How to spend summer after freshman year?

Lost first-year here, any input is much appreciated. 

1. How important is it to have a finance-related internship following freshman year?

2. Would it be considerably harder to land a sophomore internship if the previous summer was spent in a non-finance role (e.g. volunteering, traveling, nonprofit, family business, working retail, etc.)?

3. If working in a non-finance role, what can one do over the summer in my free time to position oneself well for consulting- or finance-related sophomore internships? Are online courses in accounting or financial modeling recommended? Perhaps starting a blog based around a particular industry of interest?

2 Comments
 

You're a freshman. You literally need to do none of that (internships, blog, etc.). The best thing about it is that you already know what you want to aim for.I really doubt that sophomore year apps look for prior experience. Spend more time prepping your resume and LinkedIn. Also you can reach out to people who’ve went through a soph IB internship to see what they’re looking for. I’d think that a great resume with strong ECs would do the trick, as well as a solid interview performance (expressing your passion, being likeable).Chill and hang out. I'd recommend just joining some ECs at your school (investment club, fraternity) and slowly start to pick up some technical skills. The accounting courses are optional if you're going to take a class soph yr

 

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