Freshman at Target - Rejected from Finance Clubs, What Am I Doing Wrong?

Yeah, like what was said above, a lot of clubs are based on connections. Try to sit next to upperclassmen in class and get to know them. Also, go to your career center or talk with upperclassmen to have them check over your resume. I used the WSO format freshman year and thought mine looked good, but I ended up learning later on how much better it could have been.

Here are the basic bare minimums for a resume:

• Have each bullet start with an action verb (don’t repeat any twice).
• Try to include some type of metric near the beginning of each bullet (e.g., saved x%, achieved x% IRR, led 15+ team members).
• Have bullets stretch to the end of the line and only last one line (you want to take up as much space as possible but keep the resume clean).
• Try to keep an equal ratio of bullets per activity/internship (for mine, I have three one-line bullets for each activity/internship).

Also, for the applications, try to come up with some niche that you’re interested in within finance to pitch. I got a lot more interviews second semester freshman year when I applied with stock pitches of secondaries firms (I pitched HarbourVest Global Private Equity) instead of cliché companies like Apple, Amazon, or Microsoft. I set myself apart by saying I was interested in pursuing a career in secondaries. Clubs want students with a wide range of backgrounds and interests (aerospace, real estate credit, venture debt, etc.), so it’s going to be way easier for you to get into one of these clubs if you find a unique investment strategy or industry group.

This also ended up making my interview process a lot easier. Throughout college, I built a background around being interested in real estate secondaries, which allowed me to pretty easily get interviews for PCA/secondaries groups (Evercore, Lazard, Blackstone) — as admittedly a way less sweaty student compared to a lot of the people I saw targeting IB/PE. Then, for BBs without PCA groups, I was able to frame myself as being interested in real estate, gaming, and lodging so I could still logically apply for them.

Obviously, find an industry group that genuinely interests you, but in my opinion, if you get more niche, it’s way easier to get these interviews.

Also, keep in mind that there are trade-offs. Be aware that you can get pigeonholed by being in a niche. I ended up in a secondaries-based role and know I’ll definitely never be able to work in corporate PE. However, I’m willing to take that trade-off because I think it’s going to be easier for me to succeed in a kind of niche and growing sector rather than competing with everyone else.

^ TLDR: Talk to upperclassman, make resume tuff, find a niche that sets you apart from the thousands of other bots applying for ts