Hey all,
I just finished my first week of college as a freshman from a non-target school with a major in Finance - is there anything super important I should start doing now if I want to break in to IB, HF, PE, or CO? I know networking and creating a relationship with my profs is key, but anything else?
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hey,
Congrats on starting college! I'd recommend learning more about different roles within finance through vault/handshake/Mergers&Inquisitions and see if there's one that you're particularly interested in. There are so many students who say that they're interested in IB for e.g but they have no idea what the job entails so learning about the day to day will help. You should also connect with juniors/ seniors in your college who've been through finance recruiting and ask them the best courses to take/clubs to join/any advice that they might have for you. It's best to first exhaust all resources that are available to you on campus. Once you're a little more educated about things, you should start reaching out to school alums in finance and set up calls to learn more about their experiences. You school alums are your best bet during recruiting, at least in my experience. Start building your resume by getting involved in clubs on campus/ getting a remote fall or spring internship if you can. Get your career center/ as many people as you can get to critique your resume.
Don't want to be cliche but most importantly, please have fun and do things that you like. It is great that you're interested in finance and are so focused on it but it's also really important to have a holistic college experience: take classes outside your major, join the debate club. When I started college, I knew that I wanted to get into finance as well but I worked at a law firm which was one of the best experiences of my life, took ballet lessons and got involved in the local community. Most of us didn't start college during a pandemic like you. It is so much harder to make friends right now or hang out on a Saturday night. However, I really think that your friends can make or break your college experience. Take some time to connect with people in your classes ( even if it's virtually!). GOOD LUCK!
P.S: Please don't use WSO extensively. This site is very useful but it also has some silly people who probably have never been through recruiting or worked at a bank in their lives but feel qualified to give advice. Please don't listen to them especially when they rank banks by prestige, hot people or whatever.
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