Got back from Chicago last week. Pretty eventful and exciting past two days. DRW flew me in to the Windy City on Saturday for their Callback Weekend aka Superdays. Around 30 intern and fulltime candidates and each of us were put to a nice, sexy, sleek room in the W hotel. Another boutique hotel that is catching up the designer interiors etc. The hotel has an obvious theme: sex. Dimmed lighting with many candles throughout the building. The lobby looks more like a trendy club. Staff dressed in black. Lounge music played through its pipe music system. Definitely a place I would bring my significant other for a weekend of intimacy :)

DRW was very lavish with us. Had dinner in this Brazillian steakhouse called Brazzaz along Dearborn St. Awesome salad buffet and waiters would come up to you with skewers of a variety of meat. Grilled lamb, barbue chicken sausage, NY strip, fillet mignon etc. I ate a week worth of meat. Free flowof wine.

In life, you'll be curious in learning about other's culture, way of life, languages etc. Also, you'll be curious in learning various occupations that are out there. Me talking about traders doesn't mean me want to be a trader. I had a tour of DRW's electronic trading desks in the office. Each trader is surrounded by 7-8 21" LCDs. There's a radio communication from the desk to DRW's pit traders down at the Chicago Merchantile Exchange where they trade stuffs like Eurodollar futures and account for 20% of the trade volume for this particular type of security. I could hear the shouts from the pit traders over the radio. It seems unreal especially I would think this kind of environment are military-like. "Get me those March contracts at 50!!" shouted one of the traders in the office and a pit trader would shout back over the radio with a "DONE!!!".

Traders are a special breed of people. Like pilots, these ppl are supposed to be able to make very quick judgments. They are living calculators. This characteristic was obvious from the way they played poker. Even the trader assistant candidates had such qualities of quick with numbers. I lost early in a tournament later in the evening to a bunch of kids from Stanford, Berkeley and MIT and eventually volunteered to deal their cards after that. I thought I was good in the game but these kids are way much better.

Got another offer from an investment bank for IT. The IT recruiter from Credit Suisse called me up while I was enjoying my Brazillian dinner with the guys from DRW. I am requesting DRW to give me a reply by Tuesday when I will have to make a decision.

Btw, congratulations to Max for getting his long-waited offer in investment banking. Guess we'll hang out in NYC over the summer. Probably we'll room together with that Persian chick from MIT than you mentioned. 10 weeks in the Big Apple, like the lifestyle idealized in the many movies we've watched.

Wrapping up my internship search for this season. My power suit has served me well despite being dry cleaned only once for 30 interviews that spanned over 3 months. I thank God first and foremost for everything He has provided. Thanks to my family for their prayers and support. Thanks to friends like Max for helping me out with the preparation especially during the Futures in Finance event in NYC last December where I had the first round interview with BofA.