non-target here for advice!

Hi there, I've been lurking for a while and would finally love to get some input on my career. I'm posting a separate thread in the Get a Job forum and look forward to any comments/suggestions you may have!

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Best Response

I can't post links yet due to my membership level, but if you click on my username you can find the thread I posted in the "Get a Job" forum.

Alternatively, this:

Hi everyone,

Sorry for the long post. There's a summarized list of questions at the end.

I'm a recent graduate (this May) from a non-target trying to figure out to where to focus my energy to break into finance. I declared my economics major only during my senior year, and was pretty late in the game when I finally figured out that I want a career in finance. (Long story, but family circumstances made it difficult to focus on career) Now, I'm trying to understand all of my options, and decide where to focus my energy (even figure out what to put on my resume!). I applied and am accepted to Georgetown's MSF (part-time, online), and would also appreciate advice on whether I should try to attend the program and find employment (classes start in August) or try to get some experience under my belt first. I also just finished a second round interview for a research associate position at a hedge fund, and am waiting to hear back.

I will list some stats below, and if anyone has any advice on what career path or positions I should look into, I would greatly appreciate it!

Stats: Majors: Economics and English double major (honors program) GPA: Cum: 3.68 Econ: 3.89 English: 3.32 Internships: Nothing finance related except for stint at small venture capital firm in high school, but past year had "data analysis" internship with an office at my university Location: current: NJ, 15 min outside of NYC preferred: NYC/Boston/CT Age: 23 Work experience: personal assistant, waitress, call center employee, retail sales associate, helped with dad's business since in diapers (all aforementioned not listed on resume), student instructor for "orientation to college" type class for freshmen at my school Campus leadership/awards, etc: founded two clubs, summer research fellowship (english topic), honors thesis (econ topic), presented at two conventions, volunteer note-taker for students with disabilities, volunteered at yoga non-profit

Computer skills: excel (basic pivot tables, correlation, etc), beginner eviews+matlab

What I'd like advice on:

  1. Should I go to Georgetown and try to find a job at the same time?
  2. Should I start prepping for CFA? (level I exam is in Dec)
  3. What positions/companies should I look into/apply for?
  4. Are there certain computer skills I should nail down?

Any advice is appreciated, thanks in advance for reading!

 

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