Math Major Applying for Summer I-Banking Internships

Hi everyone,

I am applying for some summer analyst internships. Below is a link to my resume. Do you guys think I've got a shot?

http://www.razume.com/documents/13168

Any comments would be much appreciated. Thanks, and enjoy the rest of your weekends.

 

NO interest in finance, your major sounds too complicated, and your relevant course work are too easy for math majors... I've taken ALL of your math classes except abstract algebra and I'm not even a math major...... your computer skills are all irrelevant except C++.... you are a math major but worked in retail clothing for the past 2 years..??? there is absolutely nothing about math outside of your major... that shows no application to what you are learning in school

but biggest thing is that I could not tell you have interest in finance by looking at your resume

 
Best Response

Nothing on your resume is finance related at all. Are you involved in any investment groups, taken any finance classes, anything at all?

I would probably eliminate the strategy guide section. Cool that you started a business, but increasing growth by 1% isn't substantial and frankly, your work experience section is pretty large considering you are a Junior(?). You have to find something finance related to stick on there. Any valuation, modeling, basic investing classes, something.

If you stress your analytical abilities and network maybe something could come from it. I could see you reaching out to local firms where you could actually talk to the guy who can hire you on the spot and just tell him your story. Anything larger and your resume will be overlooked when compared to even basic finance students.

If I were you I would find that small firm, get some finance experience this summer. Start taking finance classes, maybe a finance or econ minor. Get involved with investing of valuation clubs. Whatever you have to do to make it look like a math guy who wanted to apply his knowledge in a direct way pertaining to the financial industry.

Best of luck !

 

You need to link your major to finance. Most likely, your hook will be that you want to apply your math skills to finance. Now, you need to back this up with some research experience (with a professor in Math/Finance), and through clubs (Michigan has a good Investment Club which was featured on Bulls and Bears). Also take some courses on Financial Mathematics if your department offers it.

 

As was said above, you need to show some kind of genuine interest in finance.

Start reading the Wall Street Journal, Business Week, and/or The Economist. You can put these on your resume as activities.

Have you taken any finance, accounting, or economics classes? If so, list them.

Consider double majoring in one of them.

Also, if you have money to invest, then open up a brokerage account and play around with at least $1500 or so.

 

Pretty much everybody on this site probably knows more about this stuff than I do, so take my comments/questions with a huge grain of salt (if any of it is true, hopefully somebody else will say so). With that said, can his chances really be as grim as everyone says?

First of all, why does one have to show so much interest in finance before an internship? Isn't the point of an internship to break in and get some experience for those who lack it? Even if he can't get an internship at a major firm, aren't there plenty of smaller boutiques which will give him an internship? Furthermore, maybe he wasn't interested in finance when he first entered college. Are you guys telling me that in order to prepare for an IB internship, you have to be preparing from freshman or sophomore year?

Second, why is everyone picking on his major? Isn't math much more difficult/rigorous than finance? I would think there has to be some employers that would be impressed by that in and of itself. Why do you have to know so much about finance before you start working? Isn't being smart and trainable good enough? With that said, knowing about finance, economics, and accounting can't hurt, so you should take some classes or self-study in your free-time.

 

1st point --> there's a difference between interest and experience. Both are important. However, it's hard to work at a job 80 to 100 hours a week without an interest in it. Yes, you need to be preparing from fresh/soph year. At a minimum you should be reading the WSJ and other publications. A step up is trading on your account.

2nd point --> There's absolutely nothing wrong with the math major. The finance/accounting/econ are simply a complement. The more you can do before hand, the better you will perform in interviews and at the job.

In summary, you should be striving to make yourself as marketable as possible. Taking an interest in the publications and the academics helps immensely at interview time.

 
squawkbox:
1st point --> there's a difference between interest and experience. Both are important. However, it's hard to work at a job 80 to 100 hours a week without an interest in it. Yes, you need to be preparing from fresh/soph year. At a minimum you should be reading the WSJ and other publications. A step up is trading on your account.

I agree, there's definitely a difference between experience and interest. I guess what I was trying to say is, does one really have to be interested at such a young age? Most people don't know exactly what they want to do when starting college, and a large part of college is figuring out what you want to do with your life. Therefore, I find it hard to believe that you have to be interested at such a young age (again though, I'm no expert, so maybe I'm completely off base). I find it hard to believe there aren't plenty of i-bankers who started off wanting to be engineers, but eventually decided it wasn't for them and chose finance. Or people who always loved math and decided they would major in math, but eventually realized that they don't want to become mathematicians and made a career in IB. Put differently, are you telling me that 1st year analysts almost always have an interest in finance from day one of college, that can be expressed through their resume? If so, then it's a completely unique field, because you will definitely not find that trend in law, medicine, academia, or a host of other prestigious and competitive careers.

squawkbox:
In summary, you should be striving to make yourself as marketable as possible. Taking an interest in the publications and the academics helps immensely at interview time.

I totally agree, one should always be trying to put themselves in the best position possible, given where they're at currently and where they want to wind up. The thing that confuses me about this website, is that people seem to act like the only way in is the optimal path. Obviously, the advice on this website will help one land a career in IB, I just find it hard to believe that there's only one main path and people can't give themselves a good shot even if they have a late start or unconventional background (again though, maybe I don't know what I'm talking about, and if so, feel free to call me out on it and tell me I am flat wrong).

 

These are some helpful comments. I appreciate your thorough responses.

Since my major at this point is changeable, if I changed it to Mathematical Economics, do you think this would improve my chances? I'm joining my school's investment club this semester. Also, I've traded stocks before, once when I was in 5th grade and made 300% on my initial investment (thank you dotcom bubble!), and once a few years ago, but it was penny stocks and I lost it all. I love investing, but my history isn't exactly flattering. This is why I excluded this.

Is it worth including these activities? I could word it in a way that avoids disclosing that I lost money in my most recent investing venture.

 

With regard to the Mathematical Economics, I think it would help your chances since you will be learning from both disciplines.

You might have trouble getting an internship on the street this summer coming right out of math with no banking/consulting/econ/F500 internships prior.

Just make sure to apply to everything for this summer to cover all your bases (banking, consulting, interesting F500 positions).

 

Yes, it is worth mentioning that you have traded in the past. They may ask how you did in interviews, so I'd just average your .com and .01 returns together and say you returned 40% or something. It doesn't really matter what the returns are, it just shows interest.

As has been said, nothing on your resume hints at finance. It's fine to be an engineer or mathematician, but then you should at least show an interest in that outside of school, which your resume does not. Basically, you've got three small businesses you started by yourself, none of which seem particularly successful or at all related to finance or math. In short, you've got to show that you a) have a passion for SOMETHING and b) have some reason you want to go in to banking, aside from the fact that you heard it pays a lot

 

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