What is more valuable on a Spring Week CV. Work experience/Insight days at professional companies or irrelevant jobs ? (eg. retail)
I'm going to a good semi target in the UK to study a joint honours BA Politics and Economics. I'm interested in IB and therefore am going to be applying to Spring Weeks and am preparing for that. I am a bit stuck on what type of work experience is useful on a CV though.
I have done a couple of insight days and one longer work experience. I have done an insight day at an IBM office in IT Finance, another insight day with a Housing Finance company within the Asset Management division. I also did a week long work experience at a cybersecurity company in its Finance division spending time with both the CFO and Founder. The main issue with these is all I did really was gain a holistic view of what these different roles and sectors entailed and learnt basic bits of finance like carrying out some valuations and how to read the 3 statements.
I also have some experience in more irrelevant jobs such as 2 years as a tutor, 1 year as a part time bartender and also 6 months in retail.
I have no idea what is valued by banks (or the ATS) when looking at CVs and a lot of CVs on here for SW tend to be stacked with 1-3 different internships. Is an insight day more useful on a SW CV than 2 years of experience in a real job? How do you even write useful points about an insight day lol
Bump
SW CV is mostly about your A-Level grades and the uni you go to.
SW is early to be worrying about this for sure. More generally, insight days, other SWs, etc. in the banking / finance sphere is most useful.
I'm not saying that's right. It doesn't indicate much about your consistency, ability to wake up and be on time for an extended period, etc., but it's easier to say "Oh well GS gave him / her an Insight Day so they must be sensible" rather than reading tea leaves about bartending or retail. Again, I don't necessarily agree with this. It's not necessarily true that the quality of Economics teaching at Cambridge is better than Nottingham (I didn't go to either so I don't know), but hey, it's Oxford, and they're smart. It's not necessarily true that GS will get a higher valuation on your sellside than Bank X (I know I'll get flamed if I name a specific bank), but hey, it's GS right?
Don't worry too much on the specifics of what to write. We all get the joke about what happens on insight days so it's more a space-filler. A lot of your CV (and life) is about signalling.
I had heard people say that Oxbridge bachelor's degree curriculums (including econ) will usually be wider than that of other (non–Ivy League) schools—am I wrong?
I'll be the first to admit when I don't know the answer to a topic. Sorry but I don't know the answer to this one I'm afraid!
I don't have any banking related insight days but would those still be more useful than random job experience. Also yeah I just don't want the stuff I write about Insight Days to come across as really vague but I really didn't do anything particularly impressive at them apart from learning basic bits of finance. Like I read a lot about writing quantitative things regarding internships but its not like I did anything important at an insight day lol. You mentioned signalling but I'm honestly not too sure on how/what I'm meant to write to signal that.
Got it and you've read the correct things. Fill up your CV to be quantitative where possible. That's the right advice.
But you don't really have that. I'd write something to the effect of "Attended [ ] seminars on topics of X, Y, and Z" / "Participated in networking session with traders covering macro desks". I'm making it up, so you need to tailor it, but you get the idea. These aren't deep and insightful.
The signalling just comes from the fact that you did these insight days at all. It shows (A) you care and were proactive enough to find them and do them, and (B) they (presumably good brand names) thought you were sensible enough to give you an offer.
Don't over-think it too much - you're still young and a lot of decisions will be made on your university and A-Levels at this stage.
If it helps (admittedly 10+ years ago) for my summer internship all I had for my CV aside from university societies was a 1-week work experience thing at Lloyds Bank my high school organised, and working on a building site with my uncle. I know things have changed over a decade but the point is that you're not expected to be the finished product.
Congrats on Notts!
Now for the real advice
- Lets hope your grades are at least AAB
- Lets hope that you are above average in social skills and speaking
- Diversity would help as well
Now, your experience is sufficient for a SW, assuming that you have the pre-conditions mentioned above. I have seen people from your uni getting some good offers, and any experience even retail/bar work can be spun into a story for the fit questions, which is what mainly SW applications are about. The part you will struggle with is getting past initial stages of CV screening due to a lack of big finance brand names. But if you can join some good finance societies and differentiate yourself, whilst being a competent speaker, you will end up with a couple of interviews - up to you to convert them.
Thanks haha. I hit the minimum AAB requirements and would like to think I talk well and come across like a normal human being but am not diversity.
Yeah that's what's slightly worrying me about how these insight days aren't at any major banks. But would I be okay then just focusing on those 3 experiences and excluding my actual job experience which is unrelated. Also a little question on how do I write about those insight days in a way that is actually meaningful and would get me past automatic screening? Are there any key terms or phrases are that are useful as I can't seem to find anything on WSO.
Also you said about joining finance societies. I'm going to join the one at Nottingham but is it worth putting it on my CV as I thought SWs were all about applying early.
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