Take a year-long leave of absence or no?
Relevant details: I have completed 2 years at a target university. Absolutely fantastic recruiting here. However up until this point, I was set on going to academia for theoretical math, but I still participated in finance clubs on campus just out of personal interest. This summer I decided that I no longer wanted to go into academia. The result: I have zero work experience in finance.
In order to not squander my 3rd year summer recruiting season and the amazing recruiting opportunities here, would it be wise to take a leave of absence for a year to do some finance internships/work? My goals are twofold: (1) beef up the resume and (2) to see if I even enjoy working in finance (or if I will have a similar experience as my experience with math academia).
Thanks!
You're essentially delaying the forward progression of your life in order to spend a year doing something that you are not sure you'll enjoy doing? Hopefully that statement should clarify the logic of what you're considering.
If you're at a target with solid recruiting, I see no reason why you wouldn't get recruiting traction for summer internship so long as the rest of your resume is solid and you know your story. The entire purpose of a 10 week summer internship is to figure out if you enjoy a given field and to beef up the resume. So I'm a bit perplexed that you think you need to do something as drastic as take a year long leave of absence in order to do that same thing.
Also the quality and pedigree of an off cycle year-long (or otherwise) internship will likely be substantially below that of a traditional summer internship, so once again that would suggest the payoff of what you're suggesting isn't commensurate to the cost... not only that but the payoff of a year long leave of absence is arguably below the payoff of a 10 week internship, which has a much lower and less consequential cost.
Why not trek ahead as planned and shoot for an internship next summer. Try to develop your finance skills on your own. Worst case scenario, you could still get finance experience next summer and delay graduation for a semester or two if you need to. But atleast you're not front loading that sacrifice/decision without knowing its true necessity in getting to where you want.
If I was interviewing you and you told me you took a year long leave of absence from school to beef up your resume and gain some finance experience, I would seriously question your judgement -- unless you're at Dartmouth where they have a structured program for class credit and partnerships with investment banks for this exact purpose.
This is not the worst case scenario. The worst case scenario is that I don't get placed in IB even though I would have really enjoyed it.
I'm not sure if my information is correct, but I have been told by our school's career advisor that for IB, applying for the 3rd year summer internship is basically applying for the job. When considering FT candidates, they mainly choose from the previous summer's. Supposedly, the applicants for SA/FT positions that are 4th years are barely even looked at. In other words, I am viewing these school year as seeing if I enjoy banking and to pad the resume. I am viewing the 3rd year internship as basically the best possible chance I will have of getting a job in the area I enjoy.
If my information above is correct, then I think this pause in the "forward progression of my life" is justified. If I can learn about which area of finance I want to pursue in this gap-year (survey from the various diverse areas of finance), I can choose the area that I enjoy the most, recruit for top -tier firms in this area for 3rd year summer, and use my experience to perform well in this internship to seal the deal for a job that I know for a fact that I want because I have done it before.
I guess the more logical thing to do would be to apply for academic year first and see if I can get them first, then make this decision. However, in terms of pedigree, my school has posted some pretty top notch opportunities. For the sake of argument, let's just say that I do have a part-time job locked in. Then what should the plan be? Unfortunately, with the recruiting opportunities comes insane academics, and it would be borderline impossible to maintain both an academic year internship along with classes and, if I decide to recruit for summer 2015, information sessions and networking events. Maybe just take the fall semester off and then recruit?
Let me save you the trouble, you won't enjoy it. Guaranteed. Its not about the enjoyment of the job, its about the future value of that track and whether or not those early years of suffering are tolerable/worth it for you.
That worst case scenario is applicable to either of your two scenarios. A 1 year leave of absence does not at all guarantee a IB job. And if you're not matriculated, I doubt you'll have access to OCR that summer/fall FYI.
My point is that you can leave now and it will definitely take you 5 years to graduate. Or you can play it by ear and see if you need to do extend your tenure at school on an as-needed basis. Also I don't know if you fully appreciate that the universe of off-cycle full year internships available to a not going to college non-graduate are tier 2 or tier 3, at best. If you think that's going to lend any meaningful value to your sense of what finance is or your credentials, you're a bit mistaken. If a full year internship is all you can get at Egon Family Asset Management in Spokane, Washington, then you ATLEAST be able to get the same internship over the summer.
Get active in ECs, do some networking and you'll be fine. I'm baffled by the steps you're considering when the battle you're facing is very minor. Essentially you're wearing a tuxedo and want to strip down, shave your head, face and body and take a kerosene bath because you have a mosquito on your neck. Swat the mosquito, flick it away and walk into the party. End of story.
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