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Berkeley IBD Forum (Career Fair Advice)
 

deal_mkr's picture
IB
 
Points)
 on 9/3/11 at 1:52pm
berkeley.jpg

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.

- 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

- 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.

- 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.

- 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 ;)

- 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

- Subtly wipe your palms before you shake hands with someone. seriously - nothing grosser than sweaty palms.

- 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...

- 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?

- 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.

FutureGekko's picture

thanks and for the people

IB
(Orangutan, 287
 
Points)
 on 9/3/11 at 2:34pm

thanks and for the people that werent in suits...what were they wearing then?

guest4567's picture

I dressed in bus casual..

EN
(Baboon, 156
 
Points)
 on 9/3/11 at 3:46pm

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

gobears831's picture

Thanks for the advice! Was at

PE
(Chimp, 14
 
Points)
 on 9/3/11 at 3:49pm

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 :)

ballmouse's picture

There's a job fair at my

 
Points)
 on 9/3/11 at 4:14pm

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?

ubiquity's picture

Thank you for the post.

O
(Chimp, 7
 
Points)
 on 9/3/11 at 5:22pm

Thank you for the post.

demoz's picture

Thank you for the post,

 
Points)
 on 9/3/11 at 5:57pm

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.

ibizzle's picture

I went to this event with my

 
Points)
 on 9/3/11 at 11:21pm

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.

PIGS's picture

OP, as a banker, I am apalled

(Orangutan, 289
 
Points)
 on 9/4/11 at 8:56am

OP, as a banker, I am apalled by your lack of atention to detail.

Its Berkeley NOT Berkley

seedy underbelly's picture

PIGS wrote: OP, as a banker,

IB
(King Kong, 1,114
 
Points)
 on 9/4/11 at 10:08am
PIGS:

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

Gekko_KKR's picture

Great post by OP. Leaving a

IB
 
Points)
 on 9/4/11 at 10:51am

Great post by OP. Leaving a first impression is always important.

firebi234's picture

Actually, I disagree about

PE
 
Points)
 on 9/4/11 at 11:30am

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.

Hoogerman's picture

How could one strike up an

O
 
Points)
 on 9/4/11 at 12:12pm

How could one strike up an interesting conversation?

Just walk up to you and be like oh I partied last night??

I banana back

In reply to Hoogerman
Mr. Hansen's picture

Hoogerman wrote: How could

(Gorilla, 519
 
Points)
 on 9/4/11 at 1:10pm
Hoogerman:

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.

karypto's picture

I had a career fair last year

EN
 
Points)
 on 9/4/11 at 5:30pm

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.

In reply to ballmouse
deal_mkr's picture

thanks to everyone for the

IB
 
Points)
 on 9/4/11 at 5:48pm

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....

ballmouse:

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?

- Sometimes recruiters were behind tables, sometimes in front, usually speaking to groups of 1-3 people. But in general it was kindof a mob scene, especially at the more popular tables
- more crowded at begining, less crowded at end

In reply to deal_mkr
blastoise's picture

deal_mkr wrote: thanks to

O
 
Points)
 on 9/4/11 at 5:56pm
In reply to seedy underbelly
Simple As...'s picture

seedy underbelly wrote: PIGS

 
Points)
 on 9/4/11 at 6:37pm
In reply to blastoise
fryguy22's picture

blastoise wrote: deal_mkr

IB
 
Points)
 on 9/4/11 at 9:00pm
In reply to Hoogerman
koske's picture

Hoogerman wrote: How could

ST
 
Points)
 on 9/5/11 at 5:50am

- Only time will tell....

In reply to Hoogerman
koske's picture

Hoogerman wrote: How could

ST
 
Points)
 on 9/5/11 at 5:50am

- Only time will tell....

In reply to Hoogerman
koske's picture

Hoogerman wrote: How could

ST
 
Points)
 on 9/5/11 at 5:50am

- Only time will tell....

In reply to koske
reddog23's picture

koske wrote: Hoogerman

(Orangutan, 348
 
Points)
 on 9/6/11 at 6:50pm
koske's picture

Hey buddy, how does this

ST
 
Points)
 on 9/7/11 at 9:14am

- Only time will tell....

In reply to koske
reddog23's picture

koske wrote: Wtf is wrong

(Orangutan, 348
 
Points)
 on 9/7/11 at 10:26am
koske's picture

YOU'RE telling me you never

ST
 
Points)
 on 9/7/11 at 11:00am

- Only time will tell....

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