apartment in Murray Hill doorman building: -7% (anyone remember the last time rent decreased in NYC?)
• Cost of a standard room at Glassy New Cooper Square Hotel: -35% (also everywhere else, kind of nice for traveling actually)

I wonder what the correlation of these figures and S&P 500 is? Perhaps we need yet another niche ETF…

But apparently “Wall Street” won’t surrender on bonuses despite the meltdown as there will be at least $20b+ to go around this Season.

So, bottle?

NY Magazine via BankersBall

First Dow Kim, head of GMI, now Stan O’Neal, CEO, Merrill Lynch is dismissing its top execs left and right. I’ve been a big fan of both, especially O’Neal, being the first non-caucasian CEO of a bulge-bracket and his drastic changes when he took the lead at Merrill in 2002. He was one of the top reasons I chose the firm to start my career.

But that’s not the end of the story: layoffs are happening everywhere, bulge-bracket or not, thanks to subprime. I don’t have any friends affected yet. Best of luck to those that are.

From a friend that used to work for an international travel agency and my business travel experience over the years:

• Before the flight:
  • Cheapest tickets can be found on Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday mornings
  • Book 2 weeks (ideally a month) in advance so you can get cheap tickets, even for holidays
  • Use sites like Expedia/Travelocity to find best prices, but book with airline websites to avoid $5~$10 booking fees (this is in the process of being eliminated)
  • Pack light, don’t bring liquids over 3 onces, check in online a day ahead, then you can avoid the long check-in lines and go straight to the security checkpoint (free/paper tickets cannot be checked in online)
  • If possible, wear comfy clothes (e.g. sweatpants); if you have to bring a suit, wear it so it doesn’t get wrinkled in luggage
  • If your flight gets delayed/canceled, there’s probably a long line at customer service at the airport with angry flyers; call the airline 1-800 number instead to get quicker service (although if you want to get on a different airline’s flight you’ll have to take to someone at the airport)
  • Get aisle seats if you want to get up often, get window seats if you want to sleep
  • If you want free WIFI and airport doesn’t offer any, ask another flyer that looks like a business traveler with a laptop to create an ad-hoc laptop-to-laptop network with internet sharing so you can mooch off his company-sponsored EVDO/EDGE wireless internet; takes 2 minutes
• During the flight:
  • Ever noticed all the people standing on the back of the plane just chilling? They aren’t weirdos, but rather may have back/leg problems; walk around often if you do
  • Don’t drink things with sugar and eat the salted peanuts, always ask for water instead to stay hydrated
  • You can use your ipod headphones for satellite radio/TV (found on AirTran, JetBlue, etc.), they sound MUCH better and helps to save the environment
  • If there aren’t many flyers and you flirt with the flight attendant you may get a business-class seat for free, or at least get a whole row for yourself to sleep on

It seems that just about every other week there’s a need to forward on my interviewee’s cheat sheet to a friend or colleague. I’ve decided to put it up here for everyone’s convenience.

Cheat sheet is mainly geared towards investment banking and financial services interviews. It also includes links to some good articles (will feature more in future). Cheat sheet will be periodically updated but please feel free to email me with suggestions.

Interviewee’s.Cheat.Sheet-Ray.Shan.doc