Need Advice! In a tough spot my senior year.
Hello all, lots of amazing posts and articles on this site and I've found them very useful.
I'm in a bit of a situation. This is my senior year at Washington State University, I'm majoring in finance. Here is the part where I'm a big idiot. I transferred in my junior year from a community college, and have not had a single internship. My counselor has never said anything more than "No C's? You're doing pretty well in your classes, keep it up."
Only after finally picking myself up and actually doing research for myself I realized that I've really screwed the pooch by not doing any summer internships, or even taking my courses seriously.
Now I don't know what my options are in finance. I've originally majored in finance because I wanted to know how money works, the concepts behind investments, and because I've always been analytical by nature. My goal would have been to get a finance position with something to do with real estate, because I'd like to invest in residential properties in the future.
After actually starting to do research and reading the articles on this site, I've realized not only how far behind I am from the rest of the undergrads, but how little I actually know in general about financial positions.
What are my options now? It sounds like IB and PE are very competitive and I've really put myself at a disadvantage, should I continue trying to find an internship of any kind here? Are there other sectors of finance that I may have more luck in scoring an internship with?
Should I just switch majors to accounting? It's not exactly an exciting but I understand it and with more job openings, seems like a stable field. This however would delay my graduation till December 2013, but allow me to try and scramble a decent summer internship together? I'll be 24 in September and don't know how age fits into all of this as well.
Thanks in advance for an advice, I really feel like I've screwed myself pretty hard for being so passive in school, and now have 7 months until graduation and to figure something out without feeling like a complete failure.
First of all, just do what you want to do. Don't switch to accounting just because there's more openings. That said, you have to try being creative since you're coming from a non-target.
Maybe try finding a real estate internship now. Most real estate internships that aren't at reputable firms tend to be unpaid, but you're not exactly in the driver's seat here so doing something like that.
Network now so you can put yourself in positions for interviews and so you can learn about the business (real estate or whatever else). This gives you some solid contacts and if you sit down with them, a lot of these guys are happy to try teaching what it is they do.
Learn about the business. You said that you realized now that you don't understand financial positions so try learning about them. Interviewers can quickly tell when someone has no idea what they're talking about.
If you don't get a job by graduation, try studying up and getting a CFA or some other type of certification that boosts your resume.
If all else fails, take whatever job you can get whether you like it or not. This gives you the chance to lateral into some other type of investment/real estate role. Being unemployed looks bad and the longer you're unemployed the worse it looks.
IB and PE typically are highly competitive, and usually require experience/going to a target school. And being that you said you don't really understand investing, it doesn't seem that these roles would be best for you now. I'd take it slow and try moving up ranks methodically. After all, you came from a community college and are now at Washington State. This is going to take a ton of work bro.
Hi blackjack, thank you for your advice. I realize I will have to start pulling some creative networking moves and it will take a lot of hard work. I guess my biggest issue is that I am uncertain of where to go next. I've learned the hard way that the business department at my school isn't very helpful, my counselor has little advice to give in anything other than squeezing classes into a schedule.
I typed up my original post in a hurry, so I'd like to clarify the point about investing. I do understand the course material and concepts, all that I have studied seems easy enough. I have no problems understanding investing and finance in general, and can learn/pick up anything else that I may need for work.
However, what I don't understand is all the various job positions in different sectors of finance. I know that PE/IB seems to get the most light, but I am clueless on what other possibilities I have. For example, what type of job opportunities there are in real estate financing, and how competitive it is. I will continue researching this and will hopefully be able to focus my efforts.
Also, I've mentioned accounting because I'm trying to see all of my current options. Is a bachelors in accounting worth while even if I want to shift into a more finance oriented position in the future, possible entering grad school farther down the road with finance in mind?
Thank you once again.
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