This isn't a troll post but essentially what are the points of highlighting certain clubs at schools? Unless it is downright essential to IB (The IBW at Kelley) or something recognized at a national level (Nittany Lion Fund), why would a student get dinged for not joining their student investment fund/ consulting groups if they aren't actually interested in pitching stocks. Just a thought/question I had.
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Not completely sure if this is right but it could be that recruiters are looking for strong interest in the field and that's just a quick and easy way to gauge it. And if they compare you with other students from your school and they are in those clubs then it may seem like a lack of effort or interest on your end or they may think you weren't able to get into the club.
so you just told me because you aren’t interested in it you won’t spend the time to learn more about finance. next!
They aren't dinged if they aren't in a investing club. It's just additional color in your application that shows you're smart (enough to get picked), passionate, and involved on campus. Basically its the same importance as being a member of your high school's DECA for college admissions. The additional apparent benefit of the organizations comes from the individual being skilled enough to achieve the path they want and the connections made through the organization with older peers already in IB/consulting.
And so, you don't need it but good luck crafting your story without it. You can substitute it with people skills, high GPA, luck, connections, extracurricular achievement (sports, music), or raw intelligence. But you need something. Lots of kids fall into self-defeatism after they don't get into "that club" but this just paves the way for the self-selecting few. Stay on top of your shit and do what you have to do.
Prospect, don't be so negative. Thousands of kids get into IB without being in a single investment / IB club. They have the right internships and everything else you mentioned above that makes them desirable.
From an employer perspective, I cannot see why or how you would get "dinged" for not being in a club, even if it directly relates to the work of the firm.
But, I can see how it would be a 'plus' if you are otherwise competitive. In the real estate world, it is common for finance (and other business students) to apply for real estate job with no real prior internships, work exp, classwork, or anything else showing a prior real interest in real estate. So, in some cases a strong A student in finance may get a real bump for simply being a member of a real estate club (I've literally seen this happen). But this is really just to weed out posers not really interested and just applying for everything.
My gut says this would not be needed or an issue with I-Banking, but the concept applies. Here is a hard fact, people major in finance/business even get MBAs just because they think its a route to a good job or their daddy told them they had to major it in (vs. like majoring in art or just becoming a welder). Most employers really do not want to mess with those types if they can avoid it. So club membership, especially if active with officer roles, is an easy way to signal you are real and not BS. Internships with a letter of rec are better, but that is not always possible or easy to get.
Look, being in these clubs gives you a network of bankers to contact and a level of prestige for every banker who went to your college and knows about the prestige of the club. For example, an IU banker at ACA Partners will be impressed if an IU student has IBW on their resume rather than not because maybe they temselves couldn't get into the club.
Please don't assume I'm an IU grad from a specific bank just because of this comment. Too many rouomrs floating round.
Its not that you'll get dinged so much as others may have a leg up as a result of having the club on their resume. A lot of resume screening is done by analysts and if you're at a school where the bank does an ocr process, the analysts that graduated last year will pull for kids that were in their own clubs or other top clubs that they know attract the best kids at the school. In general, clubs tend to be a big part of the networking process if you attend a large school as club alumni cold emails tend to have a way bigger hit rate than reaching out to any random alumni from your school.
For the UK, do analysts or HR do the first round of CV screening?
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