Help with landing a FT job in finance.
Hey everyone, I am currently a rising senior at a semi-target thinking about post-grad jobs and working in finance. This might be a long post but I'm hoping to get advice on what I should do and if I have a chance at getting a FT IB role for 2022 or if I should think about other job options/careers in finance.
The situation
Like I mentioned earlier, I am a rising senior at a semi-target (Top 10 University) and I want to work in finance after graduation. I was Pre-med for a year before I realized that I hated it and then I switched to Political Science and Philosophy, I took an intro to business course and then an intro accounting course and I realized that am seriously interested in pursuing finance (I have always found the market and money interesting). So I picked up Financial Econ and Accounting as minors, my school doesn't have finance as a minor, Econ would be the closest thing to that. I am very interested in trading and valuing equities which is why something like IB is very interesting to me, esp coverage, but I am also open to things like M&A, Cap Markets. I would like to try S&T but I am not sure I have the math and coding background/proficiency to stand out. I do think my humanities majors give me an edge because its different but the critical thinking, research, and writing skills also don't hurt.
My current GPA is around 3.3+ and will be around the 3.4/3.5 range when I graduate. I feel that this GPA is comparatively low for things like IB or S&T so I am worried that I won't even make it past the auto-rejection software.
The only job experience I have is working construction with my dad every summer ever since I was like 15 and I am president of my school's MUN team, political science club, VP of finance for my school's debate team.
I am currently interning at an inter-dealer broker in NYC this summer, this position is unpaid but I literally accepted it at the last minute because I wouldn't have had any other internship for this summer. The work is good and I am learning a lot but I don't think that I want to do IDB/brokering and I am not sure that this company would even offer return offers.
I'm not really sure how to network but I have been slowly reaching out to alumni in finance to ask them more about what they do, there are some alumn from my school in finance but not too many, one of the desk managers at my current job is an alumn and I am meeting with him one on one sometime soon to get more insight from him.
I am seriously thinking about taking the CFA Lvl 1 exam either in November 21 or Feb 22, one of my finance professors recommended that I do that, thoughts?
Recently, I have also considered pursuing an MsF as the grad school GPA could give me a boost when recruiting. (My GPA for each year has been on an upward trend since switching out of premed and then later starting medication and therapy for mental health issues that I got diagnosed for, and my focus/passion has increased and I am developing better study skills). Would this be a good move to pursue after undergrad? Can those without a strong math background succeed(only took calc 1 and 2 and wasnt the best at them)? Worth noting I have not yet taken a GRE/GMAT.
Basically, I've laid out some of my stats and the context for my situation. In the short term, I am planning to-
- Make a great impression with my seniors at my current internship and network with them, I had an amazing first week and have already begun to show that I am reliable and know what i'm doing, IE- coming in each morning caught up with the news and which way futures opened, and showing competency with Bloomberg and excel.
- Reach out to alumni in finance and talk with them about their experiences
- Talk with people my year or 1/2 years out of my undergrad about how they landed their IB/PE jobs
- Research more about IB and apply to all sorts of different firms, BB, MM, and boutiques ASAP
- Think more seriously about CFA/MsF
I'd like any advice and thoughts that y'all could give me, it would be a lot of help. Trolls can btfo, I've had my own parents and classmates laugh in my face when I told them that I wanted to work in finance, so whatever random strangers say wont affect me too much.
Whatever happens in the next year, I will do my best to make my dreams a reality. I will be working in finance by this time next year.
wrecksus294, way too quiet in here. What about these resources:
More suggestions...
Fingers crossed that one of those helps you.
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