I am a college senior and have been actively looking for a career in real estate. I have found that most of these positions require at least 1 year of experience.
Well, how do I obtain this experience if every job requires it? All and any advice is appreciated.
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take the first shit job that pays above minimum wage in a REPE/CRE/whatever office and start looking for the next one....or volunteer to work unpaid....
Internships.
"Lesser positions" i.e. leasing, maintenance, or property management staff.
Apply anyway and network into the role.
If you're close to the requirements, always take the "risk" and go for it anyhow, because you're not actually risking anything. Don't be out there applying for 10+ year director positions, but entry level is entry level. If you're the right person, they'll train you.
I'd like to throw in Case competitions/School work that could be applied to real life. Win some of those and people count it as experience.
Yes and no. I was the captain of the winning team in my graduation school's final competition and was the captain of a team that won third in a national case study competition and I can't say anyone ever cared. I could have just interviewed with the wrong companies, or they could have cared and not mentioned it to me, but it never seemed like it won me any points.
DO NOT TAKE THE REQUIREMENTS TOO LITERALLY. There is always gray area, and that is where you must learn to navigate when it comes to applications. Remember that a soft-introduction from a meaningful contact to the hiring manager is better than the best resume.
How do you get gain job experience to get an Job (Originally Posted: 08/14/2012)
How do you solve the dilemma of get experience to land an finance job?
Agreed, I worked for a company before that posted openings for Sr. Analysts and listed 3+ years of experience even though they were open to hiring new grads, albeit with internship some experience. Sometimes it just makes more sense to hire someone with less experience, whose willing to work hard at a lower salary.
Oo thank you. Do you think I can apply to full time positions when in reality I can only do an internship (still in school - 1 year left).
You first learn suffixes then eventually you go to college, then get a few internships, then finally a job.
how would I go about getting some relevant experience? (Originally Posted: 09/06/2013)
In short i just finished high school in the UK and have secured a place to study economics at a semi-target in the UK but i wish to reapply to the targets.
I was considering reapplying during my first year but now I am considering taking a gap year and then reapplying.
I am a complete new comer to finance and wanted to know how I would go about getting 6-12 month experience this year. All the gap year schemes are long gone so i was thinking about making a quick CV and emailing a lot of smaller financial firms and seeing if they would take me on for the year. if they wont i will just attend the semi-target.
Here are my questions-
Would I need a cover letter and if so should it be broad and geared to finance in general or specific to each firm? If I keep it broad I could send out a lot more and maybe increasing the odds of success.
Can anyone help me out with a list of small firms which would maybe consider a person in my situation, i have a few names but not many.
Thanks ShadowFax
I think JP Morgan do/used to do a school leavers programme which may be worth looking into, but tbh coming out of high school and with no degree, the chances of you getting a long term placement giving you direct Investment Banking experience IMO are low (I'd be happy to be proven wrong on this though). In addition, seeing as its already September, you're cutting it a bit fine here leaving this so late.
If I may ask, what are your A level grades like? Are you confident you'll receive a place on a better regarded programme? If so, then by all means reapply. If not then I guess its up to you to weigh up the risk of giving up your existing offer vs the chance of going some place better + potentially having some solid experience on your CV.
In any case, if you thinking of the latter, email the semi-target's admissions office and ask if you can defer your offer a year. Its worth a shot and if they agree, youll still have an insurance policy for next year.
If you want some contacts, I remember coming across this website ages ago called my first wall street job or first wall street job or something like that (google it) and you can buy a list of a couple of hundred email addresses and (sometimes phone numbers) for £30ish. Its not great (each company will have several emails for several people and ofc you won't email them all, a lot of your emails will bounce back) so the useable number is close to 70 but using this i did manage to get an interview and then an offer to work part time whilst at uni so, if youve got nothing better to try, its worth a shot
Thanks, ill probably attend the target this year and reapply to the targets during my first year there. I think its too late to get any relevant experience now but I might still try sending my resume and cover letter to a few smaller companies and seeing is they will take me on. BTW my A level grades were decent (AAA), I wont be applying to the competitive courses at the targets though. Are you in the UK?
Yea, I'm UK based. To be honest, if you have some decent ECs, had a summer job or two (that you can put on your CV to show you know how to talk to people) and get involved with some finance related societies as soon as you start uni, combined with a decent amount of reading into finance you should be in good shape for getting a spring week which you can then try to convert to an SA offer.
The actual university and course are only really an issue when it comes to passing the initial screening for an interview, after that its all you.
Thanks again, the uni itself is Nottingham. How rare are Nottingham grads in the city, do any firms target Nottingham?
P.s Do you know how competitive the information management for business course at UCL is.
I think there was 1 guy from Nottingham in my summer intern class this year. As far as whether any firms target Nottingham specifically, I wouldnt know but I dont think its an area of focus. A lot of banks have an events calendar on their campus recruitment websites so have a look if its mentioned anywhere.
Again, I wouldnt know about the UCL course some university league tables have admissions statistics so have a look at the complete university guide or something similar. The UCL name will ofc look good on your CV, but with that degree, be sure to seek out and do finance/economics modules and highlight those on your CV also. You may have to speak to your university's course co-ordinator if they dont allow for any optional modules (they should, but possibly wont).
Thanks again, out of interest if I were to do a masters at a top target such as lse/oxbridge or lbs would I be in a better position or would the undergrad institution hold me back?
JP Morgan has a high school program in London for sure.
Beny23 Im aware but its way too late to apply, im just going to attend the semi-target and reapply to targets during my first year, if I get in I move and if I dont ill just have to be thankful its not a non target lol
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