I'm A Freshman At Fordham University And I Don't Know Where to Begin
Greetings everybody,
I am a freshman at Fordham University, and I want to learn all I can to become an investment banker. I am an economics major, and I recently joined The Investment Banking Club at school. I have a strong passion for economics as well as mathematics. I think that investment banking sound like a rewarding, interesting, and stimulating job. I don't want to work the typical 9 AM- 5 PM job, I want new exciting challenges everyday. I purchased the book Monkey Business today as I heard that's a great way to start, and I am very eager to start learning ASAP. The only problem is, all of this terminology is completely foreign to me, and I don't exactly know where to start. I need to know the basics, and I need a push in some sort of direction. I am very interested in research and analysis.
Thank you for reading and your help,
William, Your Young Friend
Take an intro to accounting class or read some of the more substantive sections of the level 1 CFA material. You don't necessarily need to take the exam, but the material itself will give you a solid foundational understanding.
This would also be a good start: http://www.accountingcoach.com/accounting-topics
Once you understand the statements, you can worry about learning different structures and valuations. Accounting is often called the language of business for a reason.
Thank you so much for the link! I will be sure to look into it.
That's a bit presumptuous, William. You don't even know me.
I apologize?
Identifying a very obvious joke is a good thing to learn your freshman year. Social skills in general will help.
couple thoughts:
kudos to you for thinking ahead, good on ya kid.
enjoy being a freshman, don't spend all your time on WSO, try to get with freshman girls (or guys if that's your thing), you have 4 years in college, 4 decades in the workforce, don't waste the first 4 years. party, socialize, experience stuff, it's not all or nothing. don't be an awkward anti-social modelling melvin. but don't be a douchey prestige whore either.
read all of the top threads on this website, FAQs, recommended book lists, etc. the focus for this year should be to learn what the industry is, what are the parts of it, and so on. you're just getting started, learn as much as you can.
if you like the thought of banking, ER, AM (you'll know what those mean soon enough) because it sounds intriguing to you, not just for the money, try to get a summer internship (there should be some threads out there for freshmen), this will serve you well.
get good-excellent grades, it's incredibly hard to get a good overall GPA in college if you're starting from a low point.
Thank you for replying. I am trying as hard as I can to have a social life, but it's a little tough being a commuter. I do have excellent grades as of now and I am going to do everything in my power to even improve! I'm going to try and score an internship this summer because my school is a non-target one, which is unfortunate because I doubt the work here is much easier than the target schools. Thank you so much for the links, it will really give me some sort of direction. I am also thinking of minoring in finance as I think it would really help prepare me for the job.
Thebrofessor gave some excellent advice. Let me build on it a bit:
Read WSO daily and take a look at Mergers & Inquisitions for condensed info on IB. I would skip the all the finance-related books. Some will disagree with that, but you have to remember that they were written at a time that is much different than today.
Once you've learned about IB, start networking. Reach out to alumni and try your best to start securing internships. It's unlikely that you'll get even a boutique internship freshman year, but don't let that discourage you. PWM, accounting, etc. are all fine because they demonstrate a legitimate interest in finance.
I don't know what OCR is like at Fordham, but if it's a non-target, consider transferring. I hate telling this to people because everyone chose their school for a specific reason, but honestly, the biggest mistake I made during my school years (at least career-wise) was not transferring from the non-target that I went to. Having OCR is no guarantee of a job, but it makes it a lot easier.
Read #2 again. Don't stop networking.
Thank you for the reply, I would give you one of those banana things, but I ran out haha. Yes I will take a look at WSO daily, and also look at the mergers and inquisitions. Fordham is a semi-target school mainly because they have alumni from Citi, I can't transfer because I have a full scholarship over here. I'm going to try to score an internship this summer, I will do the networking as speaking to people has never been as issue for me. Thank you for your help!
Thanks for the reply, I do consider myself to be a social person, but I'm not living on campus. I have few friends, but a lot of study time. I always make eye contact and present myself in a mature manner, but at the same time don't bore people. I'm in two clubs, and have a lot of acquaintances. Wish I was getting laid though, but with all this time I spend researching, I don't have much time to focus on it.
Hey man, if you're killing it at Fordham (like really killing it), and you are set on banking, and there isn't any OCR presence, have you considered transferring to NYU or maybe like Cornel? OCR / OCI make all the difference when trying to breaking in, and you'll surely find that at a school like NYU. I don't know if Cornel or "lower-tier" Ivys would be a reach for you, but it is something to consider because it's still early in the game for you as a Freshman.
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