Greetings, I am currently a Junior, rising Senior at a VERY low Non-Target School majoring in Business Administration with a Concentration in Finance. I am also going to Intern at a small Accounting Firm in Government Services for the summer, however, I wanted to go into FP&A Full-Time next year after I graduate.
I was hoping to get some tips and tricks on what to do to prepare for the next recruiting season to secure that job offer in the fall, including some companies I can look into preferably for a F500 Company but open to up-and-coming mid sized companies , different ways to prepare for the Interview and also gain experience in the meantime. I'm also planning to take additional Modeling and Valuation Courses over the summer as well. Anything you feel that would be helpful.
Sincerely, WSO Noob (Chimp)
Hey-
Good news for you: it is easier than you think. I recently went to a hiring event with my company, and the things that the managers are looking for are very reasonable. The hiring managers just want to see that you are interested, teachable, and are a decent human being.
1) Interested Do you know what the company does? Do you know what corporate finance responsibilities are at such a company (hint: it is not stocks and valuations)? Are you interested in that role, at that company, in that industry? Show some enthusiasm. Almost all the candidates we talked to were trying to be calm and collected, but they came off as dead-pan and disinterested. Show some excitement and energy.
2) Teachable This one is simple- show that you are excited to learn. We had one interviewee answer the question "what did you dislike the most about previous coworkers?" with "When they don't do things my way." We gave him the chance to walk back that answer, but he didn't take it. How dumb is that? You just have to show that you are pleasant to work with and that you are teachable. Pretty easy.
3) Decent Human Being Just be friendly. Warm handshake, answers that don't sound memorized, examples that show you are pleasant to work with. We had one interviewee who told us that during a month-end close, he was too busy to answer one request and he told the requestor that "they would just have to wait". The way the guy said it was very curt, which amazed me. We aren't going to fact check your stories, dammit. And you picked one that makes you sound like an ass? Unbelievable.
To take a few steps back- Here is how you get to the hiring event in the first place. Apply to job openings online. Seriously. In banking or other competitive jobs, hundreds of people apply online and you are forced to try to network to get noticed. In CF, only a few people apply to each role, so if your GPA is above the cutoff, it is likely you'll get an interview. Just make sure your resume is formatted in a conventional way (the WSO IB resume is a great example of this).
Best of luck! Let me know if you have any other questions.
This is a problem right here. Stop asking people what companies/industries you should be interested in. Like dude, what are you actually interested in? Retail, tech, pharma, manufacturing, CPG, aerospace?
Find a couple industries you think are interesting, do your research and go from there.
This is good advice in theory, but I want to clarify what it means to find what you're interested in. here is my experience:
I spent my internship in retail and I definitely liked the finance work. It was interesting and engaging, so I thought that I would like it even more if I did the same kind of work for a company that does something I think is cool. The products the retail company sold weren't "interesting" in my mind.
So, I sought jobs in the A&D industry, thinking that A&D stuff is neat and would make me excited to go to work every morning. Pretty soon after starting my A&D FLDP I realized something: A&D is so bogged down by government influence. Promotion cycles are slow, proposals and awards are slow, and companies can be really inefficient because the government doesn't demand efficiency the same way the free market does. It's illegal to be too profitable on domestic contracts, so A&D companies don't have the same drive for cutting costs and increasing profits. Better to spend the full contract amount and make 7% profit then to be efficient, spend half the contract amount and still get 7% profit (which is less profit dollars than we would have had if we spent the full amount).
The other thing about defense is that most of the "cool stuff" is classified, and few finance people have clearances.
What I found is that I don't want to be a button pusher for a company that does cool things. I can read about the cool stuff online- I don't need to work there. What I want is to be able to grow a business- find efficiencies, cut costs, shape financial strategy, make the company more competitive. That is what is "interesting" to me. And maybe I can do that at a company that does cool things, but my point is not to get seduced by a company that has neat products just because it has neat products. Pick a company with a market, strategy, and products that you understand. and that you can hopefully quickly get to a leadership role in.
I'd much rather lead/help grow a company that makes springs and screws than just refresh reports while waiting for promotions at a company that makes futuristic stuff.