Aaron Heisler, Product Controller
Aaron Heisler, Product Controller, Credit Suisse
Undergraduate Degree and Major:
BA in Theater (Acting Concentration)
Graduate School(s) / Degree(s) / Year(s):
Baruch College, Zicklin School of Business
Honors MBA Program/ MBA/ 2007
What are your responsibilities at work and how does your degree help you achieve them?
I control trading and adjustment books for our Latin American fixed income derivative markets. This requires me to monitor these markets and explain the profit and loss (P&L) that the firm makes, in addition to reviewing valuation models, ensuring that related information is accurate throughout the firm's systems, and applying accounting principles and rules to ensure accurate balance sheet representation of our positions.
What do you enjoy most about what you do?
The variety of tasks challenges me to apply my financial, accounting, and operational skills to keep up with our many responsibilities. Serving so many different clients gives me exposure to many areas of the firm and provides an excellent macro-level view of the sales and trading side of the bank. Understanding these interrelationships gives me the insight to understand how one decision/action has a vast number of implications throughout the bank.
What do you enjoy least about what you do?
All of those responsibilities and all of those clients can get overwhelming, especially when something goes wrong. There are days when you can have 20 different people/groups at the bank that all need immediate responses from you.
Why did you choose this career?
I know that for me to be happy in a job, I need a fast-paced and challenging environment; after looking at a number of other opportunities, I determined that financial services was the best fit for me. I had not worked in financial services, so I was looking for an opportunity to get into the industry and learn and see as much as I could from the inside. My current role gives me a broad view on how a large portion of a firm and the industry works, strategically as well as logistically.
Why did you choose to get an MBA?
I had been working in theater and dance for a number of years, and my hobby had been reading books on business strategy, marketing, and finance. I finally decided that I was ready to do something else professionally, but I wasn't sure what. My mother-in-law suggested I get an MBA to explore my options, and when I went to an open house for the Honors MBA Program at Baruch I was sold.
What was your first job post-MBA?
Initially, I was brought into my current team to put together structured trade reviews, which are comprehensive documents explaining all aspects of our most complex trades. About a month after I started I was put in charge of the project and the other three employees assigned to it; we had a major deadline to finish the project within three months and we met it. After that I was moved into my current role.
What traits should someone have to be successful in your career?
The ability to develop context. If you can quickly grasp context, you can step into any situation or problem and immediately identify the critical factor(s) and the implications of any of the possible outcomes. Due to the nature of this role, this is extremely important—you need to have an idea of the impact of your actions on legal, regulatory, tax, capital treatment, operations, and numerous other aspects of doing business.
Traits to be successful in an MBA program:
A very healthy appetite for learning, a desire to constantly reassess and improve yourself, and a willingness to take risks. Also, an aptitude for being able to see from other people's perspectives. An MBA teaches you how each and every area of a firm works and how to communicate with the people in those areas of the firm. A CEO will not have worked in every department of his firm, but he has to be able to communicate with and manage every department.
What advice would you give someone considering an MBA?
I would suggest giving serious thought to whether you want an MBA or another, potentially more relevant, graduate degree. If you want to be an accountant, then an MS in accounting may be more appropriate; want to be a quant, then perhaps it's an MS in financial engineering that you should be pursuing. The MBA degree is supposed to be about training and teaching business leaders, but it seems that people often pursue MBAs when what they really want is advanced technical acumen, not management skills.
When considering MBA programs, what do you suggest prospective students look for?
I suggest that they look very closely at what they really want to get out of an MBA. Assess every aspect: location, class size and mix (gender, international), cost, employment opportunities, alumni network, etc. The MBA Accreditation board ensures that all accredited schools teach basically the exact same curriculum, so the classroom education that you get will be largely the same wherever you go. Take the time to get to know some of the many different types of programs out there (not just the few top schools that always get media attention). There is a program that will be the right fit for you!
