Testimonials

"Before my time at MITIMCo, I knew essentially nothing about investing, save for what I had learned in my Financial Investments class, which focused on efficient markets. As such, I had no exposure to value investing: I didn’t know what a long was, what a short was, what a margin of safety was. Yet at MITIMCo, I was able to learn about investing and various investment strategies in a hands on manner. Through personal reading, conversations with the incredibly talented and intelligent MITIMCo team, and meetings with brilliant managers, I quickly learned about investing, gleaning insights along the way from some of the smartest people I've ever met. In terms of the work that I did, I was able to immerse myself into the activities of MITIMCo, gaining a holistic view of the funds-of-funds space. I was afforded the opportunity to take ownership of the projects that I was working on, be it sourcing or memo-writing, due diligence or modelling. Through these processes, I learned a lot, and came out of the summer with a more complete understanding of investments than what I received from my Financial Investments course. I see no better place than MITIMCo to learn about investing. The team there has really worked hard to build a culture that fosters creativity, teamwork and curiosity. The people at MITIMCo are passionate and collegial, and always willing to help, be it with Excel or with a lunch recommendation."

-Michael Z. Jiang

"I interned at MITIMCO the summer after my freshmen year at MIT. I knew I was interested in finance and investing, though I had no previous experience. MITIMCO was the perfect opportunity for me to get hooked. It really is very different from working at a bank or hedgefund on Wall Street - the whole mindset is very different and they really made learning my top priority. Most of what I learned at MITIMCO is very abstract - I didn't do much math or bust out algorithms. At MITIMCO, they do investing from the core principles, an art that is being lost in today's fast-paced trading environment. Still, I believe that was the best environment for me to start my journey in finance, because when I did learn the math and algorithms, it really made more sense to me than just lines of code.  

I had several projects over the summer, and was given a lot of independence over many of them, and a lot of direction when I needed it. The best experiences came from interviewing the hedge fund managers that come to MITIMCO - the perks of the buy-side. There I was, eighteen years old, sitting across the table from some of the smartest minds in finance, having the ability to ask them any question I wanted (ok, not any question). The wealth of experiences they brought to MITIMCO was breath-taking, and gave me a glimpse into the all-star league of finance. 

I would definitely encourage anyone who is interested in learning about investing from the core principles to apply to MITIMCO. It is an experience that you will keep with you and remember for the rest of your careers. "

--Akshar Wunnava

"MITIMCo had a rich variety of learning opportunities for me, both within the office and as part of MIT.  Within the office, the best resource for learning were my team members.  During my first few months, Grace and Marty were excellent resources in teaching me a lot on-the-job.  There would be areas like relationship management, interviewing managers, adapting my writing style for the board book (and finance communication, generally), and other in-house tasks.  I got what I needed from the group, because people made themselves available to me to ask questions, review information, and best of all, practice it in realtime.  The realtime practice was particularly important, and opportunities such as attending conferences hosted by NMS, State Street, or Wellington, or traveling to London to meet managers, gave me the opportunity to put a lot of those skills to use.  Additionally, the office broadly contributed to my overall learning-through-doing.  The workshops that we had with you on interviewing candidates for the intern/analyst positions were great office-wide resources for me.  The occasional workshop with David on legal topics were very useful as well.  I learned more about fee negotiations with Phil Rotner in two weeks when working on our Japanese managers, than I learned in my negotiations course at MIT.  And I probably had my most intense period of learning when Grace was out of the office for a few months, because a lot of things I had learned were now required of me to plan and execute.  The thing I took away was that in the office we taught each other what we needed, and combined with reading, practice, and the fact that as a small office, we all carried a lot of responsibility, there was little room to NOT learn new things!

"Looking more broadly at MITIMCo within MIT, I tried my best to maximize my use of MIT's resources offered for employees.  I was able to take a probability and statistics class (6.041) while working, and I was very grateful at my ability to make a flexible schedule with my group, so that I could attend lectures and recitations at noon every day, and make up the work time in the evenings or mornings.  I also attended a few of MIT's high-profile lectures throughout the year, given by experts and statesmen/women from around the world, again as a result of working in a place with a flexible work environment, and thanks to Seth's philosophy that as part of MIT, people at MITIMCO should enjoy these and broaden their knowledge in its academic environment.  That last statement, in no small part, made MITIMCo a great place to work, and not just a 'good' place to work."

--Josue Martinez

Dear MITIMCo,

The past week or so on Outlook has not been fun, as I’ve had to decline almost every invitation thrown my way. Just yesterday, when I hit the red ‘X’ on “Ice Cream Sundae Party, Please respond”.  I knew my internship had finally come to an end. :’(

Thanks for making this summer so memorable, what with unique investment management experiences blended with spoonfuls of weekly all-star softball play and a baking competition in which I nearly burned down the building, not to mention generous helpings of witty commentary and endless smiles. At MITIMCo, I felt a team chemistry and ‘bonding’ that could only be engineered at the best technical university this side of the Milky Way Galaxy. 

There are too many people to thank, and thus I reserve the right to give you all a collective handshake/professional hug.

They say it’s better to be lucky than to be skilled. I say, why not go for both and be content while you’re at it?

Knowing there exists such a cornucopia of talent here, I wish this institution the

Best of luck and happiness,

--- Michael Shen