Sophomore Summer Job

Hi guys,

What are some good jobs to do for my sophomore summer? I know that PWM internships are the go-to ones, but I live in a non-major Canadian city so they aren't easily available. So what type of jobs would you guys recommend? Retail? Sales? Administrative? Or should I do something different all-together?

Thanks!

 

Right now the most finance-related exp. you have is the tax volunteer thing, so my suggestion would be to highlight that somehow- write more for it, etc.

Joining a club is great but isn't nearly going to cut it for SA recruiting. You definitely need at least one finance-related internship under your belt.

Do you know what you're doing this summer? You should definitely try to go for a finance internship. Anything at this point (since it's pretty much summer) would suffice- Private wealth management, asset management, working at a fund, etc. etc. The closer you can get to banking though, the better.

 

Unfortunately, I have to take a math class over the summer. It's just one class, but the fact that it takes a few hours out of the day would conflict with an internship, I feel. Additionally, I am currently unsure as to whether I will be taking the class in my hometown or in my college town. Do you think there are firms that are willing to work around this?

Additionally, how should I go about finding such internships? I'm fully willing to work for no pay. Should I be cold calling?

 
BillyJean111:

The school I'm at is a large, high-ranked public school. All the big banks actively recruit here, although we do not have a finance program of any sort (just economics and accounting). My goal is eventually to obtain a summer analyst position at a BB.

Hmm, UCLA? If that is the case, you have an excellent shot at cracking BB IBD, as long as you plan/perform well. I heard this year's incoming SA class absolutely killed it when it came to obtaining offers.

"Rage, rage against the dying of the light." - DT
 

Do you absolutely have to take that one math class? If you don't, I'd say ditch it and do an internship. If you do, try and work around it so you go to your internship on the days/times you don't have class. This is fine for a PWM internship since they're often done during the semester.

lol its ironic that a Trojan is actually giving advice to a Bruin :p

 
USC8888:
Do you absolutely have to take that one math class? If you don't, I'd say ditch it and do an internship. If you do, try and work around it so you go to your internship on the days/times you don't have class. This is fine for a PWM internship since they're often done during the semester.

lol its ironic that a Trojan is actually giving advice to a Bruin :p

What sorts of PWM firms should I be looking at? I'm afraid I'm a bit late to the ballgame and don't really know a lot of industry names. I really do have to take the math class, otherwise I'm going to have too many units to be accepted into my major.

So far on my school's career page, I only see summer internships for UBS and Merill Lynch positions. I'm going to give them a go.

 

It's very hard to say without knowing more details: -What do you mean by "small financial services firm?" Does this mean a small wealth management shop, a boutique investment bank, or something else? -What sort of firm did you do FI trading with in Chicago? Particularity, is it considered more prestigious than the "small financial services firm" you have an opportunity to work for? (Getting a very good Freshman year internship and then "downgrading" for Sophomore year is generally not looked upon favorably) -What would you be doing at the "specialty pharmaceutical company?" Additionally, how much of a name is the company and how much capital has it raised? -What are your longer term goals? Do you want to do IB, S&T, or something else come graduation?

Based off what I do know, I would be inclined to recommend the Pharma opportunity. -A lot of people will tell you that you should always take finance experience over non-finance experience. I don't totally agree with that. I think it's good to have tried something else because it makes it easier to know if you really want to do finance, and easier to answer that question in an interview. -London is a great place to do a sophomore internship. First of all, international experience is great generally. But more importantly, it's easier to network in London (for an American) than it is in most other cities. There are probably a bunch of alumni from your school who work there, and they generally don't hear from their Alma mater's current student's nearly as often as their American counterparts. It's also legal for you to drink in London, and drinking with someone is by far the best form of networking (but be careful not to make an ass of yourself). It is worth noting that it may be harder for them to directly help you than people who work in the US, but they can at the very least introduce you to people back in the states, but unless you live in or near NYC (maybe Chicago) it'll beat anything in your hometown. -Opens more options to you outside of finance without really closing any doors within it.

 

Currently at a MM PE firm. Doing a lot of business development and see deals all the time. Doing some valuation but not a lot of detailed modeling unfortunately...aka not working on LBO's at this point and doubt I ever will. Any deal experience you get for your sophomore summer internship is a huge bonus though, so I wouldn't worry about it too much. The few friends that I know working at MM IB's are doing a lot of clerical work such as creating teasers and researching comps; haven't heard of any of them doing anything related to valuation or modeling. That being said don't be afraid to sit down with your boss and see if he will give you something more challenging.

 

@"fromtheshadows" is correct. I have a few friends who last year in top bb groups as summer analysts (after junior year) got no live deal or model experience for several weeks. Just make sure that you show a high level of competence and efficiency in mundane tasks. When you have downtime as an analyst that has down time also to show you a model. Show you carry out tasks well and are truly interested in modeling/deals and you will get some good experience by the end of the summer.

 

From what I have seen, that will work at a small boutique but not at a much larger bank where they already have senior bankers and their own junior interns staffed on the deals... It's not always as easy as proving yourself

 

Depending on the bank, they may want more valuation/modeling, IMO I think getting in at a small bank of valuation shop would be better but obviously if you have nothing else go with Liberty Mutual. You just don't want to be cold calling people all day long.

 

Define "Sales". Are you going to be selling to retail clients?

I'd be tempted to give retail sales a pass if you get anything else more corporate finance related. HOWEVER......I would be remiss if I don't mention that, if you go this route, I can see a way to spin this into your story. I'd talk about how you learned a lot about yourself and your love for a competetive, results driven sales role. The parallels between that and investment banking should be pretty obvious.

 

its a crap shoot. What do you want to do?

I would say 1)Hedgefund, or 2) IB. Depending on what your role at the hedgefund is you may get some good experience and if you decide you don't like it you can always do IB on your third year. Congratulations. Life is built on unique experiences, either way you will get an experience.

 

Ask them what you'll do for the internship on a daily basis. Believe it or not, and this is coming for a more senior person whose junior people have interns and I have no idea what any of them are doing (my employees with the interns, I know what my people are doing overall but they manage interns) asking a real question is not horrible. If the HF seems like you'll be filing papers and doing clerical things on a daily basis and get one investment idea as a test at the end but the IB gig will give you access to live deals think about it. Smaller funds and IB's just don't have a cut and dry intern thing. Get experience and as close to a name brand as possible.

 

didn't you already post this question?

Personally I would go with Pfizer. You would be able to spin the experience and get into a healthcare group at a top BB or EB. Furthermore, assuming your working in the NYC office of Pfizer - it would be very easy to network and meet bankers for coffee. State Street in Boston wouldn't give you that kind of flexibility.

Thats just my 2 cents. I'm in a similar position as you. Have to choose between F100 Financial Analyst, NYC startup, and boutique IBD.

Best, Owen

 

First experience gives you practical skills and can be spun to IBD (e.g. liked experience working in an analytical role for a phrama company and I want to gain a broader client base and be able understand various types of businesses as oppose to being expert in just one, so I'd like to do HC IB. This is an easy sell in an interview, and whether or not you actual want to do HC is irrelevant since summer internship offers are generalist.).

State Street internship sounds like data processing and operations, not too much will be transferrable to IB. IMO experience trumps brand equity of firm (unless the firm is JPM / MS / GS, in which case the name alone will carry you to some extent), so I'd say at the Pharma company.

If I were you, I would angle my networking for junior year SA positions to healthcare teams. If you attend a target it shouldn't be too difficult to find someone from you school in a healthcare coverage group. If not, if you tailor a cold email to a group / industry interest it shouldn't be too hard to get an analyst to respond to a cold email.

If you're going to be interning at Pfizer, finding the GS and MS analysts that worked on Pfizer-Allergan is your golden ticket. But actually develop some industry insights and opinions if you're going to go the HC angle. They will ask.

 

I did almost the same internship but at a large cap biotech firm my first year. Have gotten tons of interest in it during interviews and it really does help you understand the business at a much deeper level. I'd take it.

 

Hey man, I usually don't comment but I noticed your resume was a lot like mine, so I have a couple of tips. It does look pretty solid though.

  1. Take your second major and put it on the line with your first major (Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Bachelor of Arts in Information Science).
  2. Put the SAT out of 2400 so it matches up with the GPA (2280 / 2400). Then bold your 3.8 and 2280 so they stand out more.
  3. You can keep relevant coursework if you want but I don't have it because I usually just let the interviewer ask me what I've taken if they are interested. This will save some space.
  4. If you want, you can tab over your position in your activities (i.e. tab over the intern part under the reinsurance company). This is more your preference though.
  5. Also you can make the spacing between your activities 0.5, so that you have more space.

Again, all of these things are your preference, but I think that these things will save space so that you can add more stuff on, without making it overly cluttered. If you want to get a PWM, I would recommend calling local BAML and UBS offices and trying to get through to the recruiting director. A lot of it is luck, but I'm sure if you contact enough local places, you'll get something with your resume.

 

Not bad.

1) Move Activities above Technical Skills 2) Use consistent punctuation. In first bullet under uni, you used semicolons to separate; so use those or commas (better) for Relevant Coursework

 

Internships help show employers that you can hack it in banking and already have a good idea what the business is like. Having one after your soph year is especially great because it will make you stand out when looking for internships after your junior year.

This should pretty much be common sense.

 
yo32yy:
I am a sophomore at a target and want to work in I-Banking in the future. Everyone I have talked to including alums and people going through recruiting suggest that I get an internship at a smaller bank this summer. Does anybody know why this is so important to have? Obviously prior experience is good, but why exaactly is that so good for you in your junior year?

it's just an easy resume screen...when they are looking through 100s of resumes and need to choose 20 for 1st round interviews, having "relevant experience" can be "important", even if you were just serving coffee all summer.

 
IBchimp:
Work experience definitely matters...

THe point of this thread is for somebody to explain to me WHY it matters, beyond a resume screen and in an interview. Anybody can have work experience - what does that necessarily bring to the table that another candidate would not have?

 

Look, if you dont want work experience then don't do it. I don't understand the basis of your question. If you are interested in a particular field, naturally you will gravitate towards learning more about it. You learn more about it through internships.....

What it brings to the table is demonstrated interest. Beyond that, you can learn a lot through an internship, depending on the position, that will give you a leg up in certain skillsets that others dont have.

Lastly, who cares what it brings to the table. That's how the industry works--you need internships. So if you want to get in, you do what it takes. period.

 
jman:
i cant even believe you're asking this and you go to a target. "anybody can have work experience"

No shit, but you aren't going to get brownie points for working at mcdonalds

I think he might be part of that whole 'Yale thing'.

 

Do something fun and interesting with your sophomore summer, like study abroad or travel or something. It's both more interesting for you and more interesting to talk about during interviews. Nobody really thinks you'll be doing something 'real' during your sophomore summer anyway, so why not enjoy yourself while you still can?

Just my 2 cents - it's what I did and I didn't have any trouble finding jr year internships.

 

why are so many people wasting time answering this stupid question? when i was a freshman/sophomore and asked stupid questions like this i got shut down so bad.

for what its worth, i dont think just "anyone" can have top work experience. arguably, solid work experience (i.e. something better than PWM at a BB in terms of finance skillset) is even harder to achieve than a high gpa. it takes a great deal of drive and commitment outside of the obligations of classwork to land an IB or equity research gig as a sophomore. you need to have good grades, show strong leadership on campus, and have done a good amount of networking, while most other sophomores your age barely know what they are majoring in.

dammit. looks like i just wasted my time as well. when in rome...

 

I can directly relate to what I think your asking in your question. but you worded it pretty poorly so I think everyone is somewhat confused. I am currently a senior with a FT offer at a BB (where I interned junior year summer) from a target state school.

"Does anybody know why this is so important to have?" - This has pretty much been answered

"Obviously prior experience is good, but why exactly is that so good for you in your junior year?"

During my sophomore year summer I got an internship through family/friends/networking with a finance company not located in my hometown. While it was not I-banking, the experience was extremely valuable from a variety of perspectives.

First, I was living alone in a large city and working in a cubicle 50 or so hours per week. This was a valuable experience as you can determine whether or not business (sitting in an office all day on Microsoft Office) is something you could actually do for the rest of your life.

The internship was extremely valuable in the development of my professional and "soft" skills. In retrospect I believe the maturity level I gained through the sophomore internship experience was extremely helpful in obtaining a full-time offer from the BB where I interned after my junior year. There are tons of small mistakes you will make and things you learn through having a business internship during your sophomore year. Things you can pick up on range from how to stand out as an excellent intern to how to interact/network with senior-level people to even how to appropriately drink and socialize at out-of-office events.

Additionally, interning during your sophomore year can be really helpful in developing a network that can help you find a job in IB and determine whether or not you actually want to do IB. The people you will be working with have great advice, connections, and experience that you can use while determining your career path.

In terms of interviewing you will be much more comfortable with finance related concepts and have a more in-depth view of how macroeconomic factors relate to business/finance in general. You could also relate to your sophomore internship experience when your are asked "Why do you want to do investment banking?" To answer this question, so many people just talk about the great learning curve involved with investment banking, but you will have specific experiences that you can enthusiastically relate to your desire to be an investment banker.

Lastly, if you are a business major, you will find that many of the things you learned during your internship correlate with subjects being discussed in upper level finance classes during your junior year.

Wow, I did not realize I had so much to say on this topic...

As a sophomore intern, most likely you will be working 40-50 hours per week and have weekends off. Take that time to enjoy the city where you are interning because once you intern in investment banking, you will have no time to really explore everything NY/CHI/LA/SF has to offer.

I hope this helps, and I would definitely recommend pursuing a sophomore summer internship.

 

Dude, the value it adds when you're interviewing is much the same as the value it adds when trying to land an interview. No matter how much you think you know about finance you will never be able to relate unless you have some solid work experience.

The interviews are there to make sure that you can support the potential bull shit you write on the resume. Other than that they want to make sure you are someone they can see themselves spending 80+ hours a week in the office with.

 

I say you screw the internships, party all you can and walk into your interview and tell him you're good at negotiating dollar beers, you've got industry connections as local pubs and you've been working hard on drinking late nights... I think that should answer your question...

to be realistic... a 10 week banking internship in one summer doesnt even begin to scratch the surface of finance... 2 maybe leaves a miniscule impression but not enough for you to tell me about modelling a deferred tax liability in an lbo model...

 

BBA doesn't line up with Major GPA

Increase your cumulative

Remove the dreamweaver, photoshop crap, get rid of excel

Try and get Bloomberg experience, factset, reuters, capiq, whatever

Should there be periods at the end of bullet points?

Search for a PWM internship. Not too hard to get and it will add some finance flavor to your resume

Give us an idea of the school you go to and the region

 

agree with all of anthony's comments

some other notes:

continuity in your bullet points. try to start them all with same verb, and and keep the tense consistent (ex. "gain exposure..." "head of a committee..." etc.) also, try not to use the same verb to start 2 bullet points in a row if possible (under hospital volunteer, you started with "provided" twice... small thing but sometimes small things can add up)

also, you just finished freshman year.... did you officially declare your major yet? otherwise, you i dont think you technically "have" a major gpa (especially with only 2 semesters, for all i know that "major" gpa is made up of only 1 or 2 classes).

second bullet under "Chief Financial Officer, Co-Founder" you have 2 sentences in the same bullet point. try to keep it to a single sentence per bullet

and its just a personal preference, but i think it looks better when you write out "bachelor of business administration" as opposed to "BBA"

and almost all rising sophomore lack legitimate business experience.. thats what college is for.. to get it before full time

 

I go to a semi-target at best in the midwest haha, it's a top-20 undergrad and it's highly touted in businessweek rankings (if that counts for anything), but I'm home on the west coast for summer right now.

Hmm what do you mean by "Try and get Bloomberg experience, factset, reuters, capiq, whatever", AnthonyD? And are there fall PWM internships generally?

And good call dew, haha I did declare my intent but it's true that it's made up of 2 classes.

Thanks for the advice so far everyone, I'll update and repost it tomorrow!

 

Yes its not unrealistic to get a fall term pwm internship. I'm currently working at the biggest pwm in Canada head office, and the way it works is that its usually a part-time internship where you go in on your own schedule and work. After I finish up this summer, there will be other students continuing where I left off in September and throughout the year. I originally tried to get the internship for winter term but i ended up getting it in March, so I had to do it in the Summer.

He meant you should get some exposure to those financial data platforms, bloomberg and capiq especially. Usually if you're in a school investment club, they will make you research equities or market sectors/etc, you should be using data from financial statements and other data sources from these platforms, I'm not sure if your school offers it for free, but mine does so it was quite simple to just access it and to get an idea of how to retrieve data as needed.

 

drop the relevant coursework until you have more than one relevant course

cut down the wordiness and verb duplication in your bullets ("assessed financial risk and analyzed market trends"; "assessed and made suggestions")

student government is not a proper noun, and therefore should not be capitalized unless that is the name of the organizaiton

very few of your bullets point to any tangible results. quality over quantity.

on your eGuitar thing you list yourself as Co-Founder then start your first bullet with co-founder

drop your second bullet on your little eGuitar thing you started, it's sounds like shit. you didn't even run the thing for a year.

your interests are boring. please have your primary interest be something other than finance.

 

Go with B, IMO.

The finance related experience will be better to talk to when interviewing for future finance related roles. Also, from my experience, doing internship/research assistantships at a university is considered less "prestigious" than an industry role as academic gigs are viewed as easier to obtain than those at a firm (can't really say why).

 

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