Internships...am I screwed?
Hello fellow monkeys,
I am currently a confused sophomore (23’) at a target school (t-15) majoring in applied math with a 3.8 gpa. On the surface it appears as though I have all the right characteristics (ex- wealth management and electrical engineering internships) fluent in high level mathematics: abstract algebra, real analysis etc. I can code in Python, R and matlab. I know how to use excel. Yet for some reason I can’t even get an interview at an investment bank / hedge fund / consulting firm not even a lame hirevue, psychometric test or hackerrank.
what am I missing? how do I improve my chances of being interviewed?
Any advice is welcomed. Thanks in advance!
Do any course specific in finance. There are a lot of MOOCs
Hard to tell without seeing your resume. Post it.
sure I’ll give you the gist of it:
Academics: School: Target School GPA: 3.8 Major: Computational and Applied Math Selected Coursework: Abstract Algebra, Linear Algebra Calculus series (1abc), Diff eqs, Discrete math, Classical analysis, topics in analysis, ODE/PDE, Number theory, probability, CS 1,2,3 (intro), CS 21 (medium)
Skills: Python, Java, R, LaTeX, C++, Matlab, Excel, MS office Academic publications 3 total: NIPS, AAAI, IEEE
Work exp:
EE research - lab at university PWM- junior year hs - not a major firm
You seem a bit all over the place. You're applying to banks, hedge funds, and consulting firms and interning in both finance and engineering roles. You need to focus your resume/story on what youre applying for. For example, an investment bank doesnt care that you can code in matlab or have taken a real analysis course.
I apply to banks like Goldman in engineering/ quant analyst roles, for hedge funds same story.
It sounds like you have an impressive resume but since you didn’t mention it, networking is crucial to getting your foot in the door at these places. The point of it is to:
1) Show people that you’re interested in the firm you’re talking to and show that you’re interested in the work that they do. 2) Learn more about the internship structure, industries they work with, deals, etc. so that when it comes time for an interview you already know everything about the firm.For networking, I’d start with reaching out to people who you already know working in companies you’re interested in and setting up phone calls. If not, find some alumni on LinkedIn, figure out their email (not very hard to do) and send them a note. I’m sure some people will notice if you drop your resume in these emails. Once you have a call, ask them questions about the things I mentioned above and finish with asking them with they recommend for you to network with more people at their firm. Then keep in touch with these people by sending an email every once in a while - especially closer to when they recruit.
Another thing I want to point out is that because you have two summers left, it’s very difficult to get an internship in IB (unless you’re referred by someone) because most places are looking to ‘hire to rehire.’ They don’t want to give you an opportunity to have a really good internship next summer, then leverage it to get an even better one the following summer somewhere else. So if you don’t secure anything this year don’t sweat it - just focus on next summer.
Hope this helped.
you're probably a white guy
that assumption is incorrect. I am asian + white .
couple possible reasons: 1. bad resume format: did you checked with someone who got offers from investment banks? did you have spelling mistakes? did you have too much white space on your resume. 2. networking: most investment banks require networking to get first round. doesn’t matter your gpa/ degree. many many applications are 3.9 with math/cs degree who want to do tech banking
Following. Keep your head up dude - I'm also a '23 who's a math major at a T15 and have done pretty much the same coursework. Maybe start looking into sophomore-specific IB internships? Might be difficult if you're not diversity, but I'm sure there are some that will take you if you network enough.
I certainly hope so.
Do you have any sophomore-specific internships in mind?
If you're diversity, there's MS, GS, BAML, UBS, Citi I think. Some of these might take non-diversity but I'm not sure. Otherwise I'm planning to apply to a few other finance-related roles in NYC for ease of networking for a jr year summer. I know Fidelity has a sophomore internship in Boston too.
You don't need to know high level math or coding in banking, 80% of getting the job is through networking and building rapport. Speak to at least a couple people in every bank you're recruiting for, or your resume won't even get looked at.
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