Nova_News_3rd_Edition

Edition #3 - October, 2011 P. 11

NOVA has a new club. The International Club aims at welcoming foreign students and help them with their new lives P. 15

Former NOVA students now taking a PhD, show you the way of how to ap-ply and enter in a PhD in Economics

Former NOVA student, Mário Mateiro shares how he wound up work-ing in one of the top consulting firms in the world P. 16

Interview with Miguel Ferreira

Currently the Director of the Masters in Fi-nance, ProfessorMiguel Ferreira tells us about his experience in Portugal and abroad, the future of the Mas-ters and his personal views on the economy

P. 8

Masters’ Welcome Week

P. 4

P. 2

The new Union on CampusNOVASU is the new face of FEUNL’s students association

Visit our website at: www.novanews.com.pt

As usual, the first days of the Winter semester were dedicated to welcoming the new masters students and we were there to cover it.

Send us an e-mail at: [email protected]

October 2011October 2011

Welcome, Masters!

Besides fun, the Welcome Week provides lots of exercise

The yearly reception for the new Masters students of NOVA took place during the first week of September. The days were full of activities, meant to familiarize the newcomers with their new colleagues and the environment of NOVA.

September is mostly a month of begin-

nings. Be it for the new freshmen who just arrived for the bachelor program all around Portugal, or for the master students here

at Nova who begin a new cycle, there is a certain rit-ual involved to make sure we will be able tofit in. For this reason, the masters students had 3 days whol-ly devoted to them.

What better way to start our masters than to see all the faces of our fu-ture colleagues together in a single auditorium? On September 5th, after some promises of hard work, the master students were welcomed with a feast, with drinks and snacks, and we had the first con-tact with our future class-mates and clubs. The night had reserved for us all an exclusive party at a famous

Lisbon nightclub. In a to-be-continued fashion, the 6th September was a day full of activities: climbing and human foozball right

in front of the university, the speed networking to get to know new faces, fol-lowed by live music and a night snack in the yard.

Creating a strong networking between students is one of the goals of the Welcome Week

But the main event came that Saturday at Pe-dra Amarela, nearby Sin-tra: teamwork in the mid-dle of the woods! After being divided in groups, with names such as Cucu, Team Number One or Wetwet, we either had to do team building exercis-es, such as the spider web game, slide, helping Na-ture by cleaning the woods or a lot of IQ games… and all this under the pouring rain! After a lunch to get to know each other better, the weather finally cleared up a bit and the activities continued. The results

of that day were gaining even more friends, hav-ing helped the monitors practice their English and a lot of team spirit, as well as remarkable will to win coming from everyone. To wrap up this welcome package, a party followed in a very summerish night club.

With an introduction week like this, maybe the masters will be a much more pleasant experience than one would expect.

Miguel Aguiar and

Ana Lopes

The students had the opportunity of having lots of fun at Serra de Sintra

Ana achieved this praiseworthy re-

sult competing in the fi-nal against twenty other teams of four students each. In the preliminary stages of the competition

there were over 1500 par-ticipants from all over the world.

Ana commented on her team’s performance: “The final balance of this competition was quite posi-tive. It was undoubtedly an enriching experience from which I definitely benefit-ed.” She also described what it was like to be in such a global environ-ment: “In the midst of all the competitive environ-ment it was still possible to interact with people with different cultures and opin-ions and, by being the only Portuguese representa-

tive in the event, I had the chance to proudly promote my country, my city, as well as Nova’s masters programs and all the opportunities that it provides to its stu-dents.”

Ana still highlighted how the participation in this type of events can be

quite relevant for the de-velopment of skills which complement a student’s academic life.

Rafael Barbosa

Ana Cláudia Olivei-ra, together with her multinacional team, ranked 3rd place in the international final of the Peak Time Business Game, organized by the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga.

Podium for NOVA Student

2 3NEWSNEWS

Ana Cláudia Oliveira receives a well deserved price

October 2011October 20114 5OPINIONNEWS

Do you believe in destiny? I do not.

I believe that everyone carves his own destiny and achieves success through pure will power and sweat. However, let us be hon-est, there is something like destiny that plays a role in

our lives. For example, if I had the luck to be born in a rich family then I would be, almost certaintly, a very well educated person with all the tools to achieve success. Conversely, if I had been born in a poor family I would likely be a person with low levels of education, subject to an adverse environment and would have very few op-portunities to succeed, not counting the many “op-portunities” to ruin my life further that would ap-pear frequently.

But what is the impor-tance of that luck/destiny factor and why am I talk-

ing about that? Because of an abstract, philosophical and almost lost concept called justice. It is only fair that at birth, all individu-als have the same oppor-tunities to develop them-selves in order to compete in all aspects of life, but essentially in the ones that will allow them to move between social classes. In that sense, comes the concept of social state, an expression quite used nowadays. Social State, in its ideal form, is nothing more than a State of op-portunities and a State of justice. In practice, it is a state that tries to provide basic conditions of equity with the objective of guar-anteeing that everyone has the chance to fight for a dream. In fact, this is the reason why I do not be-lieve in destiny, but only in a luck factor that can be overcome with will power.

Recently, this subject of social state has been under the spotlights due to the unavoidable need of reducing the Portuguese state expenditures. Since a great part of the money spent by the state goes to public services like health, education, social protec-tion and public transpor-tation, expenditures re-ducing policies may put the concept of equal op-

portunities at risk. The government must

be careful not to disturb the ideal behind public services when devising policy decisions. We need to understand that this is not mathematics. Educa-tion and Health are not provided to all the popu-lation just because they foster economic growth

and present higher ben-efits than costs. They are offered to all of us mainly because it is an ethic duty. If we want to put it in a

mathematical form, then we need to account dig-nity, solidarity, honor and a lot of other values in the equation. But since values are much greater than ev-erything else in the world, the math is done.

That’s why our Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho found himself in very bad position when he said that all public com-panies should be finan-cial sustainable, in other words, to generate prof-its. He forgot that people like me are willing to pay a lot of money in order to live in a state where so-cial justice is a reality. To privatize public transpor-tation, increase the costs of health for less fortunate people and discriminating education between classes may be materialized in the form of a stab in the ideal of equal opportunities.

Luis Filipe

Social State of Mind

“It is only fair that at birth, all individuals have the same oppor-tunities to devel-op themselves”

“The govern-ment must be careful not to

disturb the ideal behind public services when devising policy

decisions”

After NOVA’s re-branding last year,

students thought it was also time to recreate the old students’ association. The main purpose of teh new NOVASU is to serve all its members (NO-VASBE’s and FEUNL’s students) and the school community in general by improving academic life, providing more choices in terms of extracurricu-lar activities (sports, vol-unteering, workshops, language courses, among others), propose social events (dinners, parties, trips, tournaments) and give them discounts to acquire services and prod-ucts at cheaper prices.

The new students union has a carefully de-signed structure with several departments. We spoke with Martim Agarez of NOVASU’s Professional Department and he en-lightened us about their specific mission: “This department was formed to: straighten the gap be-tween Undergraduate and Masters’ students; assist the Masters’ Student Net-work (MSN) and Masters’ Clubs in promoting and executing any activities for which they need our help; and assist the Career Man-agement Office (CMO) in promoting and carrying out any activities (usually with companies) when-

ever they might require assistance”. He then exem-plifies how these types of links can work: “In terms of working with the MSN, we wish to support them (and the Masters’ Clubs) in any activities and events that they want to do. If Clubs want to include participants from the Un-dergraduate level, e.g. in cinema sessions, or in the Happiness Day activities, we’re the link with whom they should get in touch, in order for us to use NO-VASU’s means to advertise and promote such events”

Officials in the NO-VASU underline the im-portance of bringing un-dergraduate and masters

students closer together because “understanding the real demands of the Masters’ courses on an early stage allows Under-grads to make wiser deci-sions in terms of their aca-demic path”

So far, NOVASU has worked in the 2011/12 Masters’ Welcome Days and also gave some assis-tance to in this month’s Oktoberfest @ NOVA, organized by the recent-ly created International Club; a promising start for a promising project.

André Coelho

The new Union on CampusNOVASU is the new face of FEUNL’s students association

Beneath our feetThe second floor of the masters Lounge has never been this close to the first...

Miguel Aguiar

October 2011October 20116 7OpinionOPINION

We all know that the workload

at Nova is very demand-ing and (for some reason) most of the Professors schedule the deadlines too close to each other. When this happens, it becomes tough to find a peaceful place to get the work done.

Initially, one tends to consider the possibility of going to salão nobre be-cause it is ample and sup-posedly quiet. However, when it is crowded, even the sound of writing and pages turning becomes too noisy and uncomfort-able. Moreover, being ev-eryday at the same place and seeing the same faces is little bit boring for some people. The same envi-ronment, with the same people and surrounded by constant worries is not the best way to work. So, why not go to place where you

can work and relax at the same time? Why not go to a peaceful coffee place where you can study, re-view your course notes, or finish your problem sets and escape from the high-ly stressful environment you find in NOVA?

The first place I’m go-ing to talk about is “Fábu-las”. It is in the heart of Chiado, but hidden in a plaza, one quarter of the way between “Arma-zens do Chiado” and “A Brasileira”. Outside you have a good terrace, with a comfortable environ-ment to have a coffee, but it is inside that you’ll find your spot. In the second floor, you will find a very silent environment where everyone is reading, work-ing on their computers or just surfing on the inter-net. Two couches, two ta-bles with four chairs make

up the indoor setting and outside a small balcony completes the pleasant scenario. The coffee is 1 euro, but the space and the opportunity to get away from NOVA while you work is definitely worth it.

My second suggestion can be found in Bairro Alto, which unfortunate-ly happens to be famous only for its nightlife. But believe me, during the day there are also places of interest, namely, some good, almost empty spots to study in the afternoon. Rua da Rosa is a good ex-ample:

We can find a little place with jazz and good environment “Les Manu-vais Garçons”. In the after-noon there is virtually no one there and the music is superb to help you with your study. The coffee is 60

cents.In Rua da Rosa there

are also more options. If you want to check them out ,they are worth a try.

Last, but not Least, if the sun is shining, why not go to Jardim da Estrela? It is not always peaceful, but it is good to go to a Gar-den and breathe some fresh air.

At NOVA, studying is unavoidable. By paying a visit to these places you can do it without the con-stant reminder of dead-lines, and additionally, those that are not from Lisbon can get to know a little more about the city!

José Cadima

Les Manuvais Garçons in Bairro Alto

Fábulas in Chiado

Studying Outside NOVA

October 2011October 20118 9INTERVIEWINTERVIEW

NN – Being the director of the Masters in Finance, what was your first im-pression when you as-sumed that position, and second, what projects do you have for the future?MF – The Masters in Fi-nance is a very important program for this school, since we think we can be very competitive at an in-ternational level, due to having already an active and recognized group of researchers. We believe we can compete with the best faculties in Europe.When I arrived, my first impression was that NOVA had very good stu-dents and capable people, which allows us to have strong and demanding programs. A good indica-tor of these factors is the position NOVA already had this year for the Mas-ters in Finance, ranking within the top 30 in Eu-rope.

NN – Before coming to NOVA, you had already taught at ISCTE. Can you state some differences re-garding the visions, the organization, or the stu-dents of both schools?MF – I spent interesting years at ISCTE. At the time, ISCTE was a fac-

ulty more oriented for teaching only, and not so much into research, and our plan was to invert that situation. It was a very enlightening experience, having worked in a series of innovative projects fo-cused in the finance field. At NOVA the story is dif-ferent, because NOVA was already much more research oriented. What influenced most my deci-sion to join NOVA was the ambitious project to make this school more interna-tional and more competi-tive abroad. Being one of

the top schools in Finance is a challenging goal.As I said already, NOVA students are very good, and, on average, better students than in ISCTE, though in ISCTE there are very capable people as well. And, as a profes-sor, as the quality of the students increase, so does our motivation to teach and more valuable is our experience, and I am very happy with that.

NN – Can you compare NOVA today with NOVA 15 years ago, when you took your Masters in Economics?MF – We can observe some huge differences, even comparing with NOVA 5 years ago. The

faculty is leaning much more for internationaliza-tion, and from the vast number of universities I know in Portugal, I believe NOVA is not comparable with any. This is indeed a criti-cal issue for the future, since we are going to in-evitably lose Por-tuguese students in the future, not

only due to economic con-dition, but also because young people are looking for an international expe-rience. Therefore, we need to be capable to capture foreign students, convince them that Lisbon is a good city to live, and the quality of our program is similar to what they can find in the0 best universities.

NN – Though NOVA has gained credit in the re-cent past, do you think that is hard to be seen as one of the best while be-ing a Portuguese univer-sity?MF – For a foreign student, Portugal is not an obvious choice. But I think NOVA has some strengths. First, NOVA has all the best ac-creditations, and its qual-ity is recognized. Second we offer all the courses in English, contrary to what happens in most univer-sities in southern Europe. Third we have a delight-ful weather and Lisbon is a beautiful city to live in. The fact that the labor market is facing some con-straints in Portugal is not a limitation, since a great part of our students usu-ally go work abroad. Look for the US for instance. Students don’t go study

in California to get a job – they go there for the life style, for that experience. And this is the last factor: we are very good at plac-ing our students abroad. NOVA’s placement just ranked 8th at the Finan-cial Times ranking. In this respect, the NIC has a cru-cial role, developing a net-work towards Investment Banks, with alumni and other Portuguese workers, facilitating the placement of recent graduates from NOVA across Europe.

NN – What are the major differences regarding ed-ucation between the US and Europe?MF – At a bachelor and masters level, the US uni-versities are more oriented to the job market, though NOVA and other schools in Europe have been evolving towards that goal in the recent years. The idea is for you to get familiar with the major concepts at an undergrad-uate level, and then your masters needs to be more nonacademic, more fo-cused on the job market. The other big difference is that US universities bet more on research as a way to increase their recogni-tion. Here at NOVA we’re trying to evolve in that di-rection, but always keep-ing in mind that research must not be dissociated from teaching purposes.

NN – What’s the impor-tance of getting a PhD in the US, a country with such an economic rele-vance and influence?MF – You can get the most from studying in the US if you are in a PhD program. The bigger advantage of US universities, as I said, is that they are great research centers. For instance the Finance departments have a huge number of people, and it becomes easy to find someone willing to work with in a specific subject. This is the characteristic that still really differenti-ates US universities from European ones. However, in the recent past, a great effort has been done to overcome this issue, and the truth is that more and more we see publications from non-American re-searchers.

NN - In Portugal in par-ticular, how do you see the evolution of academ-ic research?MF – There are some area in which we are already competitive, like Health economics and even in Fi-nance, despite Lisbon not being a big financial cen-ter. This development in the Finance area is mostly due to the return of some important researchers that were working abroad. The thing is, it is hard to start career in research in Por-

tugal. It’s easier to start abroad and then come-back in order to build the required network.

NN – What’s your opin-ion on the evolution of the role of financial mar-kets in determining pol-icy decisions at a macro-economic level, namely the sovereign debt crisis? And what about Rating Agencies?MF – The financial mar-kets are fundamental for the efficient functioning of the economy. Today, some are quick to criticize the markets, but we must see that, if they weren’t there for the last 20 years, the level of wealth in the world today would be much lower than what it is, even with the current recession. Of course there are costs, but I think the overall balance is positive. Concerning the “specula-tive attacks” we hear so

much about, we must un-derstand that the markets don’t make things up. The debt problems of some European countries are there and the distrust they have been facing is a con-sequence of that.There’s no doubt that rat-ing agencies were not rig-orous in their analysis of many instruments. Maybe because of that they are now probably exagger-ating, but, even so, they aren’t the ones solely re-sponsible for the crisis, not even the biggest culprits. Furthermore, it has been proven that the investors incorporate much more information than the rat-ings when making their investment decisions.

NN – Following the downgrade of the Amer-ican debt, does it still make sense to talk about risk-free assets in the sense they are used in fi-

Prof. Miguel Ferreira

NOVA and FinanceThe man behind NOVA’s top 30 masters in Finance

October 2011October 201110 11PHDINTERVIEW

With the school year starting, NOVA News decided to check with some of

our former colleagues who are now abroad pursuing further graduate studies in Eco-nomics. During the last year, in addition to studying and working, all of them spent a lot of time working on their applications and now, they share with younger students what they learned during the process.

•Quantitative part •Multiple choice questions •Objective (780 out of 800) •Tricky, but not hard questions•Verbal •Multiple choice questions •Objective (780 out of 800)•Analytical Writing •Two essays – scale 0 - 6

So you want to get a PhD in Economics?

Completing applica-tions for PhD programs takes a lot of work. In ad-dition to, obviously, fin-ishing your current level of studies with success, you have to prepare rec-ommendation letters, a motivation letter and/or a personal statement, do the GRE and TOEFL ex-ams and prepare applica-tions for financial grants. So it is important that you have a plan in mind. The deadline for application at most US universities varies between Novem-ber and January. Applica-tions at European univer-sities close later, during the Spring. You should however be careful, be-cause in some cases, there is more than one dead-line to deliver the appli-cation, but only the first will give you access to fi-

nancial grants. Guilherme Oliveira, 25, finished his Master in Economics and was a teaching assistant at NOVA SBE and is now in the PhD program at Tin-bergen Institute, in the Netherlands. He recom-mends students to start preparing seriously for the GRE and TOEFL exams in June and to give enough time to repeat the exam. If you fall short of your desired score, don’t worry too much. As Guilherme says, “It’s not a shame to repeat the GRE”. Someone who agrees with him is Miguel Faria e Castro, 22. He finished his Research Master in Economics in July and is now in the PhD program at New York Uni-versity. He says “it is OK if you have to repeat”.

Preparing to Apply

Ricardo Amaro, 22 years old, Master in Economics at NOVA SBE, studying at the Master of Advanced Studies at Barcelona Graduate School of Economics

Miguel Faria e Castro, 22 years old, Research Masters in Eco-nomics at NOVA SBE, studying at the PhD Program at New York University

Guilherme Oliveira, 25 years old, Master in Economics at NOVA SBE, studying at the PhD Program at Tinbergen Institute

NN – Moving to more personal questions, why did you decide to be a Professor?In fact, it was a product of the circumstances. I finished my undergradu-ate and I was invited to be a professor in the area of finance. Since I liked the finance courses in the undergraduate, I decided to accept. Then, I enjoyed the experience of teaching and also doing research.Basically, when I graduat-ed, I had two alternatives: I had a good job proposal at Galp where I had spent the previous six months of internship and I had the possibility of becoming a professor. As I liked the project at ISCTE, I accept-ed it. Again, I think it was a product of the circum-stances.One advantage of being a Professor is that we are more owners of our own time. As the time goes on

we become more attached to this levels of freedom and it becomes difficult to quit being a professor.NN - What do you con-sider to be your trade-mark as a professor? What characterizes you and what differences you from the other profes-sors?MF - One first condition must be to like giving classes and to enjoy the interaction with the stu-dents. The second aspect for the classes to go well and the experience to be beneficial for the students is to prepare very well the classes. Maybe some peo-ple have a natural ability to teach and therefore do not need to prepare the classes as much, but, in general, a good preparation is essen-tial for the experience of teaching and learning to be positive. NN - Do you prefer teach-ing or researching?

MF - I think I could not do just one of them. For me it only makes sense to do both, I would not feel do realized or so hap-py in doing just one of them. Physically classes are more demanding, but psychologically research is tougher. A good aspect here at NOVA is that there is a good equilibrium be-tween these two activities.NN - Can you give an ad-vice to the students?MF - When someone asks me that, I always answer the same thing, which is there is nothing that sub-stitutes hard work. That’s the advice I give to the students.NN - Is it true, that one time, in a class of Finance in the undergraduate, you gave chocolates to your students that had fallen in the floor?MF - No, it is not true. No one got sick right?

nancial models.MF – Certainly, if there is one lesson from the fi-nancial crisis is that there are very few riskless as-sets. There was the idea that sovereign debt from developed countries was always risk-free and we are now seeing that is not the case. The Euro and the non-compliance of the implications that came

with it in terms of public finances was an impor-tant factor in that change. There was never the will to punish deviations in-side the European Union and that puts part of the blame in countries like Germany which was the first to break the rules and get away with it, because the southern countries felt free to do the same.

Personal Questions

Favorite sportsTennis and football

Football ClubBenfica

Favorite Music artistBon Jovi

Recommended movie?City of Angels

Favorite FoodCozido à PortuguesaBacalhau à Braz

A Cause you stand forGlobalization

As student, your favorite course was...Finance

Recommended BookThe last Kabbalist of Lis-bon, by Richard Zimler’s

HobbiesPlaying Playstation and riding a bike

Luis Filipe, Clara Giland

Gonçalo Coronha

Luis Fonseca

Curiosities

Graduate Record Examination

Profiles

October 2011October 201112 PHD 13PHD

Motivation letters and personal statements may also be necessary. In a motivation letter you will want to explain why you are pursuing a PhD pro-gram and what are your goals for the future. The personal statement should show your path and can be particularly important in certain circumstances. As Miguel says: “a personal statement is really useful when you faced family or health problems and were

The final critical point you should think about when preparing your ap-plication is financing. Portuguese students are blessed: FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnolo-gia) provides really good support, with a monthly grant of 1710 euros if you are studying abroad. NOVA SBE students pursuing a PhD in good schools abroad should not have much trouble ob-taining these. Guilherme

We have addressed many of the important steps on completing a successful application, but even before this, you should be sure that you want to spend four or more years of your life do-ing hard work and study-ing while most of your friends start their careers. It is a very important de-cision in your life, both on a personal and on a career level. This is why Guilherme recommends that you should use your Masters program to think about this. The best way is to try to become a research and a teaching assistant. Even if the research work

Of course, all the sac-rifice of a PhD comes with a reward at the end: it expands your career possibilities in Econom-ics and gives you an op-portunity to keep work-ing on a subject you love. So you should think care-fully on what you want to do professionally. As Ricardo told us: “when I started the Masters pro-gram I had not made a de-cision yet on what path to pursue in may career. In economics, the big ques-tion is always if you want to go for an academic or research career, or if you want to go for an execu-tive-type career. The first

It is important to pre-pare yourself for the life-style that you will have during the program. All of our colleagues say they are now working very hard studying. It is thus obvious that good time management skills are es-sential. Guilherme men-tioned a motto that should be familiar: “Work hard, play hard”. The level of demand is very high in these schools and you’ll be studying daily for many hours. Also an impor-tant feature to consider is the environment among

With the plan for the GRE and TOEFL already in place, you should use the beginning of the school year in Septem-ber to start preparing for what all of our colleagues consider the most critical aspect of your applica-tion: the recommendation letters. Ricardo Amaro, 22, finished his Master in Economics in January and is now at the Master in Advanced Studies at Bar-celona Graduate School of Economics, with the aim of entering the PhD program there during the next year. He told us: “ul-timately, recommenda-tion letters decide who is selected”. Miguel and Guilherme agree on the importance of these. So it is critical to consider

which professors to ask for a recommendation let-ter. Remember that you won’t be reading the let-ters, so you need to make sure that they are positive about you and that profes-sors believe you are able to successfully complete a PhD program. All of our colleagues converged on the profile of the ideal rec-ommender: a senior pro-fessor who is also a well-known and experienced researcher in his field. It is also likely that during your Masters program you have made contact with younger professors for whom you may have been a research assistant or ad-visee. These may also be strong letters, particularly if the professor knows you well. As Ricardo warns:

“a positive letter from a not-as-famous professor is better than a not-so-good letter from a better-known professor”. If the professor completed his PhD at the university you want to go, or in a similar program (same country or same reputation) it is also a plus. If he has links to in-ternational research orga-nizations that is also good, as he is more likely to be known among researchers in his field. An important thing to remember when you are asking your pro-fessors to write you letters is that they are spending time and ultimately do-ing you a favor. So, you should ask them as early as possible and facilitate their work. Talking to these professors may also

be good for you if you are not sure about which kind of university you should aim for. Don’t worry too much if you want to make an application for more than a dozen universities: most professors have been in your shoes and will un-derstand if you want to minimize the risk of not being accepted in at least one program. Be aware, however, that the more universities you apply for, the more money you will spend, because most of them charge an applica-tion fee. Also, not only you have to pay for the GRE and the TOEFL, you will also have to pay to send your scores to the schools. Expenses in applications ranged from 1000 to 3000 euros.

Recommendation letters

not able to have grades as high as you could have”. Beyond all this, you will still need to fill in all the application forms and send documents to the schools. Prepare yourself to spend a lot of time do-ing this during the Fall months.

recommends that you use your recommenda-tion letters here as well, even if they are said to be “optional”. Also, many schools provide their students with grants, so, you should look for that. Miguel tells us that “the critical phase is the first two or three years”. After that, even if the FCT grant expires at the end of your fourth year, you should find research and teaching positions at your school.

Financing YourselfAdditional documents

is not particularly inter-esting for you, you will learn a lot on what that career choice entails. Be pro-active if you want to work with professors doing research. Being a teaching assistant is also a great opportunity to see if you like to be a lecturer, which is one of the likely career paths after a PhD. But also, do something outside the university. Go and be a volunteer, work part-time doing something else and see if you really want to stay in the academic world.

Why a PhD?

option was more attractive to me and so the PhD be-came an essential require-ment. Also, for economist positions in international institutions such as the ECB, a PhD is almost al-ways indispensable and so it became clear to me that if my goal is to work as an economist, sooner or later I would have to go for a PhD.”

Career Prospects

the students in schools. Miguel tells us that at NYU there is a lot of col-laboration between them. However, this may vary from school to school, as some of them limit the financial grants or the va-cancies available for stu-dents later in the program, which creates additional pressure and competition among the students.

Our colleagues con-sidered that NOVA SBE prepares well its students and even if it is not yet very well known, particu-larly outside Europe, for

its economics program, its reputation is rising and it has been able to con-sistently send students to top US and European programs. So, if you are thinking about doing a

Life at a PhD program

PhD, take advantage of the experiences a Master in Economics at NOVA SBE can provide you and use the tips you have just been given.

October 2011October 2011 15CLUBS14 CLUBS

There weren’t enough clubs in

NOVA. There was still an important club missing: the International Club!

For the last half year the international club ex-isted informally. It was not called international club, it had no formal struc-ture, no partnerships nor faculty support. It was just formed by a group of friends of several nation-alities that spent their free time in international din-

ners and in the Erasmus Corner in Bairro Alto, sometimes living like bons vivants whenever the master’s workload al-lowed it.

Now, with a formal structure, the Interna-tional Club proposes to go beyond that: aiming to support the Erasmus stu-dents’ even before they ar-rive in Portugal and deep-ening the relationships between Portuguese and foreigner students. There-fore, the club will organize a series of social and cul-tural events that started in the past 4th of October with the OKTOBERFEST @ NOVA.

Evaluating by the num-

The Most Recent Club at NOVA

ber of people was present and by the fact that all the barrels of beer reached the bottom by the end of the night, the party seems to have been a success! The International Club hopes that all the students have liked the Oktoberfest and promises to bring another international party in No-vember.

Moreover, if you want to join the team you can contact the International Club at [email protected] and check the club’s news through Facebook at http://face-book.com/NOVAInterna-tionalclub

Duarte Neves

Last 15th of Septem-ber, the Career Man-agement Office (CMO) and the NOVA SBE Professional Clubs invited all Master Students for a session with the aim of the presenting themselves to the Master Students. Due to rising inter-est in being part of a NOVA club, the room was small for all the students that attended the session.

The NOVA SBE Professional Clubs

present in this meeting were the Investment Club, the Consulting Club, the Communication Club and the Consumer Goods Club.

For the CMO, the wel-come presentation was the opportunity to present it-self to the new students and to announce some changes in the image and communication policy of the office, especially concerning the Simplic-ity, web-based recruiting system, concerned with the management and dif-fusion of this on-line job bank.

The CMO was created to develop a close relation-ship between the students and the marketplace in or-der to help students guar-anteeing a successful job placement and a reward-ing career. For this pur-pose the CMO offers the students a wide range of activities like the business forum and career counsel-ling/planning programs, besides a variety of power-ful tools, like the Simplic-ity and VAULT software platforms. However, de-spite being very successful in its task, 74% of the stu-dents have found job with the help of the CMO, with 39% of them being placed abroad, the Career Man-agement Office has been facing some problems in making students use their expensive but very useful resources.

For the NOVA profes-sional clubs this welcome session was the opportu-nity to present their ac-tivities and projects to the master community. With new leaderships, due to the exit of the members that finished their master degree last semester, all clubs present in the ses-sion were looking to at-

tract new members that could in the future carry on with the clubs legacy, so that they do not disap-pear

Thus, after the CMO presentation it was time for the four professional clubs to introduce them-selves. The first one was the NOVA Investment club. Meant for student interested in investment banking and finance, the Investment club is exclu-sive for finance master students. As a signal of the growing importance of this club for the finance Master, all students have to participate in the in-vestment banking mod-ule organize by the in-vestment club in order to get their master degree. Moreover, the club mem-bers take part in activities using the Bloomberg plat-form, invite major players in the finance world for seminars and organize the business trip to London, where participants get in touch with the life style of investment banking.

The second club to speak was the Consulting club. The aim of this club is to prepare the mem-bers for their prospective

career as consultants. Be-sides their normal activi-ties like conferences, work projects and off campus presentations, this year the consulting club is try-ing to get real consult-ing projects. This club is ideal for students that are proactive, have teamwork spirit, are ready to work and most important, are interested in consulting.

The last club to present their project was the Com-munication club. Being re-sponsible for publishing a monthly newspaper. With only two published news-paper editions by the time of the presentation, this club is still recent. For this year, the clubs’ objectives are to grow and to make the newspaper look more professional. Moreover, this is the only club will-ing to accept undergradu-ate students currently on their last year.

All in all, the event was a success for everyone in-volved.

André Agostinho

Session with the Professional ClubsWelcoming the new Masters’ students

October 2011October 201116 AFTER NOVA

I always feel very un-comfortable when

someone asks me to write about myself or about my path. Not that I find it par-ticularly difficult – in fact, I love to write – but only because I am afraid people might take it too seriously, might take me too seri-ously. Therefore, I would like to start by saying, that nothing from what fol-lows should be seen as a role model or a point of reference, nor should it be seen as something clearly understandable or logical. In any case, I will give it a shot.

I am not quite sure where my path started. I remember of my early life dreams in which I wanted to be a writer, but, as a young boy, I never really dreamt about a career in management or econom-ics. Later on, already as a high-school student, I was preparing myself to go to medical school. I was re-ally focused on studying something related to peo-ple, something that could allow me, in the future, to have a flexible job, full of interactions. At that time, I was also dedicating a significant part of my life to music, spending more than five hours a day at the conservatorium.

efficiency, and many oth-ers - I always found them very interesting. What I couldn’t figure out by then was the opportunity that becoming a businessman could give me on having a flexible job, full of interac-tions with people. Hence, after realizing so, I ended up applying to Nova – be-coming a management student.

During the three years I spent at university, I tried to learn the most I could to prepare my professional career. I was obviously fo-cused on being a good stu-dent, but I never neglected the importance of going beyond the books and the classes. This ranged from attending conferences and workshops on manage-

So, by now, you should legitimately be wonder-ing how I ended up writ-ing this article - as a for-mer student of Nova who has just started a career in management consult-ing. And truth be told, just like everyone else, I like to see it as a product of serendipity. For some reason, I skipped one of my 12th grade math exam questions, and my appli-cation to medical school seemed therefore doomed to failure. Those were not comfortable times for me, and I promptly started to look for a new option that could help me find what I

was looking for. My older brother – Ricardo – was finishing his bachelor in management, and over the past years, he had always been telling me about the beauty of busi-ness. We used to have un-ending conversations on capital markets, markets

ment, to spending long afternoons just exchang-ing ideas with the good friends I was pleased to have. As time was passing by, it was becoming clear

that I had made the right move when choosing to study management.

By the end of my sec-

17AFTER NOVA

ond year, I started to look for a potential set of com-panies / areas in which I would be interested to pursue a career. And, as it usually happens, I also started to be invited to re-cruiting events. From my readings and findings, I always thought of consult-ing to be the best place to start my career. After all, it was certainly the right place to learn from several industries, to travel and to meet people from very dif-ferent backgrounds, and to be able to work with

multi-cultural teams. So, a couple of months later, I received my first job of-fer. It was a summer intern position at The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), for their Lisbon office, and I felt very happy to see that my work was being rewarded. I then received

a couple of other offers, among them a full-time position at Bain & Com-pany, for the Madrid of-fice.

Although I started to intern at BCG Lisbon, I felt that it was the right time for me to leave Por-tugal and to embrace the challenge of working abroad. I therefore gladly accepted the opportunity Bain was offering me, and started to work in Madrid on September 2010. Apart

from being a top manage-ment consulting firm, I always found Bain to be the best fit for me in terms of people and culture – something that also had a huge impact on my deci-sion.

So, today, I am a one-y e a r- a n d - on e - m ont h experienced Associate Consultant who frankly loves his job. So far, I have worked on such different industries as consumer goods, private equity, and financial services, in such different geographies as Madrid, Paris, Boston, and Lisbon, with people from such different back-

grounds as Biology, Phys-ics, Engineering and Med-icine.

I happen to have found what I always looked for. Again: a flexible job, full of interactions with people.

I have no idea what my life would look like today should I hadn’t skipped that math exam question. And the truth is that I don’t even want to know. I still strongly believe that that moment was seren-dipity, and I feel very for-tunate about it. Nowadays, you will hear me saying that I have always been fascinated about manage-ment.

I truly hope that you take neither my story nor myself too seriously, but rather look for your own serendipity. In the end, you will see that’s all what – metaphorically - man-agement is about.

Mário Mateiro

“From my read-ings and findings, I always thought

of consulting to be the best place to start my career”

“So far, I have worked on such different indus-

tries as consumer goods, private eq-uity, and financial services, in such different geogra-

phies and different backgrounds”

“I happen to have found what I al-ways looked for. Again: a flexible

job, full of interac-tions with people”

“My Brain for Bain” by Mário Mateiro

One of the top 3 strategic consulting companies

October 2011October 2011 19HUMOUR18 CMO

One of ours econo-metrics' faculty

is Professor Paulo Ro-drigues, who lives in a beautiful house where you immediately find in the entrance a big advise saying: CAREFUL WITH THE RESIDUALS! Some-times Prof. Paulo has to bring some work home and to continue through the night; and, as he says, “there is really a problem when I have to run regres-sions at night: the neighbor-

hood get really disturbed with the noise... “

Prof. Paulo has at home a locked room which can only be opened with a spe-cial key that follows a per-fect chi-square distribu-tion with only one degree of freedom – the room is called “McFadden room” -, full of recipients with small labels where we can read ARCH, GARCH, AR, Bivariate PROBIT, DID, LATE, GMM, VAR and so forth. “I know all of you

NOVA students are famil-iar with this from your past econometrics courses, but anyways I use to lock this room because of my kids, it is a bit dangerous, so to speak. Once, one of them drank a bit of an AR(6) re-cipient and told me every-thing about his past 6 years without interruption. It's a bit scaring what an AR model can cause to people!”

At the weekends – like so many time series econometricians - Prof. Paulo usually takes some random walks to unwind. Sometimes his old friends also participate in the sto-chastic process. Robert Engle and Clive Granger are the most assiduous. Mr. Granger – during the walks - is always look-ing back to see if his past movements have predic-tive power over the next ones (Granger causality), while Mr. Engle is always drinking a bottle where it's written Conditional Het-eroskedasticity.

Jointly with his wife,

Paulo recognized that they were doing too many random walks and they should change to more peaceful activities. So they decided to do the first dif-ferences of their week-ends. Since their week-ends are now stationary, they agreed to invite some friends from NOVA to have lunch with them.

At lunch time, the first arriving was Vladi-mir Ostrachenko, who for the very first time in the past 5 years, left office 204. Then, appeared Prof. João Valle e Azevedo. Still a bit sleepy because of a very tough week at the Bank of Portugal. He en-tered in the house with a bunch of variables to be discussed, but convinced that “these tells us noth-ing about the model”. Af-ter some minutes, the bell rang announcing Prof. Pe-dro Portugal, who arrived later excusing himself saying that his duration model predicted less time to arrive at Paulo's house.

Then, Prof. Portugal, al-ways smiling, handed in a small gift to one of Paulo's child. It was a “fantastic” OLS estimator - which un-fortunately was not BLUE, the child's favorite color... -, but unbelievable the child did not know what was it! “Paulo, you are missing a very important point in your child's educa-tion..”. - said Prof. Portugal – “My son learned how to write down the OLS esti-mator expression since his 3 years old. This... this is magic, Paulo!”

The lunch went nice and relaxed – normally distributed - with Vladi-mir at one tail wondering about the office 204, and Prof. Valle e Azevedo at the other tail so sleepy that could tell nothing about the lunch. Prof. Portugal was in the expected value of the distribution, men-tioning that last night he was delivering the so fa-mous “STATA Pizza Par-ty” to his students.

The lunch was asymp-totically finished when Prof. Valle e Azevedo paid compliments to a lot the food, but added that, as the sample was not high enough, he could not con-clude about the statistical significance of Paulo's wife expertise cooking. “But anyways the lunch had a very good R-squared!” The

Abstract: It is consensual that NOVA is served by a brilliant set of Econometrics' pro-fessors. I decided to go through a small explo-ration on their weekends. I use a well known theoretical methodology based on imagina-tion processes. Empirical evidence is robust and consistent with theory; it confirms that there is no chance whatsoever that economet-rics professors do not propagate econometrics in their daily lives. These results are also use-ful for whatever the reader wants.

“Forecasting is like trying to drive a car blindfolded and fol-

lowing directions given by a person who is looking out of the

back window” (Anonymous)

youngest child of Prof. Paulo, tired of so much incomprehensible lan-guage, asked if someone could explain him what was going on. Professor Pedro Portugal promptly answered this quesion: “Of course! So... in fact... for kids... we have to start... with OLS! “

During the afternoon Prof. Paulo Rodrigues was explaining OLS to his son, when suddenly was asked , children ususally ask these difficult ques-tions, about Paulo's hap-piest moments of life. He thought a bit and answer that it was the first and the second. But, thinking better, as the second mo-ment was not finite and so his life was not stationary, it would be dangerous to try to explain his happiest moments… The son got confused and asked him how could he remember his first moment of life... “It's very easy son... As my life is not stationary, the process has perfect memo-ry, that's why I can remem-ber! Are you ok with this?”

Diogo de Carvalho

L’Oréal3 de Novembro17hSala 223

Road Show PT10 de Novembro17hSala 223

Upcoming On Campus Presentations

*For a more detailed list check CMO Simplicity platform

COMPANY

Barklays CapitalBarklays CapitalBPDeutsche BankParques de SintraEDP - Energias BrodheimGoodyear Dunlop Ibéria

The Wonderful World of Econometrics*

Interesting Job Offers*OFFER

Various - Graduate ProgramVarious - InternshipVarious - Graduate ProgramVarious - Graduate ProgramArtémis ConsultingQuadro Superior de Análise QualitativaDpt. De Auditoria e Controlo de StocksMarketing Trainee

CONTRACT

VariousVariousVariousVariousFull-time/CareerFull-time/CareerInternshipInternship

DEADLINES

28-10-201131-10-201131-10-201131-10-201117-10-201110-10-201104-11-201130-11-2011

HUMOUR

*Not suitable for Management students

October 201120 HUMOUR

The famous econo-mist John May-

nard Keynes is reputed to have once said: “When the facts change, I change my mind”, a saying that has since become a pow-erful and enduring testa-ment to reasonability. In my innocence, I admit that I have always thought that a change in facts ac-tually meant a modifica-tion in the available in-formation regarding the problem that is being dis-cussed, but, then again, I also thought Playboy was in the same business as Toys’R’Us and that we give money to those guys who help us park our car because they were kind enough to be of assistance. As usual, I was wrong. As it turns out, the most im-portant factors in defining your opinion about pretty much anything are 1) the position you hold and 2) who you are addressing at the moment you give it. The last few months in Portuguese politics have provided shining exam-ples of this truth.

To be fair, we already had an idea that the post made the opinion. But I always thought that it took

some time for the effect to be noticeable. Portugal’s current prime-minister completely debunked this myth. Of course we are talking about a man who was a master at contradict-ing himself even before he went to government, but to raise taxes once again after publicly apologizing for agreeing to a tax raise by the previous govern-ment, to promise a drop in

the TSU only to let it go a few months and to withold the 13th and 14th months of public emplyees after promising otherwise is the work of a prodigy.

To change opinion ac-cording to who you are talking is a subtler art, but there are also masters. One of them is the head of the regional government of Madeira, who can shift from separatist threats to solidarity pleas faster than

I can change the radio sta-tion when Lady Gaga starts playing (and trust me, that’s fast).

The dis-cussion con-cerning rat-ing agencies has also been particularly schizophrenic in this re-spect. For months some political parties inces-santly pointed out the ne-cessity to restructure or renegotiate existing Por-tuguese debt, claiming that the necessary effort to meet our current finan-cial obligations would suf-focate the economy and compromise the country. Then, when they finally got someone to agree with them and Moody’s down-graded Portuguese debt to

trash, their reaction was none other than indigna-

tion. Could this be a con-tradiction? Of course not. It’s one fact to address the Portuguese voters; it’s an-other one to address the international community. Change of facts, change of mind.

The old notion of co-herence is a thing of the past, like slavery or walk-mans (though slavery seems to be trying to make a serious comeback). Co-herence has become a rel-ative concept, depending on time and space, and, frankly, nobody seems to care. Being a man of my time, I’m willing to adapt to this reality and my opinion about this phe-nomenon is unambigu-ous: It’s the same as yours.

Thank you for your wisdom, Lord Keynes.

Rafael Barbosa

“I also thought Playboy was in the same busi-ness as Toys’R’Us and that we give money to

those guys who help us park our car because

they were kind enough to be of assistance. As usual, I was wrong.”

“It’s one fact to ad-dress the Portuguese

voters; it’s another one to address the

international commu-nity. Change of facts,

change of mind”

When the facts change

NOVA News TeamExecutive Staff:Gonçalo Coronha, Luís Filípe and Rafael Barbosa

Journalists:Ana Lopes, André Coelho, André Agostinho, Clara Gil,

Diogo de Carvalho, José Cadima, Luís Fonseca and Miguel Aguiar