Trekking to Charlotte

Greetings from the biggest city in North Carolina. I, along with about 30 other students, drove to Charlotte earlier today for tomorrow's investment banking career trek. This is a one day event for students interested in working for one of the two firms headquartered in Charlotte.

The program of events began this evening with a happy hour in the office building of one of the firms we will be meeting with tomorrow. We spent two hours on the 40th floor of the building, with a penthouse view of downtown Charlotte, mingling with associates and directors, many of whom are Kenan-Flagler graduates.

As we rode the elevator down to the lobby after the happy hour, I was reminded of the importance of always exercising discretion when speaking in front of an audience. I was standing in the back of a packed elevator when one of my classmates jokingly suggested that we stop on one of the other floors on the way to the lobby. I then announced my plans to stop by (name of the bank's CEO's) office tomorrow to complain about my checking account. More specifically, I am extremely unhappy with having been charged twelve dollars to receive a wire transfer and have gotten no help from the branch manager in Chapel Hill in my quest to get a refund.

Some of the students around me laughed while those standing by the elevator door were strangely silent. Then one of them said "Joey (not the person's real name), can you do something about that?" It was then that we realized one of the associates was in the elevator with us. The associate turned his head, looked at me, and said "I don't have that problem, my checking account is with (name of competitor down the street)." We all got a big laugh out of his quick and witty come back. I, personally, was extremely impressed at how skillful he was at defusing the awkward situation.

When we walked out of the bank's corporate headquarters, my classmates made sure the thick glass doors have completely closed and the associate had disappeared back into the building (probably to do more work) before they started to laugh hysterically at my diplomatic blunder. We then went to some bar where we got something to eat before returning to our hotels.