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GUEST BLOG: Welcome to the world of Corporate Finance

by Saloshnee Nightingale September 29, 2015
World Of Corporate Finance Freshminds

​We're delighted to welcome Gleacher Shacklock's Saloshnee Nightingale, an Associate within TMT team, as our guest blogger.

We caught up with Saloshnee to get the low-down on all things Gleacher Shacklock, as the search begins to find top new Corporate Finance professionals through their Internship Programme.

Can you tell us a little bit about your career and how you’ve progressed at Gleacher Shacklock?

I applied for Gleacher Shacklock’s 2010 Internship Programme whilst studying Geography and Economics at UCL. Gleacher Shacklock encourages candidates with both qualitative and quantitative degrees given the role uses such a range of skills - so the combination of my degree subjects was well suited to an Analyst role at Gleacher Shacklock.

Following on from my internship, I joined the Analyst Programme in August 2011. After undertaking 6 weeks training we were assigned to teams. I joined the TMT team but have also worked on projects in Retail, Leisure, Transport and Industrials. I was promoted to Associate level in June last year.

Why did you decide on a career in Corporate Finance?

I chose my degree course because I particularly enjoyed the quantitative aspect, but also finding the “real world” evidence to back it up. Corporate Finance is pretty similar as there’s both a problem solving and a social element to it. The in-depth analysis of a company’s financials combined with ideas of how to improve a firm’s position or how to carry out a firm’s strategy appealed strongly to me.

What attracted you to Gleacher Shacklock?

I found the idea of joining a bulge bracket structure unappealing as I believed that working at a junior level in a large bank would not provide me with the level of deal exposure and development I was looking for. During my internship I enjoyed the work, the responsibility and the collegiate atmosphere of the firm, to the extent that I felt that I would not be able to replicate the experience anywhere else.

What does your typical day involve?

Most days, I come in at 8am, and attend a daily 8.30am meeting which everyone in the firm attends. What I do on a day-to-day basis depends entirely on what I’m working on at that point in time. If I’m working on a live deal then anything could have happened overnight, so much of my day will be spent dealing with whatever’s cropped up. If I’m not working on a live deal my day involves checking what deals are on the horizon and preparing for meetings.

What exciting work have you been involved in while you’ve been at Gleacher Shacklock?

So far, during my time at Gleacher Shacklock I have been lucky enough to work on a large range of deals across a range of industries and have been allowed to interact closely with the senior members of finance teams of a number of large international companies. A particular highlight for me was working on the capital refinancing of Thomas Cook in 2013.

What advice would you give to someone joining your Internship Programme?

I think that the Internship Programme offers a great opportunity to find out if Corporate Finance is for you. To get the most out of the experience in terms of both development and enjoyment you’ll need to work hard and go above and beyond.

A big thank you from Freshminds to Saloshnee for giving us an insight into her career, what it's like to work in Corporate Finance and for introducing the Gleacher Shacklock Internship Programme!

If you would like to find out more about Gleacher Shacklock’s Internship Programme, you can read about it here.

Sound like a career in Corporate Finance might be for you? Gleacher Shacklock are holding a series of events to give you the chance to meet a range of individuals from the business and find out more about their careers. Find out more about these events here and register your interest by emailing your CV to GleacherShacklock@freshminds.co.uk

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