A colleague of mine transferred back to New York yesterday. He's one of the most senior staff in the bank and he's been giving me advice on how to obtain a position in the department which I want to join. He gave me a lot of useful advice which I tried to follow, despite it going against the kind of person I am - I'm not the kind of person who likes networking and talking to senior staff, quite frankly, but it seems to have worked.

Anyway, I just had to speak to him yesterday as it was his last day, and he told me that for a person with my intellectual capability, I'm surprisingly simple, natural and understated. He said that it's great that someone with the abilities I have isn't at all arrogant. I didn't expect comments like that from him at all, and when he said it, all I could say was a very stunned "Thank you!"

It's, seriously, one of the best compliments I've ever been given.