Student launches career while completing Corporate Finance course
When Mikhail Kovalenko left his homeland of Kyrgyzstan to attend Rockford University, IL in 2012, his mind was set on completing an education in Business Administration and Management, and that’s exactly what he did. After receiving his BA in 2013, he earned his MBA with a concentration in Marketing from that same university in 2015. While eager to develop his knowledge in finance, he had a particular professional interest in exploring business valuation and mergers and acquisitions. With this objective in mind, he enrolled in the Corporate Finance course in the Financial Decision Making certificate program at Graham in January 2016. Meanwhile, as his ultimate goal was to launch his career, he started to network to make himself professionally visible to consulting firms.
Soon after he started his class, a recruiter from Kazakhstan, a neighboring country of Kyrgyzstan, contacted him through LinkedIn regarding a management consulting position with KPMG. A four-week round of Skype interviews followed. During the second round, led by the hiring manager, Mikhail, in addition to solving a probability case, was asked about the Capital Asset Pricing Model and weighted average cost of capital. His answers came easily. Not only was he familiar with these materials, but his last Corporate Finance class session was on these very topics; an unexpected and welcome rehearsal of information. He knew he had successfully fulfilled his second round of interviews, as the main purpose was to show his level of knowledge and ability to perform on task throughout the resolution of a case study.
Mikhail went on to interview with the company partner who concluded the fourth round by making him a job offer; not the entry-level position Mikhail had in mind, but an intermediate-level career opportunity: Consulting Manager Level 2. Mikhail did his best to tame his excitement and was now faced with the unsettling task of having one week to rethink the course of his life. Accepting this offer meant starting a job in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, Central Asia, within four weeks. He accepted the job offer, worked with his instructor and classmates to make sure he completed his part of the Corporate Finance’s project for the final presentation although he could not be present that day as he had to catch a flight back to Kyrgyzstan. Being a hardworking and high performing student, he received complete support from everyone in his class. He was back at his parents’ home for a minute to grab his belongings, and within a couple of days found himself at the airport again, but this time to catch a 2-hour flight to Astana, where he had less than a week to find an apartment and start his new job on March 28th.
Mikhail wanted to acknowledge David Ellis, his Corporate Finance instructor, for sharing his knowledge, offering his support and recommending books that have already proven to provide invaluable help for his young career. He also wanted to thank his classmates. Not being able to go on with the final stage of the presentation was very disappointing to him as he really enjoyed the teamwork component of this course and learned a lot from his group.
I have to thank David Ellis who first brought Mikhail’s story to my attention and Mikhail, who agreed to be interviewed via Skype while he was packing in Kyrgyzstan, 24 hours before flying to Astana.
AGENDA
Karine’s Note
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