Last chance to get a summer internship, please help!
Hi senior monkeys,
I've been reading WSO for a long time and my story goes like this:
I'm a third year engineering student who has been trying to transition into finance/management roles for a year and a half. But summer recruiting has been brutal for me. I have great ECs (founded a business club for engineers, led teams to win competitions twice, helping another conference to raise funding) but all 3 internships are engineering, sales. A 3.6 GPA is also not that impressive.
So there's a Principal of a growth equity fund I've been networking with. He liked me and promised that my SA application will be "carefully considered". The deadline was two weeks ago. I called him last week and they are still looking through the application. I'm very worried since this is the last chance I have to find a summer job. Do you have any advice for me at the moment? I do not want to keep pushing him, but I also want to make sure that I will at least get interviewed.
My second question is: How technical could the SA interview get for a 300-mil growth equity fund? In term of financial modelling, I can do a basic DCF but know nothing right now about other methods (I'm an engineer). Is there any other knowledge beside modelling I should know of?
Thank you.
UPDATE: So I just found out that they started calling candidates on Monday. First round interviews will be on Thursday, Friday and next Monday. But I didn't received any call. My worst nightmare has come true. I even showed my resume to the Principal and got good comments on it. But it's probably the associate who screens the resumes. What should I do now????
If you already called last week, there isn't much you can do on your end without being a pest. They are probably looking through a bunch of candidates and figuring our who of the lot to interview. You said he likes you, which is a good sign and it's likely you'll at least get a fist round interview. You can try emailing to "express continued interest" in his firm, etc- basically saying that you really want the internship without sounding desperate.
I'd assume that if he knows you're an engineering student (therefore limited finance exp.) the majority of the interview with be behavioral, fit, etc. More important that learning the technicals is getting your story down. Why finance/why this particular fund? Why buy-side vs. banking (sell-side)? Get the basic valuation and accounting knowledge down. He wants to see that you are ABLE to learn about finance, even if you don't know everything right now. Overall, rather than knowing how to actually model, get the basics down, and down well.
Out of curiosity, what's your professional background? What internships have you had in the past? A lot of the questions you'll be asked will be based on your past internships. Make sure you can spin these into why they're good/beneficial for finance.
Thank you for your reply. I'm currently a junior in Engineering Honours (some call it Physics Engineering or Engineering Science) from a semi-target school in the East Coast. Among the 3 internships, two were pure engineering for two F500s, one was sales for an international consulting firm. I can spin most of them towards finance/management goal. I also have 2 very specific reasons for why this firm.
What school do you go to?
As for technicals, know that there are four basic ways to value a company: DCF, asset-based, market-based (comparables), and precedent transactions. I would say that buyside firms aren't going to be as technical as a banking interview. They'll probably be more concerned about stock picks and whether or not you have actual interest in the markets. So, come prepared with some companies you like and make sure you can talk some macro.
You should definitely call him and make sure that you get interviewed. You have nothing to lose. But by any chance that his associates miss your resume, this contact is as good as gone anyway.
So I just found out that they started calling candidates on Monday. First round interviews will be on Thursday, Friday and next Monday. But I didn't received any call. My worst nightmare has come true. I even showed my resume to the Principal and got good comments on it. But it's probably the associate who screens the resumes. What should I do now????
bump!!
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