Hello I'm Christopher from Norfolk State University
Hello everyone. I humbly come before you as a junior finance major with a 3.2 from Norfolk State University, and basically just a banking teller as relevant background experience. I do lead 3 student organizations on campus and also manage a nigh club in the local area all while attending school.
I'm particularly struggling to find relevant internship opportunities with any investment banks, or financial institutions and I'm worried as I get ready to go into my senior year starting fall 2015. Any advice or help in securing an entry level opportunity would be wonderful. I'm great with people, and a dynamic speaker, but I'm worried that won't be enough.
Thank you for any advice or tidbits of information you may have to pass my way. Here is a direct link to my LinkdN Profile as well as my email [email protected]
You should have stopped managing those student organizations and focused on your GPA. Make that a big focus in your final year.
This is a problem. Your competition is coming from target schools with finance internships starting sophomore and even freshman year. My first question would be... I see nothing related to ibanking on your resume. Do you even know what an ibanker does?
I appreciate the information. Yes I do. I specifically want to be involved in sales and trading. I understand what you mean about my gpa. It's a major obstacle to overcome. I come from a background where not working fulltime and just studying is not an option so I do the best I can so I can afford college. I have little to no help from my parents who barely made it through high school.
hey man, couple things here:
take off your name school and email and just say "HBC in Virginia that's not Howard," anonymity is key
try to get your GPA up (I mean straight A's from here on out), it's a bit low but not the end of the world
your school will not impress people looking for interns but you can certainly play the URM or HBC card. if there are alums from your school in wall street jobs, they should be willing to help you out if you can show them your worth. it will help if you're in a frat as well, my grandpa was an Omega at a different VA HBC and I know they helped one another out, purely because they know how hard it is breaking into a traditionally white dominated industry from a non-white school that's not particularly known for academics (not to say it's bad, but it is what it is)
if I were you, I'd bust my ass networking and studying for whatever the MSF entrance exam is (GMAT maybe? shows how much I know), try to get the highest cumulative GPA you can possibly get and get into a good MSF program if you don't get an internship.
an alternative if you don't want to go back to school is to try to do corporate finance at one of the many defense companies in Tidewater or up in DC. I'd imagine there are plenty of HBC guys will be around there and you should be able to get in there through a combination of campus events, networking, and alumni functions. from there, you could do MBA to IB associate. remember, whether or not you want to play the race card, it could go in your favor if you do it well. folks who were in your shoes 20 years ago and made it happen will be glad to help you out if you show some hustle (which you clearly have).
I appreciate the information. I've never thought to remove the name of my school from my resume . That's an interesting idea...
Don't take it off your resume lol. He meant you should take it off WSO to maintain your anonymity. Also change your WSO name and edit your first post so people won't know who you are.
Officia nostrum provident consequatur adipisci tempore. Aspernatur vero vel a cupiditate et magnam. Vel ratione laudantium sunt nihil deserunt tempora.
Sit earum nihil ad voluptatum minima beatae. Non harum adipisci fugit dolores. Corrupti animi non sunt aut.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...