I am about to graduate high school and I am going to Fordham University for Finance and hope to pursue a career in investment banking after college. I was wondering if anyone had any advice or suggestions on what I could do during the summer to help me get a leg up before entering school. Thank you for your help.
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I’m feeling sappy on this fine Monday morning so I’ll deviate from the age old (but still funny) “touch grass” or “get some bitches” by combining the two.
Experience young love. There’s nothing more carefree, reminisce-worthy, or eye-opening than it. Learn how to communicate your feelings and you can have a lot better control over how your conversations go.
This requires you to get some bitches. Which may mean you need to start by touching grass. Godspeed soldier.
I completely understand what you are saying and thank you for your response. I go to the gym every day and have a girlfriend that I spend time with. I try to live in the moment and enjoy my life whenever I can. I also want to get a head start if I can even if it's a little while I enjoy my last real summer break. Is there anything else you would recommend?
If you're intent on doing something, look into MOOCs/online courses to learn about topics you're interested in. I doubt this will help with finding internships or uni, but it might give you a better understanding of what interests you. There's a solid chance you don't end up doing IB(whether or not its by choice), so figuring out early what else you enjoy is always great.
Apart from that, familiarising yourself with the first year syllabus of your course is always great. You don't have to be ready to take an exam, but making sure you have at least a surface-level knowledge of everything (or at least the difficult stuff) should help with a good GPA.
The amount of casual dating / hookups I experienced and witnessed from the summer before college to the end of the first semester of college was insane. Never witnessd anything like it since lol. This was before dating apps were a thing and Facebook was still the main way to socialize outside of texting / calling.
I read the title of this post and immediately knew that I would see this type of reply with the most bananas. This community is undefeated.
May be a hot take but I would recommend trying to find an internship. I deeply regret not doing some soul searching career wise before college. I remember just gaming a ton that summer.
Agree with the other poster though lol. Ended up meeting my first college girlfriend at orientation weekend.
I tried to find an internship but unfortunately, all of the people I reached out to said they only had positions for college students. Is there any other way you think I could get an internship or anything else I could do instead of an internship? Thank you for your response.
Yeah that's likely the case. At least people I know who got some experience for their summers before college, it was often through family friends and mostly informal.
in hindsight, what career path do you wish you had pursued from the start or at least explored, if you don't mind me asking
Honestly, I'm not sure. My interests at 18 don't align with what I want to do nowadays. Back then, I was all-in about switching to engineering but changed my mind last minute.
In reality, I probably would have gone to one of the LACs I got into that were in the suburbs / middle of nowhere. Talk to professors / alum during the first few year and experiment with different career paths.
A cynical viewpoint here, but the realistic one nonetheless. You're going to Fordham. There's not much you can do other than keeping your GPA at a 3.9+ and networking like your life depends on it. No internship you get will matter because unless you got your resume pushed by a banker, they will see a non-target school on your resume, and throw it in the bin. Don't worry so much about all this shit during the summer, just enjoy life and decompress. Be ready to attack school when it starts, because you have an extremely thin margin for error coming from a nontarget.
Thank you for the response. I understand that grades and networking should be at the top of my list. Would it help to try to network during summer, before my school year starts?
There is no point of networking in the summer before your freshman year in my opinion. If I saw a kid email me that early I’d think it’s strange. The absolute earliest anyone usually starts is around the summer before sophomore year. Usually the fall semester of sophomore year is considered kind of early too, but that’s when the go-getters really start, and then spring semester (early january) is when networking starts to ramp up like crazy.
like I said. Just enjoy life for right now. Even if you did network right now, I’m guessing you wouldn’t know wtf to say in a call because you probably don’t have the knowledge yet to speak intelligently about the markets or deals or anything in IB yet. Just get a 4.0 your freshman year, look for a freshman internship but if not it’s completely fine, and network like a dog all of sophomore year. Grind techs, closer to winter break, grind behaviorals, interview, then enjoy the fruits of your success.
I do want to say tho, the recruiting process gets earlier and earlier every year, so do take what I say with a grain of salt. It may very well be the case that by the time you start recruiting, it’s even more accelerated than the timeline i gave you, but it’s unlikely.
Grind
These get laid advice are outdated. IB is mostly losers these days.
purchase guides and get grinding, and try to line freshman summer up
I get what they are saying but there's a part of me that wants to get a head start and make sure I'm doing everything I can. Thank you for your help. Are there any specific WSP guides you would recommend?
Here's my genuine two cents because you seemed to be a very informed and driven young kid -- if you really want to land the best offer possible for yourself and your future, consider grinding to transfer to a target. Fordham is a great school and there are plenty of alumni in banking to help, but if you're looking from a pure chances standpoint you would be doing yourself a great favor to get a Harvard/Wharton/Princeton etc. on your resume. This is coming from someone working at a NY BB from a semi-target, it's considerably easier to break into the industry coming from that standpoint.
You will most definitely find the people and communities at Fordham that you're looking for, but since you seem to have the dedication and desire to best set yourself up, consider this as a path. Your entire recruiting process and job offer will be determined from your school, programs, and alumni network. Just my personal two cents - take it or leave it but food for thought.
Thank you for your opinion, I have thought of possibly transferring but I'll make sure to look into it and keep my grades up to help my odds.
This is gonna get bombed with monkey shit but look into signing up for the CFA L1 or a similar test. Although it might not be directly applicable to the IB career, the material is very foundational. I am in the same position as you, and am sitting in August. I think that getting this on the resume will show dedication and give you an advantage in interviews.
SIE
Build a snowman in your backyard. Very good memories
Girls
Pizz at it again
I answered the question, didn’t I?
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