Solved, thanks to all!
Took down the embarrassment of a resume hahaha, thanks a lot to all of you who helped. This turned out to be much more than a resume critique, WSO rocks.
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Remove your profile and the BAT test score, to start. Also, keep in mind that if you happen to be successful in landing an IB internship (at least a 'legitimate' one), there will be zero chance you can do that and classes during the summer also, unless you want zero free time and what will probably be a miserable summer overall.
Question: I've literally nothing going on for me other than the storming through undergrad at twice the speed thing, started as a regular high school grad/didn't participate in any sort of early start special program in high school.
How can I show that in my resume other than putting a douchey profile on the top? I honestly think that's how I got office visit opportunities at all, coming from a non-target with a low GPA.
And is it ok if the page is one line short from being full if I remove the BAT? Or should I just reformat it and add some spaces between sections so it's a full page? I mainly put it there because at the time I didn't have that treasurer position yet.
And, well, I'm sort of used to it by now, online classes (one management and one accounting left) are fairly easy at least with my non-target college and I've done the thing of taking 4 classes during a short summer session when the recommended credit load was 1 class, etc. The last accounting class I did online over the summer was literally going on there once a week to fill a few balance sheets then take a multiple choice test online every other week; BS'd the final paper completely off topic and still got an A. But I'll see. It's sort of personally significant for me to graduate before my next birthday. Thanks for the warning though.
Thanks for the advice and hope my questions aren't overly dumb.
Separate out leadership and work experiences
If your high school is really prestigious in the Seattle area 1. Leave it on your resume and 2. Network from you high school alums. Some of my friends went to top NY prep schools and they have a stronger network their then at my top LAC.
Format for resume is fine, but you really need a good finance internship on their. IB might be tough this summer and it might actually make sense for you to continue to stay in college( even if its just 1-2 classes a semester) to boost your GPA and so that you can push your official graduation date later so you continue to qualify for summer analyst positions.
Thank you.
I also have just realized I've got that study abroad thing going on, thought it would be something eye-catching. Is there anyway I can note that without the profile? English is my second language and I speak without an accent and I left home (didn't move with family, just went myself to study abroad) before high school, thought it would be... something.
Got it.
By moving dates right next to the position do you mean to left-align them (following the position names)?
Notes taken on the bottom section, will do.
Which one do I put first? I find my leadership ones more relevant than the work ones, but is that the acceptable normal order?
Uh, I went to a Catholic school in California, and before that a boarding school in New England. Both are pretty prestigious, both aren't anywhere near my college and surely my college alumni won't have heard of them. The latter has a bit presence on Wall Street though, and I've mostly been cold-calling to network with firms in Texas because I have my eyes set on the energy sector, some of them have heard of my high school in Cali.
What about I try for working for a boutique this summer or try applying some firm's Beijing office (know the city, know the language, can't actually find my way around but they won't know—also went to best middle school in the city too), then to find an off-cycle internship before going directly for FT? I realize it's the harder route, but to be perfectly honest, I would need visa sponsorship for working in the US and being so non-target I'm now considering interning around for a year to have the experience then move to Canada (1 year experience as financial analyst qualifies me for permanent resident) and try breaking in there, like the country too and they have a pretty huge natural resources focus in IB. Again sort of the harder route, but that's life I guess. Do you find that plan too crazy/too foolish?
Thanks again for the advice and sorry for babbling like this.
Shoot me a PM and we can chat over email/ it makes it easier to work on your resume.
Easiest way is to probably list the start and end dates of your degree. Instead of saying Dec 2014 or whatever, put September 2012- December 2014. Otherwise, put one line with your Academic Honours etc just saying you are graduating in 2 years.
Unfortunately, while (very) impressive, I don't think graduating that early is an advantage to you at all, in terms of IB recruiting at least. In all honesty, I think banks would prefer candidates who took the 4 years to graduate but got a bunch of relevant experience in between. Something to keep in mind- if you can afford to stay in school a couple of extra years, and are almost done already, picking up something like a second major that probably wouldn't be too much work for you would give you an extra couple of years to network, solidify your application etc and make you more competitive for IB. I'm not the kind of person who will say somebody has zero chance of something, and you may become competitive for IB if you put in the time networking, building your application etc, but in all honesty with your current lack of experience (and the relative abundance of experience of some of your competitors), it's hard to imagine you'll get IB interviews. However, if you basically have an extra year or two to network more, boost your GPA, get internships during the semester and in summers etc, when you're actually a junior you might be much more competitive for an IB spot.
You will have more space when you take out the profile so you will need to reformat anyway, but yeah, one line between sections can't hurt. You could even keep the BAT if you really want to, but the reason I suggested removing it is because I've seen other posters on here saying that it's supposed to be pretty easy (haven't done it myself, and truthfully am not very familiar with Bloomberg) and because of that, wouldn't want to list an even higher score for fear of it being too low to be a real positive). Whether having it will help you is something you have to decide.
I sort of thought of putting the start date but then figured it might make me look like I transferred and that'd be really bad if it seemed like I transferred from somewhere else only to go to a nontarget. I think I'll try the honors one and see how that looks. Again any suggestions on what to deal with the study abroad part in the profile? Left home alone to a foreign country at age 14 and now I have no accent/command of written language is pretty good too, so thought it would be a sort of bonus.
Yeah, I'm pretty much done with my degree now. I can potentially pick up a German major or something.. wait, my college just cut that program right before I arrived. I can do some study abroad for my German Area Studies minor to give myself time to network and continuing to be eligible, but thought it'd sort of defeat the purpose by being abroad. My school exchanges with University of St. Gallen (HSG) though, arguably the best business uni in Europe, should it be a good choice to opt for that? I can potentially go there for a semester or a whole year.
I guess I'll remove the BAT since I didn't even have time to finish the entire test when taking it.
Lastly, not sure about getting enough relevant internships even if I push back graduation since I'm a non-citizen. Can maybe do one this summer though then try for SA again next year, that's something I'll give a bit more thoughts to, but obviously can't decide easily now. I know it's all sunk cost, but I never thought I'd actually work in finance let alone banking until couple months ago and my original intention of going to college at all was to get out of it ASAP, pushing back graduation would really make me feel I wasted years of my life (which, well, guess that's already a factual truth.) I've been focusing on networking with Houston firms since they don't normally get people from out of the state showing a strong interest; think I have no chance with NY firms. I'll be trying for Rothschild's Beijing office too since I have ties to the city and the language down, think that might be my only chance for summer if there is one.
Also like I mentioned above in my reply to another poster's advice, I'm sort of thinking interning or something at no-name firms for a year if this SA thing doesn't work out (have a period of one year that I won't need a work visa to work in the States after graduation) and then going directly to Canada where 1 year experience as a financial analyst would qualify me for permanent resident, then I can go for FT in Canada from there. I'm not a US citizen and I think from a non-target I have little to no chance for visa sponsorship, let alone I'm a Chinese citizen (not actually Chinese myself, a bit complicated but yeah).
edit: As for working during semester, there is the option for me to work unpaid which won't require any work visa but... well, okay, my college isn't actually in Seattle, I changed that to sort of remain anonymous but now I figure anybody who has crossed paths with me will know instantly from the other info that it's me... so, I go to Washington State. It's in a remote college town with nothing but wheat fields around and the only place within an hour of driving is another remote college town in the neighbouring state. God, I'm such a raging douchebag for choosing this uni to get the "state uni experience". There are probably a few financial advisory firms in that other college town though (a quick google search just found me one), so that's still something I'll look into, thanks a lot for bring it up.
edit again: shit, just remembered being an international student I have to take a full credit load each semester to retain my student visa. ...Sorry this post has gotten this long.
1) As I said, your leaving home and studying overseas doesn't have a place on your resume. If you think it'll help (it might) talk about it in an interview or on your cover letter.
About your visa status- talk to your school about getting an internship for credit. You won't get paid (in fact you'll technically be paying for it) but you shouldn't have visa issues that way, and you'll get the experience you want/need without having to do an internship in addition to a full course load as it will be part of your course load.
2) Don't go on a student exchange unless you have something lined up- it'll probably make it harder, not easier. I have done a student exchange but I was fortunate enough to be in a position where I was able to head home for recruitment to secure my IB SA offer. An exchange for exchange sake would probably be detrimental from a career perspective if you haven't got a solid network you can lean on etc while overseas.
3) If your eventual goal is to work in the US, why not return to China/work in HK for a couple of years? Instead of Canada etc, I think the easiest way to get to the US for you would be to work in finance in HK/China for a few years then head to the US by one of two ways. 1) Work in IB in HK/China and internally transfer to the NY office or 2) work in finance (accounting or whatever) in China/HK for a little while, head to a top MBA in the US and go to IB from there.
For the record, I graduated in 2 years from undergrad and had a very similar story/plan, so here is my advice: 1) DO NOT graduate early soley because you think it will compensate for your poor undergrad, particularly at the expense of real experience 2) should the summer SA thing not work out, really consider an MSF as a fallback 3) keep in mind that since you are pitching the whole bright/motivated/focused as the takeaway from your early graduation, you have to nail any technical questions thrown at you- anything less will confirm unwarranted suspicions that you're just a good test taker etc
Thanks a lot, I appreciate the advice.
1) Wish I knew it earlier. It's mostly already done now—or should I transfer? Is that an even tool-er move? Since my eventual goal is Canada, maybe I should aim for a Canadian target? Not sure how good a chance I'd have, but there's a thought. Anyway, please let me know if you have any ideas on how good/bad a move transferring would be at this point.
2) Have checked out target MsF programs in Canada and most of them are part time—guess it's time to go through the websites of the US ones too now, thanks for reminding me of this option.
3) Duly noted.
Woohoo, just got some more SBs, throwing one at each of you. Thank you all so much for the kind advice.
Wouldn't recommend transferring unless you can get into at least a high end semi-target and they'll take at least half of your credits (this was a problem for me when I looked into that route, not sure how Canadian system will work). If you can work something out that meets those requirements, the transfer option trumps the MSF option. My point was mainly that, given the choice between graduating in August with no finance experience and graduating 2 semesters later with some sort of boutique internship, you should take the latter hands down. This is particularly true if you decide to go through the MSF route, as getting a masters from a strong MSF program at 21 will likely give you as much academic credibility as doing undergrad in 2 years. Obviously, should you get the SA position, your objective is to just get the full time offer and then graduate at whatever rate works best for you.
Thanks a lot. As option B I'll be applying to MSF at Vanderbilt, WUSTL, and MMS at Duke, maybe SMU and Rice too, also Ivey HBA's second entry; if I magically get into Ivey I'll go with that. And if more magically I get an SA I'll just stick with it and throw everything else out of the window. Thank you so much, you have a nice day.
Sounds like a solid plan. One small thing that you might note, assuming you can't go for a Canadian MSF for whatever reason- Holding quality of the program equal, try to look for an MSF at a business school that has either a an MBA or undergrad exchange program with Canada. Based on the experience of the international students in my program, they did significantly better in the area's where our brand had been propped up by having a steady presence in their schools.
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