Advice Needed - Senior at a target school

I am a senior at a target school. Through college, I thought I was going to play poker for a living after graduation, but after I playing full time this summer I decided I didn't want to, returning to my initial interest in finance. Don't want to bore with particular reasons and why not trading, but I decided to pursue IB but was quite late to recruiting. I got a couple of interviews but basically wasn't taken too seriously/fucked them up one way or another. What I did land was a school year private equity internship that added some finance to my resume that didn't have any.

With that, I decided that instead of pursuing full time positions I would just delay graduation in some way, apply to summer analyst positions (which I'd be in good shape for with the PE gig), then recruit seriously from the beginning in the fall.

Where I need advice, is how much can I get away with in delaying graduation? For both summers and later fulltime, can I just change my expected graduation on my resume from june 2011 to june 2012?

On the 'best for me' end of the spectrum, I was thinking of just skipping spring quarter, graduating in December, then relaxing/traveling for 6 months before starting my analyst stint. If I can get away with that just on the basis of having this part time job as my only excuse, that'd be great. Otherwise, I can actually stay in school and complete a 2nd major or maybe do a coterminal program if necessary.

I was also wondering if there'd be issues with them not knowing I was a 4th yr junior (for summers) and 5th yr sr during the interview phase but possibly finding that out upon verifying my transcript or if I'd be fine since at no point would I ever include any lies on my resume just omitting my start date for college basically.

Sorry for the length and thanks in advance, any advice is much appreciated.

 

thanks for the replies. @karypto: i'd be skipping spring quarter this year so i really wouldnt be graduating on june 2011. i would just change expected graduation to june 2012...so i can either say expected dec 2011 and look like a junior whos ahead or stick with the 2012 and if they ask later maybe say i planned on finishing the 2nd major but decided not to or something?

 
Best Response

Jager: What you CAN do is the following: if you do land a decent SA gig, I'd go ahead and find a way to graduate NOW and then recruit during the summer for any 1st year positions that come up AFTER your SA gig. Back in '09 this was a preferred route of many who couldn't land a FT position in the normal Fall '08 recruiting season, and many were able to find jobs after their summer internship wrapped up in August of 09 or whatever. This year's a bit different, but I still think that you can find an off-cycle 1st year position immediately after your internship. This way you won't lose any time. And skipping quarters, IMO, will only add to the employers' confusion about your situation.

However, if you don't get a decent summer gig, then I'd def. consider doing whatever's in your power to gain a strong foothold for next fall's recruiting. Staying for 1 extra semester might be that choice.

 

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