How can an Idaho student get a job at a big investment bank or hedge fund?
Goal
I am graduating from the University of Idaho in May 2017 and want to get a job at an Investment bank or hedge fund. I enjoy many areas of business, especially Finance, and would be happy with trader, stockbroker, analyst, working with a hedge fund, M & A, and wealth management, etc. Best case scenario, I get a job in New York City. By working in New York I believe I will be more exposed to a people who can help me become more successful in my career goals. I also believe a job there may be significantly more challenging and I want that.
Experience
I have a variety of experience including playing a vital role in a startup green energy company, working as an executive for the University of Idaho’s International Fraternity Council, creating systems for positions I have held in my fraternity, some time as an executive of an operations management club, retail work, and investing with university funds while managing and mentoring people. I also have experience as a licensed Financial Representative Intern with a Financial Planning company, where I primarily worked on prospecting, presenting concepts, and selling insurance.
More about my investing experience:
I am involved in 3 investment groups that take real university funds and allocate it to build wealth.
One is the Barker Capital Management Group, which is a nonprofit organization with the University of Idaho that focuses more on trading with a month or so time horizon, utilizing stocks, ETFs, REITs, options, or a combination of these per position. This membership will continue until I graduate. I manage and mentor a group of analysts that specialize in following the technology sector, emerging markets, and Europe, while also doing the portfolio reporting and searching for value alpha plays. This portfolio has a value of a little under a half a million dollars.
The second is the Davis Investment Group. This group focuses on long-term holdings. I joined this group as a sophomore and was quickly promoted from an analyst following the financial sector and our holdings in it, to the Portfolio Manager that runs the entire group and manages 25 analysts (which will be more next semester). One trade I proposed during my time there, and presented on, was SAFM at the price of about $71 a share during November of 2014. I have been/will continue to be in charge of the recruitment and hiring of the analysts for this group until I graduate. I also will be in charge of publishing the annual report for the group next spring and possibly planning a trip to the Quinnipiac forum for my group.
The third group is the Funded Trader team at the university. I have a portfolio of near $10k where I execute options spread trades and buy underlying securities to make a profit. I work on this individually and am the one who is entirely responsible if there is a loss or profit from this portfolio.
In all of these portfolios I have generated profits.
I also have a small personal portfolio for experimenting. I would trade securities with prices averaging $10 a share and turn quick profits. I was up about 70% within a few months after some smart long positions. I decided at one point that I was doing well in trading low-priced often a little more risky and volatile securities than I normally trade, and wanted to try other kinds of trading. I got into volatility trading, saw a 12% return, but didn't close my position before I lost all my gains. I am still working on learning volatility trading, which is interesting, difficult, and I am not so successful at yet. Timing the markets often is not how I like to trade.
I currently have a few Bloomberg certifications through Terminal training programs.
Plan
I am planning on signing up to go for my CFA certification once I can. I am planning to get my level 1 CFA this Spring.
As a side-note, I have read that including interests in your application helps; I am interested in also hearing thoughts about that. I have also heard that some places do not give you an interview unless you have a GPA above a 3.0-3.2. I will probably be graduating with around a 3.4
Question
Chances are that you may be laughing at this moment. A student from University of Idaho wants to get onto Wall Street without some Investment Banking internship? I know that securing this job is unlikely, but I would like any feedback that may help me increase that small chance even a little. Am I on the right track? What more could I be doing with what I have to improve my chances?
Thank you for your feedback!
I am a Canadian student but I'm personally friends with many children of Wall Street hotshots like David Einhorn. I realized how important networking is, especially for people who don't hail from the Ivies. HF Managers and others sometimes hire a person who they've met personally or that has a very compelling/unique background. I'd say that try your best to reach out to the alumni network at your school and see if anyone went into finance successfully. W/O stellar GPA and experiences, admittedly getting recruited for out of a huge pool of potential IB analyst positions will be very difficult for students like you.
Perhaps, try unconventional routes. Perhaps start looking at finance positions in your geographical area, become a stellar performer in that firm and get noticed!!!!, then potentially move to Wall Street later in life. Always make connections and keep contacts with everyone you meet. Also, you have the potential to get an MBA at a school like Wharton which will definitely give u the extra boost. If you insist on NYC, you could look at small prop trading and brokerage firms in NYC but its still rare for them to hire someone from Idaho when they can look for students who went to school in NY. One thing though, I would just like to say that because you come from Idaho, it does make you pretty unique compared to other typical applicants to IB positions. Firms do like some diversity and this can perhaps be a minorplus factor for you.
Are you also close personal friends with Tom Skeritt?
thefinancekid, thank you for your response. This seems to line up with some other things I have heard.
My post was a little out of date, so I just edited it. Since this post, I did do an internship in Financial Planning and sales, and I also now have increased my investing and management experience. I am now running one of the investment groups with the university and am managing in one of the others. I manage a small personal portfolio to experiment new kinds of trading with, and manage another portfolio with the university that is individually managed and traded by me.
What you said about needing connections is very true. I have found a few guys I know that can introduce me to big players in 2 big banks, and I also have secured interview with a large portfolio management group through a friend, where I have been doing well so far.
I think using my background from Idaho can help me stand out, as well as maybe some of my somewhat unique trading and management experience. But the 3.4 GPA and non-target school is still going to make things a battle for me.
Best of luck man! Everything will work out eventually!
As an associate in IB and previously as a strategy analyst at a consulting firm I have been involved in recruiting. I see a few key problems for you: an unknown school, weak resume and ECs that are in line with what a lot of students do. I've heard of the University of Idaho, but know nothing about it. You'll be competing against known quantities. Why would we want to go with the unknown versus Duke, Penn, an elite LAC or a top kid from UVA/UNC? A 3.4 is ok, but there are plenty of target students with higher GPAs, strong fit and great technical skills. Also, a fair number of them will have run student portfolios or been involved in a student fund.
Next up, your resume is weak. It sounds like you have one PWM type internship. That's not going to stand out. My advice is get focused you mention a number of jobs, it's almost as if someone asked you to name prestigious finance jobs. Also, stockbrokers for all intents and purposes it's either do PWM or nothing.
I would start networking hard and consider an MSF or MMS.
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