Description:
I lived in Washington D.C. this summer and worked for Capstone LLC, a policy analysis and regulatory due diligence firm. I worked on the Special Situations Research Team as an analyst and investigative journalist, writing articles on topics such as Chinese telecommunication equipment in the EU, the market size for the first FDA-approved over-the-counter birth control pill, and the economic impact of the $43B Broadband, Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program on fiber sale-leaseback REITs in the American southeast.
In addition to this capital markets research, I worked on private equity (companies buying other companies) and did research and modeling to find regulatory headwinds or tailwinds in industries.
What changed:
My understanding of the economic and policy world changed drastically. Through keeping up with the news and having access to more financial data, I was able to put my data analysis and statistical skills learned at OSU to accompany my qualitative research. My writing became a lot more direct and impact-based, and I worked on my goal to make complex topics as digestible as possible.
Events:
Going through the publishing process the first time was definitely the most formative. My writing was informative, but also had excessive information that cluttered the narrative and impact it was intended to. Through working with the editing team, we worked through phrasing and word changes to make my writing voice easily identifiable. This made me closer with the editors, improved my understanding of their feedback, and helped my writing in subsequent articles.
Presenting my final project (on the BEAD program) was also very formative. Writing an 8 page note filled with details and then explaining it to the entire company was difficult, but highlighted the hardest part of being an analyst. When you’re an expert on something, it’s important to remember that not everyone is, so ensuring that you’re using simple language and strong allegories can convey your point well.
Value:
It was incredibly valuable because I’ve now received an offer back from Capstone upon graduation to join the team as a full-time analyst in either D.C., London, or Paris (I haven’t decided yet) and join the Special Situations team to write about telecommunication policy, macroeconomic analysis, and other topics that really interest me. This will be incredibly formative and will allow me to live in a large city relatively comfortably while interesting me immensely and allowing me to continue improving my writing.
