Not being interesting
I will be a first year university student this year (best case scenario a non-target), and will be applying for UK spring internship programmes.
I have got solid extraculliculars/leadership stuff and work experience. My CV would fill up good. But here's thing: they are all related to finance. Finance after finance, and even though as I have said they are solid stuff, and perhaps stick out, I don't come off as an interesting person. If I had to put down my interests (and I will have to do that) I would be able to write only some very generic stuff, like football, volleyball, stuff I like to do. But apart from the finance stuff I achieved, nothing in any sport I achieved nor I have some weird hobby like fencing or something like that.
I mean finance is a real interest to me, and that would be proven by the CV; but my point is that I would probably come off as somebody who is desperate about getting into banking/trading and is just a simple, boring someone.
I am just not a well-rounded individual (I love playing sports, reading and pretty much thats about it) and I didn't achieve great things in a wide range of fields. I mean come on.. some people just turn out not well-rounded, meanwhile some people do and I guess that's just something which you cant really control. I can't just say OK I want to be wellrounded, so I start reading literature and start getting a pilots license in my freetime, meanwhile in reality i don't give a flying F about either of those.
Am I right in assuming my chances would be greatly hindered because of the above?
Also one thing I just don't seem to get and would appreciate somebody give a good reason for it: banking is a very relationship driven business so thats fine, and you spend your days with the same guys over and over again and so it's obvious you want them to be interesting, BUT why does being wellrounded for trading matters the same?
I mean OK trading is kinda relationship driven aswell, but its just different from banking kinda lot... obviously its a must that you are not socially retarded and you can communicate well, but why preference would be given to someone who has volunteered in south africa or sth? I mean in trading its about simple P&L, and common sense tells me recruiting would concentrate on people who proved to have a real interest in the markets and have transferable skills from ECs.. (no matter they are related to finance or not) but I just don't get it why volunteering in elephant camps, or fencing as in the above example would give you an advantage in recruiting..
Also, how important is "being interesting" after entry level jobs? I mean when a trader would like to make the jump to a HF or a prop trading firm for example.
Thanks a lot.
SMH. C'mon, man...
please enlighten me
You are smart enough to be on this site and are smart enough to get internships and experience in finance, but you come up with a post like the one above?
If you don't understand a finance concept and you think it will be important to future employers during an interview, what would you do? You would use your time and resources to learn that concept.
If you believe that you are not interesting (on paper or in person) and you think that it will be important to be interesting during an interview what would you do? You would use your time and resources to try new things and involve yourself in unique activities that you could talk about to get out of your finance bubble.
This is so far from rocket science. I am not going to continue on to answer your other questions in the post because they are equally ridiculous - i.e. why does being well-rounded for trading matter?
Everything you are worrying about really doesn't matter as much as you think. If you love football, volleyball, reading, and stocks, put that as your interests. You never know who may see your resume and what they are interested in (unless you network hard enough, in which case you should have a strong idea of who is looking at it). Either way you should be confident in who you are. In my first interview of my superday, I sat with an MD and we talked about American football for nearly the entire time. He only asked about it because it was listed on my resume. Don't stress out comparing yourself to others on something as little as the interests section.
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