Student Profile: Efficiency and Markets

Jessica Hans '11
Pre-SOM: Credit Suisse Securities
Post-SOM: Blackstone Group
Executive Director, Finance Club

I’ve always been interested in business, markets, and efficiency. When I graduated from college, I wanted to get a broad introduction to the business world, so I joined Bain & Company. In just my first year, I was able to work with clients in the technology, healthcare/pharmaceutical, and automobile industries. Being on these projects was a great way to learn about how businesses function within markets, how management makes decisions, and what they can do to be more efficient. I was actually surprised by how inefficient businesses could be, and how bad decisions could lead to utter chaos.

Later, I started working on Wall Street, at Credit Suisse, then Credit Suisse First Boston, in structured products. Two Yale SOM alumni were in my group, and they spoke very highly of SOM—especially regarding its diversity. I didn’t want to go to a school that forced me to pigeonhole myself into a group, so I thought, "Why not challenge myself by looking outside of what I know and immersing myself in an environment with people that come from different backgrounds?"

I can’t stress enough how I’ve benefited from the incredible range of experiences here. My classmates have done extraordinary things in areas I didn’t even know about before coming to school.

What I also found was that the teaching here is incredible. The interdisciplinary curriculum is so effective and added new perspectives to what I had been learning. Professor Barberis, who teaches the Investor course, is an expert in behavioral finance, and he challenged us to question efficient market theories. Those extensions and that form of teaching helped me understand the whole field much, much better.

For my International Experience trip here at SOM, I went to China with Professor Jeffrey Garten and 17 fellow students. The trip focused on China’s financial services sector, especially on how public policy in China intersects with its economic policy. There was a lot of work that went into learning about the nation—its culture, its economy. In addition, we examined the efforts of private companies to develop a presence in China. On the trip, we met with the New York Times bureau chief in China, one of the heads of the Central Bank of China, the mayor of Hong Kong, and other people who had unique vantage points on the nation and its place in the world. It was incredibly informative.

Interviewed on January 26, 2011.