Recently attended the Berkeley IBD forum (not as a student ;) ) . Very well done event - great turn out from banks and students. Very humbled by the quality of resumes we saw.
I will however make a few observations for students that might be helpful as they go through the job hunt and attend other similar events and career fairs.
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Dress the part - the people not dressed in suits looked like idiots and should have immediately gotten a clue, left, and changed. Also black shirts and black ties are unacceptable under any circumstances, especially when worn together
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Give resumes when asked - Nothing is more awkward then saying "sooo...can I give you my resume?," especially as a conversation opener. It will come down to the personal preference of the bank/recruiters whether they want to collect resumes or not. If they want it, they will ask you for it. However, your resume is only truly "submitted" for consideration through the online resume drop - that is far more important. .Also, please print them on nice resume-stock paper to help them stand out.
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Dont ask stupid questions. Dont ask about pay. Dont ask about the hours. Dont ask if i can critique you resume. Dont ask about my plans after banking.
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Ask specific questions. Ask questions specific to my background or my bank. This is why we are here - we assume you know something about / are interested in investment banking in general, but we would like to market and answer questions about our firm specifically. We would also like to get to have conversations and get to know candidates and have candidates get to know us. General questions about banking are unproductive and best left to the search function ;)
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Do your homework ahead of time - If you tell me your interested in Asset Management, and Ive told you all we do is M&A advisory, a) why are you still talking to me b) why did you come talk to me in the first place? Its also always very impressive if you can mention something specific about the company and why you are interested in it or a recent deal, as the vast majority of people there know nothing
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Subtly wipe your palms before you shake hands with someone. seriously - nothing grosser than sweaty palms.
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Dont be afraid to ask for business cards, however dont be pushy if someone doesnt have them or seems reluctant to give out contact information. Grabbing a couple of business cards and emailing a follow up is probably the best thing you can do.
and my two most important pieces of advice...
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BE OPEN MINDED - Yes all the BB's had tables and they were swarmed all night - but lets face it, this is going to be a very challenging recruitment season and those banks probably already have an idea of who they are taking through connections and interns, espc in a city like SF with such small offices. A FAR better use of your time at an event like this is to learn about other banks you have perhaps not heard as much about and try to build up connections there. Why even come to an event with like 15+ banks if you are only going to GS/MS's table?
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SOCIAL SKILLS WILL BE THE DIFFERENTIATOR - Being able to act normal ("cool?") and strike up an interesting conversation instead of asking a list of boilerplate questions will go a lot longer for you than having a 3.8+ GPA and advanced coursework in differential equations. Bankers dont need any math other than addition and subtraction anyway. Believe me, I would much rather hear some cool story about you traveling or partying then about your finance courses or internship. If you want to be memorable / stick out from such a competitive crowd, just be social.
Anyway thats just my advice, others are free to disagree. Im sure most WSO readers are savvy enough to know most of these already.
Also Cal seriously needs to raise tuition - the student center was kind of a dump although it was sweet they had a bar on campus.
thanks and for the people that werent in suits...what were they wearing then?
I dressed in bus casual.. button up, slacks, and lace up shoes :\ fun event, not many schools will have all the BBs and a bunch of other elite boutiques in one room
Thanks for the advice! Was at the Berkeley IBD Forum myself (as a student!).
Any advice to add for the individual banks' information sessions?
And our tuition has been raised enough the past few years! But apparently we're getting a new career center soon, if that helps :)
There's a job fair at my school in a couple days and I was wondering what is the set-up usually like?
Is there just a long line of people that wait their turn to speak with the representative? Or does everyone just circle a representative and ask him questions?
And when is the least crowded time to go? The end? Beginning?
thanks to everyone for the feedback (especially regarding the spelling.) I have made some edits accordingly.
Now when recruiters wondering why they are all of a sudden being regaled by tales of blurry nights watching ping pong shows in Bangkok they will know....
what prestige of tables did bankers get, like did goldman sachs get glass tables where citi got wood tables also what kind of tables did blackstone get(i would imagine they would get diamond tables).
or like did you guys all get the same kind of tables but it was the shape that set apart top firms from the lower tier firms?
for example, evecores was rectangular and on rollers where bank of america was circular and missing a leg etc
thx
Win.
Thank you for the post.
Thank you for the post, deal_mkr. I attended the event as a student and this was my first time going to a big career fair. Unfortunately, I was also one of the students passing out resumes to each recruiter I met - and on plain printer paper as well =[.
But I'm just curious as to what you guys do with those resumes though? Do you guys give it to HR, keep it to remember students you met and liked, or just toss it somewhere and forget it about it? I sort of knew that giving my resume to recruiters at these events is not really a way of applying for the job, but I wanted to do it as a way for them to remember my name.
I went to this event with my BB bank and absolutely agreed with the comment about social skills. A lot of kids that came across incredibly nerdy and boring. I didn't find the paper resume thing to be bad as we did hold on to the few resumes we liked.
OP, as a banker, I am apalled by your lack of atention to detail.
Its Berkeley NOT Berkley
Just for fun -
*appalled *attention *It's
:p
Haha.. That's awesome
Great post by OP. Leaving a first impression is always important.
Actually, I disagree about the resume part. I like getting a resume from a kid who I liked so I can remember who they were. At these events you meet so many people it all blurs together.
How could one strike up an interesting conversation?
Just walk up to you and be like oh I partied last night??
Just suavely mention how you spent your summer at Thailand getting wasted and snorting coke off of ladyboys.
By posting this your already telling me your a social imbecile. To many people at uni did this "forced" conversation approach and either you end up looking like a tool or you get someone equally boring and unoriginal like they are. What I am trying to say, is personality and relating to the recruiter/employer/interviewer on another level other than work/education goes a lot further then strutting around in your mathlete jacket.
By posting this your already telling me your a social imbecile. To many people at uni did this "forced" conversation approach and either you end up looking like a tool or you get someone equally boring and unoriginal like they are. What I am trying to say, is personality and relating to the recruiter/employer/interviewer on another level other than work/education goes a lot further then strutting around in your mathlete jacket.
By posting this your already telling me your a social imbecile. To many people at uni did this "forced" conversation approached and either you end up looking like a tool or you get someone equally boring and unoriginal like they are. What I am trying to say, is personality and relating to the recruiter/employer/interviewer goes a lot further then strutting around in your mathlete jacket.
I hate it when people make posts like the one I'm about to make, but holy shit, your grammar made me bleed out of almost every orifice in my body. There is literally blood dripping out of my now empty eye-sockets as I type.
Even if I wrote out my response in mandarin and translated it into English using an online translator all while blacked out and making a conscious effort to make as many mistakes as possible, I still don't think I would have the capability to come off as retarded as you sound. Before you ever even consider posting on this forum again, do yourself a favor and at least have your legal guardian or ESL teacher look over your posts.
Back on topic, isn't the point of a career fair to ask questions about the company and the people there? Shouldn't your discussions be at least somewhat relevant to the company itself?
IMO, as awesome as it is to talk about your 3-month back-packing trip in Europe, you're wasting an opportunity to actually show interest in position and listen to what they have to say. There's definitely a time and a place for everything, but it just doesn't seem like a career fair is one of them. Spending half an hour taking about yourself while there are 10 angry people waiting in line behind you just seems douchey to me.
I had a career fair last year on the East Coast, while I had no interest in banking I did promote a company I had started. All the kids drooled when a lead BB table at lunch asked me to sit with them.
Hey buddy, how does this translate... suck a d**k.
Maybe the problem is that you can't read....
Wtf is wrong with that post... b.c I did not put a comma here or there.... I have more important things to do with my life then browse around WSO looking for grammar mistakes..... Go play some nintendo wii, and do me a favor, post a video of your next karaoke outing and your latest rendition of Michael Bolton's - Can I Touch You... There?
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