People w/ jobs and w/ jobs lined up - What did you do your freshman summer?

I interned 3 days a week at smith barney... Not too exciting

Temped at a couple of places doing brainless work.

sales/marketing for a juice company...also unexciting

Doing random low value add crap; easy to sell though.

i worked in a grocery store - mainly to pay for gas/ganja/beer - it was a fun summer, and i'm glad i did something fun before i began doing internships the next summer

i had a holiday

Banking

I worked at a summer camp freshman summer and the same summer camp sophomore summer, sailing and playing with kids all day long, and had no problems getting very good SA offers...

Sometimes I think people stress a little too much haha :-)

Worked at a treasury department of a small commercial bank for a month, then partied for the rest of the summer.

took xferable classes at a community college and worked at banana republic, both were memorable experiences in their own special ways...

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"its the running joke now, we now have fair trade with china so they send us poisoned sea food and we send them fraudulent securities."

Cold-called for Smith Barney

Did an internship with The TJX Companies -- was pretty legit, mostly juniors / sophomores. Of course, I slacked and spent my sophomore summer shucking oysters behind a bar.

same as one of the guys above...worked at a summer camp and had a great time. Never even thought about doing a finance internship to prepare for the SA offer I got. Some people on here are trying to prep too hard in advance. i never even thought about wall street freshman year.

Intern at a ratings agency (S&P/Moodys/Fitch)

I worked for a university sponsored summer program my freshman year, SA at HF sophomore summer, SA in IBD this upcoming summer . . . Looking back, my freshman summer is in my top 2 or 3 of regrets so far college - I should have studied abroad that summer and I should have done so in a Spanish speaking country. Don't know if I'll ever forgive myself for that one.

Anyway, I sure as hell wasn't thinking of Wall Street then and I didn't think of doing any other big internship (in fact, I actually thought my little summer program job was a big deal back then haha).

Lifeguarded after my freshman and sophomore years - way better than getting a legit job.

Come to think of it, it was actually better than my current job in some respects. Kind of depressing actually.

Unstructured internships in corporate business development and m&a freshman and sophomore summers, IBD junior summer. Now S&T FT offer. Freshman and sophomore summers were in my parents' home country, so had an awesome time and learned a lot about the country, the people, the culture and made some good friends there. And working hours were flexible (you could come in between 6am and 10am and leave between 2pm and 6pm). I chose 6am to 2pm, so I had time to hit the beach on most days. It was awesome!

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"It is a fine thing to be out on the hills alone. A man can hardly be a beast or a fool alone on a great mountain." - Francis Kilvert (1840-1879)

"Ce serait bien plus beau si je pouvais le dire à quelqu'un." - Samivel

I came home from school and did nothing for three months except house sit for my neighbors. In hindsight, I consider myself very fortunate to have gotten a job. I had at least a few interviewers give me a hard time about not working after freshman summer.

My advice: do something, it really hurts having that gap on your resume.

I'm going on to an IBD job at UBS HK this summer. Did 8 weeks M&A at a boutique in HK. I guess it did help with the UBS app the year after. I hear relevant experience matters a lot more in Asia than in NYC though.

I just took classes and hung out all summer, I don't think there is any real rush after your freshman year. I would just chill out and have fun because you aren't going to have many summers after that.

Whether you take classes, work as a lifeguard, or travel the world - the imporant thing is to just have something to speak to.

nystateofmind nailed it, i studied abroad and had a great time w/o learning anything at all, but it gave me something to talk about. It doesn't matter what you do as long as you do something you can point to. Just don't sit at home by the pool the whole summer. Get a part time job, travel, classes ect. so you have something to talk about down the line.

worked 6 hours a day in a prop trading firm in manhattan. scalpers. a very fun summer though.

worked at a sailing camp

BB IBD

met a nympho and spent most of my summer in bed while struggling to make ends meet

Would working as an intern to a financial adviser at a place like Edward Jones be a good sophomore internship vs. working at a place like FXCM doing research? I know neither are glamorous, but that's all I got so far.

and not much else

took a class
went to bahamas
couple days a week PWM internship doing complete BS work

worked in a medical call center, worst job ever

Freshman: I worked at fedex unloading trucks from 5-9am then delivering packages till about 3pm. Some days I would also lifeguard.

Sophmore: Worked at the library, took a class, went to Australia

Junior: MM PE/buyside search

Real world: BB IBD

It takes all kinds people, stop stressing out.

freshman summer: worked on capitol hill in congressperson's office

Currently a sophomore- doing a sophomore internship this summer with a BB

Worked part-time at a company that did on-site tech support for small businesses. Basically, we were their IT department, and they didn't need to hire their own people.

While I wasn't at work I screwed around and went to the beach. Don't take yourself too seriously.

Landed a IBD internship and FT offer, but took a FT offer at a different bank.

I didn't have ANYTHING business related until my sophomore summer. 3 internships: sophomore summer, junior fall, junior spring. Then BB position. Honestly though, pre-sophomore summer my experience was at a coffee shop and places like that...

worked at the Fed & cocktail waitress-ed on the weekends..

the Fed? thats awesome

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"its the running joke now, we now have fair trade with china so they send us poisoned sea food and we send them fraudulent securities."

Worked as a receptionist for a family friend who's a pediatrician part time. That and spent a lot of time at the beach.

Unpaid work experience at 2 different BBs, 8 weeks total, not IBD/S&T.

EE - the Fed is significantly less fun to work at than people would imagine, but it was a solid name to have on my resume, opened a ton of doors for me down the road.

i'll bet. wish i did something as cool as that my post-freshman summer.

i worked on an exchange floor my post-soph summer but that didn't open too many doors, surprisingly enough for me at the time

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"its the running joke now, we now have fair trade with china so they send us poisoned sea food and we send them fraudulent securities."

How did you get the Fed internship?

Taught tennis my freshman year and interned for little pay at a commodities based HF for soph year, but as other people have said as long as you have a passion for finance/markets and something to talk about in the interview you should be fine.

I worked a few days a week, but mostly just hung out with my friends.

going to work at blackrock pag

.... you'd think a guy like me could pull that sorta thing off

worked in ops at a BB

I worked for a direct marketing company (aka going door to selling promotions) for a couple of months. Then my best friends and I went on a 20-day road trip across the country from coast-to-coast. Best decision ever. I've got an internship at a top boutique this summer.

chilled in europe

Can't recall exactly, but may be a summer janitor gig at a public school at a rich town? Taught me the values of hard work...$11/hour...not to shabby lol

Should I be listing non-finance related "work experience" on a resume just to show I'm not a lazy bastard over the summer?