Does graduating in 4.5 years look really bad to PE firms?
I had some health problems in my first year from a nerve injury, won't go into it, but the chronic pain I suffered was material. It was advised by my doctor that I take a reduced course load at the time. I've fully recovered from that incident and managed to do well in school in spite of it: I'm currently in my 5th and final year and have landed a FT IB job.
When getting the FT IB job, I had put in my resume that I was pursuing a dual degree to justify the extra year. However, now that I have the job, it's dawning on me how hard it will be for me to get the dual degree since I am already behind. Even if I don't do the dual degree, I would graduate at the end of December, taking 4.5 years to graduate instead of the normal 4. To get the second degree, I would have to do a full school year's worth of courses in about 5 months; challenging, but technically doable.
Another possibility has occurred to me: what if I just dropped the second degree? I would graduate sort of awkwardly in 4.5 years, but it would give me time to complete CFA Level 2 and do my GMAT. I could use the time to travel, volunteer overseas, and engage in various other life-enriching experiences before embarking on 100 hour weeks.
So, should I stick with the dual degree and just be a tank? How much do PE firms care about this sort of thing? Would it be materially better for me to have a dual degree as to "justify" the extra year, or do you think it's not a big deal if I graduate in 4.5 years and have a story about why when it's time for PE recruiting? (I could probably just say I took an extra semester so I could qualify for summer internship recruiting, but I'm worried that makes me look subpar when PE recruiting is already so competitive)
I like this option by far. The dual degree won't help much and I'd say passing the CFA Level 2 would more than offset that. Plus, the pain it sounds like you'd have to go through to get it, so I say become a more interesting person and travel.
People underestimate the value of having a UNIQUE resume. I'm not talking different color paper or sending in a video resume, I'm saying that if you have something truly unique or have done something with your life outside the well beaten path, potential interviewers will most likely take an interest in discussing that.
IMO, It's a huge advantage if you are able to volunteer overseas, travel a bit and be productive in those 6 months free.
As far as justifying the extra year, if anyone asks (unlikely once you're done with IB recruiting), you can just say, "I had to take a semester off to help take care of a sick family member, but all has been good for years now" -- you don't have to disclose it was you, and the questioning will 99.9% of the time, stop there (or it should).
What will be much more important for PE recruiting is that you get good deal experince at the IB and that you can speak about your deals intelligently to demonstrate that you understand both the big picture and the details in the financials...
Hope that helps - go travel :-)
-Patrick
What's wrong with graduating in 4.5 years? Just graduate and start working...
Hey Patrick, thanks for the in-depth answer. I really do appreciate it. I'm leaning towards just scrapping the dual degree, and take the gamble that a couple years from now, people won't care as much about the extra semester as long as I present it properly. There's a lot I can do with 6 months...but if anybody thinks there's a big stigma to getting one degree in 4.5 years as opposed to getting a dual degree in 5.0 years, I'm all ears
Hi LeveragedSell,
You do not mention what degrees you are pursuing, I would assume Finance and ….? Just make sure you are not dropping a relevant major(finance,CS, math)to keep it at 4 years and getting an art history degree.(no offense intended to the art history majors) No One cares about the time frame. The most important question to remember is: How are you differentiating yourself from the potential employment pool? I think you are doing that either way. Keep the GPA up and work on your CFA designation.
You're correct, the first degree is Finance. The second degree is Economics, so yes, it's relevant. The question is if it adds enough value for me to take 9 courses in about 6 months (7 courses during semester and 2 spring courses) seeing as I'm a bit behind. My original thinking was to hack out the second degree as a means to "smooth over" the fact that I'm graduating late and make it look like a normal 5 year dual degree. If PE firms place a decent amount of emphasis on candidates graduating under "normal" timelines then I'm more than willing to hack it out to avoid having a red flag on my resume, but if you guys think the 4.5 years is something that can be smoothed over with a good story then I'd love to have 6 months to travel and volunteer as well as focusing on my CFA and GMAT.
Something else to keep in mind... I don't know about your resume, but mine doesn't list a start date - just a graduation month and year. How will anyone know you took 4.5 years? You likely won't have your HS info on your resume once you've graduated from college and have deals under your experience line. If you're worried about saying "December 2013", just graduate in May (you probably want to walk with your friends too).
In two years, how is anyone going to know "B.S. Finance - May 2014" = "it took me 4.5 years"?
Hey Kirk, that's a smart play, I like the idea. Unfortunately, the way my resume is built, I think it would be obvious I graduated late. This is because of my past internships, I have two BB IBD internships and I've found in interviews, people always asked me how I got an internship in my 3rd year when they saw the dual degree on my resume, and saw that I was graduating in 5 years.
So at the end of the day, my resume will likely have two BB IBD experiences and interviewers will question how I pulled off two BB IBD experiences, in which case I have to explain how I didn't get an FT offer at the first BB (for legitimate reasons though) and that I decided not to do FT recruiting since the markets were weak, so I "wanted to take an extra semester, work on my CFA and spend some time volunteering overseas" so I could go for another year of summer IBD recruiting. Which sounds a bit lazier than "upon not getting a FT offer, I opportunistically decided to do a dual degree since I'm also interested in Economics" but the story I tell to interviewers would be the same, except for different methods of justifying another year of summer IBD recruiting.
Thanks for all your advice guys, I know this is a very specific situation but I really do appreciate it!
In my opinion no one will even know/realize that it took 4.5 years. For starters you can just put the year of graduation, which is the same in December vs. the prior June. Also, you don't need your start year so even if you put December maybe they will just assume you graduated in 3.5 years. Regardless, based on my experience screening resumes, I would never really pick up on something like that nor really care especially if the person was in already in IB - at that point you have proven yourself. I think you are way over thinkings things.
What you really should be doing is taking a step back and thinking about your life in general. For all you know you may hate finance and not want to do PE. Maybe you love you bank and want a direct promote. So many variables to be planning second order steps without actual insight to your future reality. Make you decision based on what you want to do. Do you like you econ classes and you'd feel like you'd be sacrificing that experience. Or would you rather study for the GMAT/Travel/CFA etc. The decision should be independent of your PE prospects because really its a nonissue.
I don't have any advice to add, just something that might make you chuckle. Back home in Louisiana, we call anything over 4 years in college a "Victory Lap". So someone who finishes in 5 took a victory lap, someone who finishes in 6 took a couple victory laps, someone who finishes in 8 is a doctor, etc...
Yes,very bad.You might as well assume a new identity as an incoming freshman at a new target school.
I agree with WSO's advice above - drop the dual degree and gain new life experiences. I'm not sure I understand your situation 100% correctly, but be warned that every resume I've ever seen with a dual degree completed it in the normal four years. You may still get questioned why it took you five years to graduate regardless of the dual degree.
I don't get this at all. Why would someone care if you did an extra year? I mean you were sick? Isn't human to be sick?
How heartless.
Bahaha, I appreciate the injection of humor. OK maybe you guys are right, I'm making too big of a deal of this. I should just do what I really want to do, which is travel, volunteer, do my CFA, live life a little. The 4.5 years can be explained in a variety of ways and I think putting December 2013 is probably the way to go so it doesn't jump out during the screening process. Now I need to start planning my 6 month journey!
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