Be Really Passionate of What You Do!
Marco Morelli
After the Meeting with Marco Morelli, together with a few selected Italian Corporate Finance Students, I was inspired and full of deep insights into the Investment Banking World.
Here I collected some of the most useful advice that he gave us as students.
Be Technically Skilled
Here in Italy, especially at Luiss, we are hugely prepared on the “Hardware” Technical part.
In Fact, the Skills and the Notions acquired into our school system are Excellent and the process is really Demanding.
It is common to have students committed to studying 10-12 hours per day, this will be a long-term competitive advantage thanks more mental flexibility and agility, but in the short term, this is done at expenses of more practical and problem-solving skills.
Luca Maestri too, Luiss Graduate and Chief Financial Officer of the Biggest Company in the World (Apple), after I questioned him in a private lesson at Luiss on why in Europe we haven’t “Unicorns Start-Up”, said me that our country lack of platforms, not of talents and that Italian Education in the Long Term is a competitive advantage and probably the best in the World.
Learn the Art and the Science to Resolve Problems in few.
Italian Graduates are Strategical Thinker, but we must focus our attention on Tactical Problem Solving, this is a weakness we need to work on.
Being able to solve Operative Problems on a few minutes or seconds is a fundamental capability we need to mature to be extremely successful to obtain a job and be able to retain it in the long term.
Also is fundamental to be able to analyze the problems as facts and not as emotional events, be every time able to manage stress and rationalize events: your scope is to resolve problems, not to extremize in positive or negative them perception.
In Offering an Answer to an absurd Problem doesn’t matter the “Correct Answer”, but your logical procedure and ability into arriving at it.
Having Huge GeoPolitical Culture.
You Have to Be Constantly Informed on what is happening in the World: you must perceive yourself as a Global Individual and not a National one.
So You have to be able to Travel constantly around the World without problems and Have a personal idea on what is happening, with specific and quantifiable insights.
Read at least 2 journals per day, with the contrasting and opposite view of the facts happened.
Be Specific and Precise – In a Quantifiable Way
If someone questioned you, doesn’t answer just to say something or to try to “persuade” the other person.
Give a specific and precise answer, basing on rational argument and available quantifiable data.
Don’t Select a Firm just because of the Brand
You Have to Know what they do, what they need and try to predict the evolution of their Future Need in Terms of Human Resource Composition.
If possible, study the Bio of who will Interview you and of the People you will meet: to adapt and profile the correct “frame” to use during the meeting.
Start Planning 3 Years Before – Divide your Professional Carrer into 3-Years planned blocks – Be Flexible
Study and analyze a specific function of a specific Firm and be able to answer in a specific and quantifiable way why you would like to work here.
This is a process that requires time: to have all the requirement to fit well for the specific function that you want to work into you need time to prepare and accumulate valuable experiences.
Be Diverse
Don’t limit Yourself to just studying, do something that characterizes you and gives practical and helpful Skills that you can reuse to be useful to the company
Learn the Importance of Ethics and Sustainability, especially for the Next Future
Manage the Attention: people remember just the last 30 seconds of your talk, go direct to the point and don’t talk more than 8 minutes
Improve Every Year and Be Passionate
The True Driver of the Success is not the Money, but a Genuine Passion for what you do.
Discover and Understand what fit the best for you.
Good Luck
Image Source: https://www.luiss.it/avviso/2018/11/07/breaking-investment-banking-incontro-con-marco-morelli-ceo-banca-monte-dei-paschi-
Love your work, thank you for this.