Career Fair Advice?
Hey Monkeys,
I will be heading to my first career fair and I am seeking your advice on how to act and create a positive impression on the bank's representatives. I read a few, and frankly, quite good posts on WSO regarding career fairs; however, most of the posts were old, so I am seeking more modern advice.
I am looking for obvious and not so obvious advice on how to catch the eye of the bank. Also, please share your experience with career fairs and on campus recruiting.
Thank you in advance!
Career Fair on Tuesday.....Help please (Originally Posted: 09/18/2010)
I just want to start out by saying that I've been lurking around this website for a while just reading various threads and trying to gain some insight. There are a lot of very bright people on this board and I've learned a lot from you.
Now, I would really appreciate some advice on my resume and a problem I'm having with razume (the resume uploader everyone uses).
Ok I've uploaded my resume to Razume.com but for some reason when it converts my resume it messed up the spacing everywhere. Here is the link, if anyone could help me figure out why that would be great.
http://www.razume.com/documents/16761
As for the actual resume critique.... I've just transfered schools (first semester junior) so I basically have nothing to put under my new school in the education section. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
In addition, I'm guessing because of the spacing issue, Razume makes it seem if half of my resume goes onto a second page...
So if anyone could give me any sort of feed back on either of these two issues or just my resume in general, I would really appreciate it. Thank you in advance.
Edit****
I just learned if I save it in PDF then all my formatting will stay the same....
Regardless, this is how the resume should look:
http://www.razume.com/documents/16762
Hate to be a dick because I sure as shit never played college football but I don't think Elon was ever ranked top 10 nationally and that is definitely something an interviewer could very easily know and pick up on.
your resume looks cheesy. "#1 school to watch" wtf does that mean?
you brought in 2 million assets as a rising junior? bullshit.
"built/ran excel models" way to vague.......
Agree with pantsmcgee, unless maybe you mean DII (or FCS, whatever they call it now). If so, change that. Also under football, you have the dates as 2008-2013...even though you just left that school. Not sure where the 2013 comes from anyway unless you're including a redshirt year. Either way, I'm guessing you no longer play for your former school..
Take off MS Office
Under UBS internship, fix "helped to increased office efficiency"
Honestly, this stuff is pretty basic proofreading. Re-read every word on your resume to make sure it looks right/is accurate.
Get rid of that #1 school to watch, it makes it look like your trying too hard and just should not be done.
Also, when I read the resume and I saw that "#1 school BS" I was instantly turned off and thought "What kind of garbage resume am i about to read?"...which is not true because you actually have some nice experience on here.
pretty sure it is supposed to be "brought in" not brought it. Also, that line raises some red flags in my mind...You should reword it as "Assisted VP in bringing in 2MM or somthing to that effect"
the word after a ";" is not capitalized
I think that your bullet squares have too much in them..there are three bullet points worth of information in each.
Remember, people are spending 15-25 seconds on your resume tops. I found my self reading the first 1 or 2 sentences and then not caring about the rest.
Make it so that UBS had more bullet points and elaborate on them a little (if you can).
"Analyze investment performance" is good, but what did you do exactly , what were the results, who looked at the results, ect.
If a lot of what you did was fluff, then don't go into specifics, but listen to my suggestion about adding more bulletpoints and separating the square boxes (on my resume I have a black circle with a brief one line description and then black intened boxed where your white circles are that says everything.)
A black square should not be longer than two lines
The biggest selling point of your resume is that you own and operated your own business....go into more specifics about that. What kind of marketing campaign---what was your sales growth, how did you consistently cut costs, there are so many things to talk about.
Also, did you sell the company or close it. What happen to it.
With all the stuff your going to add, there shouldn't be room for the football. While it is nice to have, a lot of it is fluffy. That whole learn leadership line is probably a given.
Move the football up to the education section and add a bullet point, something along the lines of "Univesity football team: "Starting wide receiver; second highest GPA on the team (remove 2nd highest GPA from honors)
Under third section,
move Bloomberg to right after MS Office
I would probably remove that entire training and certificates line--does not really add much. Also, unless you know the greeks (I mean what happens to delta when vega increases or wat does Gamma look like at the strike price) you should not put "options training course" on the resume
Make the activities line one line..it looks weird being two.
After you move these corrections re-post or PM me.
Also,
Join as many Bucknell finance or investment clubs as possible. It might be hard since you are new, but try to take a really active role in the clubs so that you can add that as your third key thing under "Work and Leadership Experience"
This career fair is mostly aimed at seniors. Your job is to chit-chat, get some business cards and make a good impression. Most alumni don't really like talking about work at these events, but might answer a few questions.
Saying that you had the 2nd highest GPA on the football team is like saying you're the smartest kid on the short bus.
Actually it's not. 4.0 Wharton kid's work ethic couldn't hang one day with what it takes physically to play D1 football. There's some fucksticks playing football, but having roomed with 4 D1 players there's no way I could do it. Shut your fucking mouth if you don't know what you're talking about.
I agree you must take out the #1 school to watch and I also agree with the comment that you should say you "assisted VP whomever bring in $2MM in business"
Dude, if you want to work in finance, get you fucking shit together. You're graduating in 12' from Bucknell but are set to play with Elon's football team till 13'? What the fuck. The football is good, I always think contact sports (football, rugby, lax, hockey) give you a big advantage, but bro, common you need to go read a good breaking into Wall Street Guide. Patrick (owner of site) has a TON of them and they're some of the best. Buy one and read it cover to cover or don't even bother trying to break into finance. I know it's tough starting from not knowing anything but this job doesn't have a very forgiving learning curve so figure out your shit. Your resume is pathetic and if you don't know why you need to do more research. Good luck.
Thanks for all the advice guys, this is why i posted here. I went to my schools career center and they basically looked at my resume for 5 minutes and said everything i had was great. This is exactly the kind of feedback i was looking for.
I used to have a completely different resume format but just switched to this format (off of the understanding mergers and acquisitions website) about 2 days ago.
For the record, the 2013 under elon football is a typo. Obviously if I am not going to school there then I am not playing football for them. Regardless, they were (and currently are) ranked in the top then for D1-AA teams. I was trying to beef up the resume and left off the AA but they still are D1 and are right now ranked in the top ten.
i will also probably end up taking off the "#1 school to watch" because I don't go to the school anymore but they were voted that by Business Week and that is a legit stat. Look it up. That has nothing to do with why i transfered, more to do with my brother (who also goes to Bucknell) just coming back from a tour of duty in Iraq and the ability for me to have a more significant role in football. Anyways, I will take it off.
Also, I guess some people suggest I should underplay the football part on my resume. I understand where your coming from, and actually have heard both sides of the argument. I just wanted to show that im athletic, i have leadership skills, and can work hard towards a goal. By the way copefan5, I had the second highest GPA because someone else had a 4.0.
Also, i will fix the fact that I wrote out North Carolina but abbreviated PA. Thanks for the pickup
And i see where you are coming from on the "brought in 2 million in new business" and I will change it to "helped bring in ....." . However, I was in a unique situation where my boss's partner was retiring and therefore he basically handled all the customer service side of the business and then left all the analysis and presentation creation to me. Therefore I actually did help bringing in that part of the business. I called them, got them for a meeting, prepared all the materials, and then made part of the presentation.
Take out the 2nd highest GPA on football team. Who gives a shit?
-WTF is the VFP logo on top? -Lose the #1 school to watch bullshit -Abbreviate North Carolina the same as PA -You need a space between May and 2010 -You need to be consistent in your dash choice; you are using a combination of n-dash (Alt + 0150) and m-dash (Alt + 0151) - be consistent, please -Deans List should be possessive, as should Presidents List -I'd move the "Second highest GPA on football team" to the football section -I'd lose all of your relevant coursework; it is basically fluff. Also, you have your options course listed under training + certificates, when it is clearly just another course -"Worked under VP of investments managing client book of $175 million" is a fine bullet, but everything else doesn't have to be a sub-bullet under that; the only function that serves is decreasing the horizontal space you have for each bullet -"Brought it" should be "brought in" -You should not capitalize words after a semicolon -You should not capitalize words extraneously in "New/Old Client Portfolios," nor elsewhere (e.g. "Built/Ran Excel Models") -For the PWM internship in general, give me more of a clear narrative of what you did, and what the results were -I would not say you "managed investor relations" for your start-up; firstly, is that a position you are going for? Secondly, what did that entail - answering your father's questions? -The football team should not be under the work section; make another section called Activities or Leadership Experience, and put it there, and add some other bullshit volunteer thing you've done, or student society you're involved in, to make yourself seem like a well-rounded individual -The football bullets should be tightened up; assuming you had any playing time, mention something about that, rather bullshit about how playing football "allowed (you) to be competitive, build relationships, increase leadership capabilities" - no that, no first-person pronouns, please -I'd lose the technical skills; they are either irrelevant, or I doubt that you are actually qualified in them (for instance, if I started quizzing you on PowerPoint shortcuts, would you be able to competently answer my questions? What if I asked you for the Bloomberg function to bring up historical credit ratings?) -Neither of the items you have under "Certifications and Training" belong ona resume; the first, because it is not a real certification, and is assumed given your experience; the second, because I assume you could not competently answer questions on it -Activities are ok, but would move one in which you have a leadership role to pair with the football team -In general, I'd even out the spacing throughout the resume
hahaha. Dude, it's his family crest, duhh.
hahahaha no that is not a family crest. Its a little logo of my initials that took me like 20 minutes to make. I just thought it would make my resume stand out a little bit from the hundreds of other ones they are receiving. Do you think its too much/out of place?
Anyways, heres the resume I took to the career fair today:
http://www.razume.com/documents/16816
For my first time, things actually went really well. I went to a couple of the smaller firms first to get the feel for things but after a while I got in the hang of it. I got some business cards from a vp, some alumni, and a couple recruiters who I seemed to hit it off with. I know I should be emailing them to say thank you and basically try and talk with them more.....but should I be sending a thank you card through the mail as well? I don't want to be annoying or. stalkerish
Also, last night I sent did an online resume and cover letter drop through my schools recruiting system but as soon as I hit send I realized a small typo in my cover letter. I have the HR persons contact information and really want to mail in a hard copy....is this a waste of time or something I should go for?
Do not mail physical thank you cards....that is creepy. Also, forget the typo. What is done is done and there is no sense in calling attention to it...they probably won't even notice it.
We should take your resumes and do a Before and After to show the power of what this forum can do...in fact, send me the old and the new version of your resume. delete your name, I don't care.
Career Fair soon? (Originally Posted: 05/06/2007)
Does anyone know of any I-Banking career fairs coming up soon in the NYC tri-state area? I was going to go to one in Long Island, but when I e-mailed the person in charge it turned out the Banks were no shows.
due to the overwhelming response.. that the answer is no.. lol
Career Fair Friday! Would really appreciate resume feedback (Originally Posted: 09/21/2010)
I am a senior finance major, and I am currently applying for jobs. My school's career fair is this Friday, so I need to have my resume complete by then.
http://www.razume.com/documents/16804
I would appreciate any suggestions as to how I can make my resume better. Criticism is appreciated!
My ideal job would be an equity analyst.
Thanks ahead of time!
Unique template that works well.
Change GPA to 3.90 (small thing, but whatever)
To much non-work related experience.
Move both honors to under the education section Make a new bullet point "Honors: XXX Society, XXX Society, Dean's List (all semesters)"
Delete the entire activities and skills sections. The last section of your resume will be "Skills, Activities, and Interests"
"Skills: Proficient in Bloomberg, Microsoft word, excel, powerpoint" Programming---keep that line "Activities: Student government, Habitat for Humanity, news anchor for college television, community service" - -you can talk about the track and field if they ask about community service or if it comes up in conversation and you can talk about it...it does not need to be on the resume.
forget about HS sports.
I would put the study abroad experience up in education because it is a great ice breaker and a way for you to connect with your interviewer.
I would the chronological order and put Your student fund experience followed by Morgan Stanley and UBS as your first three topics to catch the person's attention with the name brand.
You want to be an equity analyst, so go into A LOT MORE detail about the student managed fund. What kind of analysis do you do, what factors do you look at, any specific industries, you should have 2 selected stock picks that have done relatively well and why you picked them. The stuff you have up there is fine, but that real estate has a much higher potential ..drop the bloomberg terminal line, the others are ok.
I have a feeling that this is going to be one of the stronger resume's that recruiters see, so you should not have a problem getting interviews from the career fair, the question is interviews for what positions.
Thank you! I really appreciate the feedback! I'm going to post the updated one when I'm done editing it.
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Spring Career Fair at non target. How to get prepared and what to expect (Originally Posted: 02/10/2011)
Hi guys, I am a junior with a 3.4ish GPA at a large undergrad non-target school. (Think Pace University) In a couple weeks my school is having a large Spring Career fair with over 55 employers coming in .My Career center told me to research the companies I am interested in and bring lots of resumes.
There are about 10 companies that normally do NOT recruit from my school that are coming in like BlackRock, Citi, PNC, and Vanguard. (We usually get BO job postings on the school job site)
Can anyone tell me what employers look for at these types of events. Are they here for recruiting for internships/full times?
Also, How can I possibly research and remember 20 companies that I am interested in talking to and be successful.
And also I currently intern at PWM Merrill Lynch. Should I bring this up when I talk to the employers?
Thank you
From the job fair at my school, almost none of the major firms did hiring or any type of recruiting at the job fairs, they all did their recruiting through OCR. They treated the job fair as if it was an opportunity to try and get anyone who was interested to apply through OCR. However, a lot of smaller funds/firms in the area that didn't have extensive alumni connections with the school and didn't know how to work through OCR would actually recruit at the Job Fair. I'd say drop by the big ones to hand off your resume, but spend some time with the smaller shops there that may actually be starting their recruiting process. Best of luck.
Yeah I normally found my school's career fair to be a waste, but it can't hurt to go. Employers will talk to tons of people so don't worry about standing out or impressing-just ask for business cards and ask those people (probably HR) to get passed on to xxx division for informational interviews because you like what you heard about the firm or something.
Worst case I've found firms often send relatively hot HR people to these, which is nice.
What employers look for is interest, especially if these same employers will post positions on the school's job board. Think of it as an attendance check. If you took a visit to their booth during the career fair, got in contact afterwards, and then applied for the job online - you can bet that they will consider you for an interview before anyone else.
So go there and collect as many business cards as you can. You don't need to stand out by being some sort of super genius - you won't even have the opportunity to present yourself in this sort of fashion. I recommend simply introducing yourself and expressing your interest. Try to keep it short and don't forget to smile! What worked great for me was to be very casual and break the ice. For example, if the line is long - right after you smile, shake hands, and say hello throw in a "you guys are definitely popular around here."
Remember these people are meeting lots of students, who usually ask some awkward and rediculous technical questions in order to make a good impression. Don't be one of those students! Also, know "your story" if they ask what interests you in the position/internship - a simple reference to your previous internships/course load will work just fine.
Good luck!
quick career fair q (Originally Posted: 09/01/2011)
career fair. personal business cards. a yes or a no-no?
not sure, but I'm also curious about this one
Assuming you're an undergraduate, no.
You'll look like a tool.
i was thinking more "pretentious", but "tool" works too.
What about for grad students? (2 year grad degree, non-mba)
I never went to grad school, but I do believe that then it would be more appropriate.
I know a bunch of business schools, such as MIT, make business cards for their MBAs.
Hopefully someone with more knowledge can chime in.
Career Fair Coming Soon. 1st suit tips? (Originally Posted: 10/02/2015)
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Get a charcoal grey or navy suit from combatant gentlemen. For the shirt go tailored slim at BR or slim/extra slim Charles Tyrwhitt (depending on your build). Allen Edmonds has their rediscover America sale going on right now so you can get factory seconds for around 200. Seems kind of pricey for shoes but it's honestly the best value you're going to get.
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