Set to attend a Semi Target, what can I do to gain competitive experience for SW’s in Gap Year?
I’m from the UK and currently on a gap year due to slightly fucking up my A Levels (achieved AAB instead of A*AA). I have therefore applied for Sept 2024 entry and somehow managed to get an offer for BA Politics & Economics at the University of Nottingham, which seems to be a great semi target.
As I didn’t really intend on doing a gap year I didn’t plan any work experience or volunteering between Sept 2023 to August 2024. For now all I currently have is a part time job but it’s just a regular retail one at a supermarket to save up some money for the summer/uni and give me something to do.
I have decent enough A Levels and am set to go to a well regarded university. However I’m unable to apply to Sixth Form related Summer Insight/Experiences at banks as I’m no longer in education. That being said I’m fortunate enough to live in the outskirts of London so am really close to companies there. So my question is what can I do to help make myself a more competitive applicant for Spring Weeks. I am quite frankly lost on what I can actually do to gain experience as stuff like cold emailing etc only seems to work for university students at most banks from what I’m aware of. I’m also completely clueless about what sort of opportunities I can realistically apply for and how to go about this.
If anyone can provide some help as to what I should do and how to go about it, I would greatly appreciate it!
JUST A EDIT/NOTE:
To anyone who maybe sees this, is it possible to try and steer these convos back on track as to what direct actions I can take in the coming weeks and months, and what sort of internship opportunities (companies and fields) are realistically available.
Not trying to be annoying, I just feel like bar a few comments the replies aren’t really answering my question (although it is providing some good knowledge)
Join one of the NEFS divisions when you get to Notts, ideally corporate finance team if you can.
There’s an selective interview process but you can apply to multiple, just make sure you get into at least 1, looks good on your CV.
I’m definitely joining NEFS and membership to it comes from studying my degree I’m pretty sure. How selective/tough is the process there for first years, what sort of things are they looking for (experience, extracurriculars etc.) btw?
Also just a side note, the advice I see on here tends to be apply as soon as SW’s open up as it tends to be first come, first served when it comes to reviewing applicants. So surely there wouldn’t be enough time between sending applications and joining a division of NEFS and having a useful bullet point or two about it?
Depends on the div, CFT is like 10% acceptance. For all divs you will apply with your CV and a few relevant questions (CFT will be talking about a recent deal you followed, technology will be about something HFT/SWE related etc.)
Then you’ll have an interview(s).
Tech is like 33% acceptance and CFT is 10%, they’re the only ones I know.
Also you can also get into an equity fund group.
For applying, just put you’re in NEFS for the applications that open early and are rolling, otherwise it’s ok to hold out for ones opening in October so you can put the division you’re in (If you get in.)
Obviously for non rolling, wait till you’re in one.
Yale does a £38 online course on financial markets. Or go for Harvard and pay £1500.
Just Google ‘Intro to Financial Markets Yale’
I’ve looked into some of those online courses/summer courses type things but the advice I see on this site is that they’re quite useless and you’re better off getting real life experience or an internship etc.
Certainly not going to harm you - at the end of the day it shows interest, and will be useful when you do eventually land a role. It’s something to talk about in interviews too.
Internship > online courses/societies etc > nothing, especially as a first year.
Join/start a charity aligned with your interests, launch a business, complete an ironman. Any initiatives that make you stand out from all finance hardos
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I’m not sure whether I’m gonna be a able to launch a business suddenly but I get what you’re saying about some sort of entrepreneurial activity which would be impressive. I find your other two points more achievable, about joining a charity or doing an Ironman, for me though. I’m wondering how I would talk about those in a CV tbh, as I do have some other extracurricular’s from 6th form having held a student role just underneath the Head Boy and also have played a couple of sports at a very high level. Really I think I am looking more for actual work experience type stuff like your idea about starting a business.
Don’t underestimate how valued high level sport is. Some firms e.g. BCG, literally look for you being elite at something other than just academia/work experience.
It's so funny to me how people a year older than you will be interviewing you and be "selective" in who gets to join their clubs, like it means anything lol. Often times they're far harsher (and ruder) than real interviewers you would face.
And then, of course, them sending out "Congratulations!" or "We regret to inform you" emails being the cherry on top.
Yeah there’s a funny irony to it
Unfortunately you have to play the game no matter how ridiculous you think it is!
Haha thought the same, especially at a non target?! Must be the same people giving experienced professionals career advice on WSO or arguing about ‘prestige rankings’.
nottingham is a semi tbh all the senior members have really good brands to their name, let alone those that dont bother getting involved
is it common to take a gap year between finishing HS and entering university, in the UK?
Depends
If someone doesn’t do well and misses their university offer -> gap year
If someone does really well and thinks they have a shot at a significantly better university -> gap year
quite a lot of other reasons too but these are the main ones I’ve seen
Among those set to attend lse/oxb/etc., is it common to take a gap year in order to beef up their resume for SW applications? Or, is that preparation, again I'm talking among target students here, generally done during highschool, in the UK?
If you’re getting interviewed by uni students for NEFS, then you’re wasting your time.
Does someone else interview you for NEFS or am I just not understanding this comment?
Think of it as someone at Morgan Stanley (max tier 4/5 shop) giving advice to someone at Natixis (undisputed kings).
Cold email for a search fund as soon as u can. It’s unpaid but like 10-15h a week and you get to put Private Equity Intern on ur resume. Search funders are always looking for unpaid easy work and they don’t expect much.
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I have heard about search funds and have seen them be recommended to 1st Year students who have been unsuccessful at getting Spring Weeks or any other internships. How would you say I should go about emailing them, in terms of describing what I can realistically provide? The only academic achievements I have is my A Levels in all honesty and the fact I’m due to go to Notts for an Economics related degree. So I’m struggling a little on how I can sell myself really compared to actual university students.
I studied humanities at a comparable semi-target with zero experience and in my first year I just cold emailed every single search fund I could find on Axial and/or other databases and they were very receptive. There's some good resources on WSO for this but in short just express that you're interested in PE/investing and that you're interested in interning on a part time basis unpaid. These founders know what's up and it's normal. Searchfunder has some good resources but honestly spend a few hours on LinkedIn putting together a list of search funds in the UK/anywhere that have interns and just mass email. Also don't be opposed to doing a search fund internship with a US firm, obv there are more of them and its even more commonplace for search funds to take 1st year students with no experience. If you say do it with a firm on the east coast, the time change is manageable (5hrs ahead/behind) and often times the nature of this work is work-at-your-own-pace
I thought search funds were predominantly more prevalent in the US, not the UK. Are they known under different names in the UK?
Yeah this too I see Search Funds recommended in US threads as opposed to UK and they’re rarer here I think. Idk what else to sort of apply to tho :(
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High gpa
One very important thing to remember is that while you have a great advantage of being able to start early, don’t close yourself off to only finance classes/clubs/etc. Now this is somewhat ironic advice coming from someone who has 3 business school degrees, took all but 6 classes in the business school, and is both a CPA and an attorney. But having some type of interest or knowledge outside of being able to do some math (aka build a model) and read some legal papers is massively beneficial.
For example, I work in corp dev and just worked on a transaction involving a solar farm and a solar development company. I was the point person for the day-to-day diligence. I did my best to screen questions that were unreasonable but this was the first solar transaction I worked on. I didn’t really know what was easy to pull or analysis that was easy to run. I couldn’t really tell if asking for a model to be extended by 5% was reasonable to ask of our general contractor or if that’s basically the same thing as asking them to do an entirely new analysis.
While by no means are you expected to know everything, you should remember that you will be dealing with actual businesses. The more you know about how they actually work the better you will be. And you can get a start on that in school
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