Full-time MBA | Zuha Qazi

My favorite thing about New York isn't a particular spot or experience, it's a feeling. It's cliche, but New York really does have this buzz, this electricity, that can't really be replicated. I've had the good fortune of traveling a lot and seeing some beautiful cities around the world, but somehow I've never found another city that has that same feeling. Some get close, but New York is in a league of its own.

There are two classes I really loved: the first was Predicting the Future of Tech with Professor Amy Webb and the other was Tech Innovation Strategy with Professor Melissa Schilling. I loved Predicting the Future of Tech because we would have these fascinating discussions of how what's happening at the fringe of a particular industry right now can be tomorrow's mainstream. Professor Schilling's class also had fascinating discussions, but they looked backwards and had a more traditional strategy lens. We studied past innovations and identified their merits, faults, etc. so that we could apply that to tech strategy moving forward. 

Investment banking recruiting is all about networking, and it makes sense - the job is about networking! Stern's Office of Career Development and our New York setting play a big role in facilitating that. The Office of Career Development hosts corporate presentations and other networking events on campus where every bank you can think of comes to meet with students. Being in New York though, we get more access than you would anywhere else since we're only a subway ride away from the banks. That means that alumni and other bankers stop by campus more often, but also that we can go in and meet teams at the firms. I have such a rich network now across different investment banks.

When I was recruiting, I was fortunate enough to get a number of offers from great banks but I had a hard time trying to figure out how to evaluate offers and what choosing one over another would mean for my career. I had an idea of what I wanted to do, but I called Professor Charlie Murphy to run my thoughts by him. Charlie Murphy ran global investment banking at Credit Suisse before joining Stern, so he was particularly well-suited to help me. Of course my career decisions were ultimately my own, but having professors that I can count on for support, to answer questions, to offer guidance is really meaningful. I still check-in with him every once in a while and I expect I will do that even after I graduate.

Stern and community are synonymous to me. Our class size is small enough that we really get to know each other but we also give back to the school and to each other in different ways, which makes us even tighter. Almost every person here is actively involved in at least one club. For instance, I give back to Stern as a Career Development VP in the Graduate Finance Association. As a result, not only do I get to spend time with my classmates giving back to Stern, but I get to know the class below me really well too. There are more than just professional clubs though. Other clubs and activities are specifically geared towards making sure we spend time getting to know each other. Stern Speaks, for example, is an event held almost every week where an MBA1 and an MBA2 share what makes them who they are. Here, we believe you're more than what you do.

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