Interns, side quests, and basic finance?

Hello, I interned in IB this summer. Two people got an offer and i didn’t. I’m highlighting these two because 1. Didn’t know the basic of finance/credit (how to pay off her credit card and why she should). - So i taught her 2. The other girl said this is a side quest and she is going to law school a year after working.

This is my future and it just sucks how i really wanted it and my degree is in finance yet the people who don’t care got it.

Tips? Thoughts? Help?

19 Comments
 
Most Helpful

Sorry to hear about things not working out for you. It sounds like you have a passion for finance and have an interest in it.

People on WSO can often lower the quality of their writing because this is an informal forum, but that said, if your professional writing skills are anywhere near what you wrote in your post, then that is a material area of development for you.

If this holds true for you, I would focus on that, as well as start doing outreach to get your next job lined up. Separately, personal finance and banking are very different. You don’t have to know what a 403(b) plan is to do my job. I would prefer it if people knew stuff like that, and it’s a personal interest of mine, but that’s all gravy, not a core competency. Focus on getting the basics right and don’t necessarily judge your peers for not knowing certain things that are not core to the job. Yes, those are holes in their knowledge, but those have little to do with offer rates.

 

thanks for the reassurance! i wasn’t trying to come off as rude i was just genuinely curious. I’ve wanted this my entire life (college life) and others are calling it a side quest for themselves and not understanding basic things like resolving credit 😭 It’s whatever though- I know i’ll find a job hopefully. My gpa is a 3.5 and seems very low compared to others so i’m scared.

 

They are more competent than you think. If you were deserving of an offer, you would have gotten one. Maybe you didn't get one because you can't reflect on your own mistakes and instead point out alleged flaws (through your biased lens) in other people saying why they are less deserving of an offer but you are.

 
[Comment removed by mod team]
 

Stop focusing on what other people are doing wrong and what you can be doing right. I’ve met people who say the same things you’ve said, and they fall into 2 buckets.

1. Vastly overshoot their own skills and come off as an overconfident prick who is oblivious to their own weaknesses.

2. Insufferable people who don’t realize that modeling the fastest in your cohort won’t get you a golden ticket to a return offer. Very hard to work with and often talk themselves out of one while the other “less smarter” interns actually have EQ and the willingness to learn from their own mistakes.

Go back to college this year and eat a piece of humble pie. It’ll do you wonders.

 

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