I'm a rising junior at a tier 1/top 40 school (Case Western). It is by no means a target school, but a few students each class will go to a BB firm in NYC for IBD or something similar.
I have a strong interest in Sales & Trading, and more specifically in the Sales aspect, as I feel I have very strong intercommunication skills, along with a somewhat quantitative mind.
I'm majoring in Finance (BS) and have a 3.54 GPA, and will hopefully bring that up to a 3.65 after this Fall. While I'm not as active on campus, I have a fair amount of work experience that I think may compensate for my low GPA/non target school. I'm currently in a year round rotation program for GE Industrial as a Finance Intern. I realize this not Wall Street material, but I have learned a lot about Excel/other software, along with the professional framework of a company like GE. In addition, I was given a fair amount of responsibility. Unlike most summer internships as well, this job continues into the school year (25 hours a week).
I would love to get into Sales at a BB, but realize how competitive this field is and don't set unrealistic goals. Do I even stand a chance for an interview, or am I over my head?
There is no doubt I have begun to networking, and have a few contacts in high places, but even so this is merely leveling the playing field slightly with many other competitive applicants.
Any input would be appreciated
Cheers
As for other work experience, I've worked in marketing at my school, did some equity carveout research my freshman year, and ran a fairly sucessful only bicycle shop while in high school/first year in college (i'm an avid biker and photographer).
I'm not that involved EC wise, aside from a fraternity (PR chair) and the cycling club.
Any thoughts?
im in a similar situation...pretty good grades, ec's etc. looking at s&t
i know they focus a lot on your quant skills in interviews, even for sales. if your SATs are exceptional (1450+) put them on ur resume, it may get you an interview. its a very math-oriented job, much more so than banking
anyways, this is what ive gathered from talking to ppl in the industry, so if anybody out there has anything to add/correct me on, please do
thanks for the response.... I agree on the quantitative aspect of it. If anyone else has any thoughts, that would be great.
Put on SAT II's too if you have good ones.
bump
ok
dude I had a 3.58 coming from Columbia and didnt even get a banking internship this summer, good luck
Most kids applying for banking have this profile: Target School, 3.6-3.7ish plus, some ~PWM equivalent internship, and campus leadership positions. That was mine at least and I'm in research.
I think kids applying for S&T have more variance in terms of GPA and internship experience, but realize that your school and stats are somewhat lower than many of your peers.
Try and use your resume to differentiate yourself. I think one aspect that will hurt you is that you aren't that active on campus - maybe you can beef that up.
Are you a in a fraternity? You can leverage that to display your interpersonal skills or something.
Finance internship at GE is great experience, and I think anyone you're applying to will realize that. He's clearly not that active on campus because he has a 25 hr/week internship. I think any company would understand that and I dont think the capus activity will hurt you at all
Well, many people have finance experience. Lots of sophomores do MM banking or PWM between years. And also have campus positions, which makes for more interesting blurbs on the resume.
What sort of activities are in your GE role?
Hey ThoughtMan and BK325, thanks for the responses!
As for the campus activity stuff, it is true that I am less active because I was constantly working.
As for the fraternity, I am the Public Relations Chair, so I was very much invovled in the fraternity's image on campus, along with maintaing the fraternity's relationship to the schoo.
As for GE, its a one year program (50hours summer, 20-25 during school year) in the Industrial division, and my first rotation is in financial integration (6 months). I work a lot with GE's corporate reporting system, along with helping to develop their new FP&A (financial planning and analysis) tool.
I know this isn't really related to banking/finance in something like IB or S&T, but coming from a non-target school, I had very slim chances of getting PWM internship my sophomore year. I chose to do GE for a few reasons; ie experience in a large corporation, learning a tremendous amount of Excel/Oracle, and at the time I didn't have that many options haha. I was also encouraged by family (I'm from NJ), and family friends who are or were at one point on Wall Street.
Thanks for the commments guys, I really do appreciate it.
I have a friend doing one, he goes to a community college, and its his freshman year...
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