Past business experience VS Past finance experience

I understand that having an interest or internships or clubs in finance is key for finance, because you need to want it in order to work those grueling hours. So if an otherwise strong applicant has recorded activities/internships in consulting or strategy or entrepreneurship but not specifically finance, are they going to be dinged for someone who's a lot more focused in finance, even if they are less qualified?

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Look, all things equal, at the end of the day if there's two candidates with fairly equal GPAs, school name brands behind them, and interviewing ability, chances are they're going to give an offer to the kid who's demonstrated greater interest in the industry by putting in the work to stack his resume. If you apply to finance right out of school with a bunch of consulting experience, that looks as weird as applying a bunch of finance experience towards a history position. Your last comment is a bit off-base, because someone who's a lot more focused via experience will be more qualified.

Read Marcus' recruiting threads for more on this: http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/ug-recruiting-part-iii-the-super-…

I am permanently behind on PMs, it's not personal.
 

Sorry, let me clarify. By "qualified," I was referring to more universal benchmarks of qualification like a high GPA and overall achievement in activities.

 

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