(COVID-19) How bad would it look to nothing meaningful the summer after freshman year?

I had a really nice plan for the summer where I would have been able to spend the whole summer doing two study abroad programs capped off with a networking trip to NYC and London (semi target, but I was going to go on my own). Well now both of my study abroad programs were cancelled, and I don't think I can do the networking either. I had several appointments already made, but I think it's very unlikely I'd be able to make it depending on how long the virus lasts.

That being said, resume wise, how bad would it look to have nothing meaningful this summer? I'm really bummed about not being able to go abroad and it really sucks that I can't network with alumni in person now. How can I maintain the initial relationships I made over freshman year over the summer without meeting anyone in person?

12 Comments
 

Tell them not to panic, the BB's banks are extremely well capitalized, if you look at their balance sheets youll see how much capital they have backstopping their loan portfolios besides the fact that the Fed just injected like 1.5trillion of liquidity into the system. Keep you chin up its gonna be awesome, the fact that youre concerned rn is why youll be successful

 

Try your hand at writing articles on SeekingAlpha. I wrote for them during my freshman summer and was able to market my articles to people who I networked with pretty effectively. Become a Contributor and throw some multiples analyses and a DCF when you write up a pitch. It'll make you seem like you're ahead of the game as you look for sophomore internships.

 

Did you have solid experience with DCF beforehand? My school does offer very extensive finance courses, but as a freshman I can't take it. I've been trying to learn on my own, but I do still struggle to do a good DCF analysis. Although, my school closed and moved to all online now so I guess I know what I'm going to do to keep myself busy and not go crazy in "social distancing."

 

I did not have any experience. I'd recommend using Udemy and finding DCF templates online so that you can start off slow and begin to understand how each portion of the model flows into the next.

A lot of kids will mention not having finance courses that teach you modeling as an underclassmen. Being able to show that you're a self-starter and will do what it takes to learn something as complicated as building a DCF goes a long way. You don't have to be perfect at it either.

 

If you can't get an internship it's worth trying your hand at writing seeking alpha articles as somebody else mentioned, studying the guides (lengthy guides from WSO and other sources on how to answer interview questions, etc), or buying one of those DCF tutorials from wallstreetprep or somewhere if you can afford it. If you opt for the guides, ask the upperclassmen at your school, I'm sure some of them can send you copies for free. Sux that you get hit with this but it's not the end of the world especially freshman year if you can just talk about how you still spent your summer productively.

 

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