Students on the Blog: Site visit to Nasdaq

By Anna Baturina
MBA ’21 Concentration in Finance

Long before I became an MBA student, I had been curious about how companies raise capital, especially through an Initial Public Offering (IPO). What constitutes a successful valuation that helps to identify the right price point? Having pondered these questions for some time, I was eager to take part in a site visit to Nasdaq in August that was organized by the Graduate Career Management Center.

Zicklin Site Visit to Nasdaq

I imagined Nasdaq to be a typical Wall Street firm that comes with a grueling work schedule, enforces a strict dress code, and provides little room for its employees to find their voice or make an impact within the organization. What I learned from the experience was that my preconceived notions were totally wrong.

When you think of Nasdaq, you might think of all the companies listed on its stock exchange, such as Microsoft, Apple and Netflix. But Nasdaq is more than simply a stock exchange. Helping many tech companies go public, Nasdaq considers itself a tech company in its own right. In my opinion, it is a reflection of the tech industry. In 1971, when the majority of processes on stock exchanges were manual and costly, Nasdaq launched and pioneered a computerized trading system. Today, Nasdaq continues to “Rewrite Tomorrow” by creating new opportunities across 50 offices around the world to reimagine the markets.

Zicklin Site Visit to Nasdaq

Nasdaq takes pride in empowering employees and interns to contribute in meaningful ways, while allowing them to continue learning through education, spend quality time with family, and generate new ideas. A number of their current projects were first presented as suggestions by junior employees and have since been implemented. Nasdaq values growth and sets no limits. Even interns can make an impact, and in fact the firm’s CEO, Adena Friedman, one of the few female CEOs in the industry, started at Nasdaq as an intern.

At Nasdaq, we received valuable advice from our hosts, which included a number of Zicklin graduate alumni. One piece of advice was to strive to be the best at something, which will help you stand out. Networking with your coworkers, and increasingly knowing programming languages, are crucial for success. While many might think that programming is not a necessity for their target career, some knowledge of SQL, Python or R can significantly broaden the list of positions students are qualified for, as well as open new opportunities that they might not have been considering.

Zicklin Site Visit to Nasdaq

Starting my MBA with a concentration in Finance, I'm still seeking to get exposure to the IPO market as a summer intern. I left Nasdaq’s offices feeling inspired. Inspired to take advantage of the opportunities in front of me, as well as to learn the most I can during my MBA to help propel me forward.