Giving myself an edge in securing a summer analyst internship in '14

Brief background: I am a rising junior at an ivy and recently decided to major in Financial Economics. I haven't taken very many finance-related courses yet because of my late declaration of the major, and so I am wondering what classes I should take this Fall '13 and Spring '14 semester in order to make myself most competitive.

By the end of the Spring '14 term I'm planning to have completed Intro to Econometrics, Financial Economics, Financial Accounting, Statistics w/Calculus, and one or two other upper level Econ electives (in addition to Micro and Macro).

I was wondering how much value the employers will give the classes I took versus just looking at my GPA and seeing that I have some quantitative experience. Basically I want to swap out one of my upper level Econ courses in the Fall for an easier class to give myself a better GPA after the fall '14 term, but I'm wondering if employers will request my transcript, see what I did by swapping out the Econ elective for an easier course, and count that against me.

First time posting here. Would appreciate any knowledge regarding the summer internship application experience.

 
Best Response

ivy experience here:

In my experience, it's very important to show your interest in finance etc. but it's also crucial to show you have other interests too. Most kids applying will have taken finance type classes, but if you have something else cool that you can bring up as a beneficial experience then even better. Most of the kids will try to be impressive with the accounting shit they took, but what makes you better than those kids is having something on top of those classes that you say will help you during the internship/job.

I took a few oral communication / presentation classes and despite being easy ended up being good talking points during my interviews. I said I took those to improve my communication skills so I could effectively convey my ideas and understand other people while presenting more fluidly (they loved that shit). You can also bring us psychology type classes and say you took them because you were curious about how people's attitudes and interactions affect them in business.

Just my thoughts, but don't take only econ classes. Have some fun in college.

 

The more quant finance class you have taken, the higher expectation you will get from the interviewers. And if you happen to have great prior internships, be ready to talk about everything. I personally don't think they care about that much about the classes but do agree on the previous point, show interests in finance. When I was interviewing a global macro fund, the interviewer, who is also the founder/chief investment officer, only asked me about what I studied, such as macro, political philosophy, finance etc. 0 market-related & stock pitching questions.

 

Unless your school requires transcript submission through OCR or you directly list classes on your resume, interviewers will have no idea which courses you have or have not taken. The only thing relevant is the major listed on your resume and even though you haven't taken many classes in it (which I would not mention), you will only be asked (if at all) to speak generally to your experience in those studies and what you have liked about them.

I'll double on what an earlier poster mentioned and say that in my interview experience, most were interested in hearing about what classes I liked outside of my major to gauge whether I was a well-rounded invidividual with hobbies outside of finance.

 

Thanks for the info, both replies make very good points and I appreciate the advice. The reason I'm thinking about loading up on Econ courses for the Fall/Spring is because of my lack of work experience in finance. I only recently decided to pursue Finance and haven't gotten involved yet in Econ/Finance/Investing clubs on campus (planning to do so this fall, as the current academic year is drawing to a close). I only have one relevant experience on my resume which is a Global Wealth Management internship with Merrill, but that was nearly 4 years ago (I took some time off from school). I do have a ton of professional web design experience on my resume, but I'm not sure how that would give me an edge over someone who was involved in finance clubs, had bank internships the past 1 or 2 summers, etc etc.

I'd love to diversify my classes a bit, but I'm wondering if doing that would be more beneficial for me in the internship recruiting process, or if I should try to stack up on Econ courses in the fall semester to indicate my newfound interest in Finance (and to hopefully make up for what seems like a lack of work experience in finance).

Is there anything else I could do to bolster my resume other than taking Econ courses in the coming fall semester? I've applied for a number of internships for the current summer but my options were limited in terms of what opportunities I could apply to. I haven't heard back from anywhere except for Washington Mutual's Internship program, which apparently is great if you want to be an insurance salesperson (I don't). Plus, I need to take two core courses for my major this summer in order to be able to take all those Econ courses this fall/spring, so I was planning on interning this summer only if I were to get a worthwhile opportunity.

Any advice is mucho appreciated. I'm just unsure of what steps I could take to bolster my resume as much as possible for next year's recruiting process given that I don't have the great work experiences/internships that many competitive summer analyst candidates do, nor do I have a demonstrated interest in Finance as of yet (which I am hoping to rectify ASAP).

I feel that I am a long shot at best for these uber competitive finance internships, but it's something I want to do and I'm willing to work hard or take some extra steps to put myself in a more competitive position for summer internships.

 

I have never been asked what classes I've taken. Take the easy classes first to keep your GPA up. Just know the basics

Because when you're in a room full of smart people, smart suddenly doesn't matter—interesting is what matters.
 

Thanks ricky212. If that's true then I would probably swap out one of my upper level electives for some other course. So I'd have two challenging Econ courses and two easier courses (Financial Accounting and a core requirement, probably music, art, or a lit course) in the fall.

So I have a follow up question. Should I take an Econ elective that might potentially be applicable to a finance internship in terms of knowledge and/or skills acquired in the course, even if it means swapping out one of my easier courses this Fall? If the class directly relates somehow to the opportunity, I feel like this might be a talking point for me and an opportunity for me to show my newfound interest in finance and why I kick so much more butt than the other hundred people who are interviewing for the same internship.

Or should I go for the higher GPA by not taking the upper econ elective and just spend more time on EC's instead? I would probably try for a fall internship if I had the time, but I'm assuming these are extremely competitive (just like everything else).

 

Sounds like you're at Columbia. Nobody cares about what courses you take, and loading up on econ/math requirements will only hurt you. Finish your Core requirement, pad your GPA, and then take all the shitty classes after recruiting when your grades don't matter anymore. In the meantime, some firms are still hiring and you can cold-call around to see if you can get a summer internship if you don't already have one. Work part-time during the year while you're taking easy classes and interviewers will be even more impressed.

 

Thanks for the input 7xEBITDA. I'm making an assumption here so tell me if I'm wrong, but it sounds like other than some of the core principles that are taught to Econ majors, essentially what we might learn in school will most likely not apply to our actual job, even if it is in finance.

Is it safe to assume that other than some core principles/concepts/formulas, you will learn the bulk of what you need to do in order to fulfill your job responsibilities on the job? Would I be doing myself a disservice (for when I am actually working full-time in finance knock on wood) by taking an Econ elective that is less quant-heavy versus an Econ elective that is more quant-heavy?

I'm probably overthinking this whole thing, aren't I...

 

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