Hundreds Fill 'Super Saturday'

Roughly a year ago, Jonathan Johnson, GS '06, attended an all-day event in Lerner Hall to network with the people who could help him score his dream job as an information technology analyst for a brokerage house. On Saturday, Johnson was back in Lerner, again networking with hundreds of people. This time, his name tag read "Employer: Bank of America Securities."

The occasion was Super Saturday, an event organized by the Center for Career Education that brought Johnson, along with scores of Columbia graduates in the finance and consulting industries, together with hundreds of students eager to know more about the industry.

Attendance at the event surprised event organizers, who said some 400 students from Columbia College, the School of Engineering and Applied Science, the School of General Studies and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences had checked in by 10 a.m., compared to about 200 students last year. An influx of students also trickled in after the lunch break. Barnard College students, who have a career services center separate from CCE, were not allowed to register for the event.

The information sessions, which differed from a standard job fair in that no resumes or applications were exchanged, were meant to target those interested in a career in either finance or consulting but whose understanding of the specifics in those professional fields was limited.

In fact, both main speakers at the event emphasized their non-finance background before choosing that career track. Paul Degen, Business '96 and a managing director at Lehman Brothers, warned the audience before delving into his detailed presentation of the different jobs within the finance world, "Those of you that know a lot can go play with your BlackBerrys."

Even students with slightly more knowledge of the industry seemed content with the format, however. An open-lunch networking session bustled with many trying to sell themselves to potential employers. Alumni, business cards in hand, alternated between doling out basic information about the industry and comparing their employers to others present in the room in a fine game of one-upmanship.

"It made me realize I need to focus on case studies more," said Matt Isanuk, CC '07.

Kavita Sharma, interim dean at the Center for Career Education, said the idea for the event came after financial services employers conducting interviews on campus approached her to note that many students said they were interested in a job in finance only to demonstrate very little knowledge of the field or what attracted them to it. "Something wasn't quite penetrating," Sharma said.

She added that Super Saturday was only one of the industry networking events planned by her office for the year, explaining that the early recruiting cycle that financial companies have for internships and jobs meant this was a logical choice to have top priority. In particular, a Media Networking Night is planned for late March.