What kind of extracurricular activities

should a undergrad be looking for?

I would assume, they would be something in student leadership, but does anything work? I am currently only a freshman so I have the time to get involved, but I would like to know what exactly I should be keeping my eyes open for. For example I have recently noticed a opening for working as a director for my schools Skills USA team, I would be doing things such as promotion, invitation, registration, and communication, as well as other things like putting together recruitment strategies and campaigns, and advertising events and job positions.
Is this the kind of thing that I should be looking to get into? Or am I totally looking at the wrong stuff?

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks guys!

 

you should get involved in stuff you like and want to do. extracurriculars have such marginal value in the process, that it is dumb to waste time being treasurer of the finance club when your interviewer will ask you one curt question about it, and will only care if you have a very entertaining answer.

in short, you can craft any extracurricular into a good and relevant skill story for banking interviews, so don't waste you time trying to do something that you think will look best. and the job you mentioned looks fine, albeit time consuming.

 

I agree totally. I mean you could say you were a member of the ultimate frisbee club and say it taught you team-oriented thinking and how to persevere through difficult situations. You could be the president (4 years) of the I Hate Investment Banking Club andsay seeing the negatives of banking opened you up to the positives about it. I mean come on, do stuff your interested in, stuff you can learn from, and stuff the girls do.

Reality hits you hard, bro...
 

Yep, find something that interests you. Don't worry about the # of ECs, find the quality. I'm a business fraternity and we do things from professional, community service, to fundraising, and social events...so I always have something to talk about.

There are plenty of students who throw on "Diverse Business Students" or "Investment Bankers of XXX University"...they get asked 2 questions about it, have nothing to say, and get slammed.

 
donk33:
Instead of ECA (though important, obviously, if you enjoy it!), I'd recommend try trading.... atleast build a mock portfolio!

I've acctually been trying, key word here trying... I've read a few articles on it, and some stuff on the basics, however still being a Freshman Economics major, I frankly have NO idea what im doing, I did get lucky investing in a couple green companies a few weeks back though :p all and all its pretty fun trying.

 

Join a fraternity baby! Then proceed to drink yourself stupid your first two years before you get slammed with interviews your 3rd and 4th :). Half the i-banking guys are in frats anyway, and it's cool if you interview someone who happened to be in yours.

Aside from that... it doesn't matter too much. ECA's don't play too much a role in your interview.

 

Join the investment club or finance society whatever you have at your school. At my school they seem to have worthwhile events. Last semester I think they went to Lehman or ML's trading floor. Also, they should have lots of networking events and interview prep stuff. This will kill two birds with one stone as you get the EC on your resume plus it will actually help later on when you apply for SA and FT positions.

 

Finance clubs are good one, if anything for the general knowledge of finance and banking you would hopefully gain. In my case, it's also been a great source for contacts and meeting bankers.

Tips for a freshman: join a few clubs at first and then narrow it down. Being actively involved and taking a leadership role in 1-2 is better than being a "member" of 4-5. Like others said, do you what you like, not what you think will look good on your resume.

 

Don't do an EC for your resume, do it because you want to meet people/have a legitimate interest. I'm a pretty social guy, but I didn't like a lot of the clubs at my school, and ended up working in Corp Fin during the school year.

I was able to get interviews at most BBs/boutiques, and no one ever asked "oh you don't have any Finance ECs" or whatever. I'm also studying photography (in addition to Finance), and this was often the topic of discussion in my interviews.

 
goldstein has a dream:
Right now I am a student at a CC looking to transfer to another school (hopefully a prestigious uni like Harvard, Columbia, or Fordham). My parents aren't privileged fuckers like yours are, so I couldn't afford a a target at first.

Or maybe you weren't smart/hardworking enough to get into a target/semi target.

 

Realized that the "Job Search" section is a much better place for this. I'm new to WSO so I don't know how to delete a post (or if it's possible); to anyone who's seeing this, please reply to the same thing I posted under Job Search Advice!

"True humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less."
 

Bump!

Thought I'd share a little about my own experience so far!

Club: Case Competition Club The tangible benefits would of course be the networking opportunities, for some reason even students who have no interest in Management Consulting (me included) tend to flock to these clubs in my country (myself included...as well). I have seniors in IB,S&T,ER in BB and regional banks.

I felt like the skills learnt here would really benefit me, critical thinking etc plus the ability to present with presence and clarity, skills i find very transferable, regardless of what sector you are gunning for.

Unlike the Investment club in my school which really focuses on educating the student population of financial literacy and things like board games for children to learn about finance... (which is solid work any how, but just not what I wanted to do)

So far I've landed 2 interviews for a boutique M&A (I'm guessing partly because I had a senior who interned there before) and a regional IB.

My end goal is hedge funds, but I'd like to pick up some IB skill/grunt work/torture to toughen me up a little.

 

Join student government. I was in the investment club as a freshman and, perhaps it was just at my school, but none of the seniors in the club made it to IB or S&T - most ended up in PWM. Student government at my school has a lot of kids that go IB/S&T and mostly to BBs. Every school is different but definitely looking into joining student gov. You'll develop leadership qualities, problem-solving skills, and economic knowledge that you won't get from most other clubs. But again, that's just how it was at my school...

 

Join an investment club and take a leadership role. It will give you a good blend of applied experience and leadership initiative which recruiters like to see. Or you can follow in Ace6904's footsteps and join the LGBT club on campus.

 
Investar:
Join an investment club and take a leadership role. It will give you a good blend of applied experience and leadership initiative which recruiters like to see. Or you can follow in Ace6904's footsteps and join the LGBT club on campus.

http://i.qkme.me/C50.jpg

"I did it for me...I liked it...I was good at it. And I was really... I was alive."
 

I would join all of them and then decide which ones are worth attending.

"The right to have children should be a marketable commodity, bought and traded by individuals but absolutely limited by the state."—Kenneth Boulding
 

Was in a similar situation as you a couple years back.. I'd say just focus on 2-3 and get elected President or VP and actually make a difference. Plus, 1-2 leadership roles is better than 5-6 "member" roles.

 

I'm a member of our school's investment association. They have a bunch of fund managers and wealth management people come in an talk to us in a relatively intimate environment.

 

If you want to work on Wall Street, the finance/investment clubs are logical clubs to be a part of. As Cold said, if your club is well-organized and you have some good alums, you can hear some good speakers. It's the rare exception to see a resume that doesn't list the finance club on it. You won't get any points for just being a member, although you can get real value out of it. From an interview standpoint, what's much more important than just being a member of the club is making a difference in the club. Don't just occupy a seat in the room, come out of the experience with a story to tell about what you did for the club. You don't need a title to do that.

Gotta Mentor www.GottaMentor.com Connect to the Advice & People You Need to Achieve Your Career Goals

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ideating:
FutureGekko:
School is starting soon and I want to get involved. What are some good business/general clubs to get involved in?

I heard > 80% of Delta Sigma Pis got offers from Goldman.

How many people are in the club, 8? That's like saying I heard 80% of the trust fund babies association have rich dads.

 

I agree with Ganthor. If you have the time, start one. Reach out to some other schools and ask the student president of their club how they are organized, what events they have during the year, etc.

Gotta Mentor www.GottaMentor.com Connect to the Advice & People You Need to Achieve Your Career Goals

Gotta Mentor Connect to the Advice & People You Need to Achieve Your Career Goals
 

If you are a freshman or even a sophomore I would suggest a fraternity. Despite what many believe fraternities are a great way to network and gain relevant leadership experience(not to mention a lot of fun). If you become president, treasurer, etc. of your fraternity that is a great thing to put on your resume.

Be sure to start a finance related club. By doing so you will be able to contact industry professionals in your area and develop relationships with these people. A great networking tool.

 

I think it's all been pretty much covered here. Do some research on frats and their focuses, looking into private equity/banking/finance related clubs, and if they don't have one, then get right on it. You can call it a "Wall Street Club" or simply the "Finance Club" and look into getting it started. It may take a lot of work, but if you are early enough in your college career, it can definitely pay off very well for you, as you will have time to develop the ideas, the representation, reach out to alumni, and get events going. Like everything, it will be a process, but one that I think will definitely serve you well.

Finally, I would also get involved with an intramural sports team or some such thing as a means of showing you are more than just a finance geek, burn off some steam and meet some new people. Enjoy college, enjoy life and make some friends outside of the finance space. Drive is very important in the game, but being able to enjoy things and have fun away from studies/finance will definitely keep you in the game a lot longer (Wall St. not the intramural sport, haha).

IBanker www.BankonBanking.com [email protected] Articles, News, Advice and More Break Into Investment Banking

 

Number one killer EC I've ever seen (for obvious reasons): Politics. And y'all are in luck. Cause it's an election year!

Other good stuff is more complicated, i.e. it's not the thing itself, but it's the time and energy you put into it. Like we had one guy this year who's a devout churchgoer, and he took it upon himself to run youth groups for 50 churches. Or another one I remember, some guy whose dad was blind so he decided to get involved, and he ended up starting a foundation, getting money, etc etc.

I'll just add that for ECs it helps if you love it. There's likely no silver bullet. Meaning from what I've seen, the best folks have been doing what they have been doing out of love and for years, not just slapping on two hours of mentoring at year's end to say that they have done something.

 

Why would politics be a good EC? Aren't you more likely to get dinged if your political orientation doesn't match whoever reviews your app?

 

You're significantly overthinking this. I applied to Ivey in my second year (turned it down) and my EC's were nothing to brag about. What's your GPA? They may say 50/50 but GPA is (and probably forever will be) the number 1 thing they look out for. Also top school on this site is Ivy League/MIT/Stanford etc... transferring to Western is 10000x easier.

 

Currently my GPA is higher than what Western lists as a competitive transfer GPA, so currently I am doing well int he grades category. But I am not involved in any extracurricular activities that have anything to do with business and need to get started ASAP

 
lordbendtner:

You're significantly overthinking this. I applied to Ivey in my second year (turned it down) and my EC's were nothing to brag about. What's your GPA? They may say 50/50 but GPA is (and probably forever will be) the number 1 thing they look out for. Also top school on this site is Ivy League/MIT/Stanford etc... transferring to Western is 10000x easier.

Well, everything is important in the application dude. But Killer ECS is one thing I've seen that will propel candidates with big disadvantagesinto amazing schools. I worked with some dude who had been doing amazing volunteer stuff for 15 years when he applied (and he was also one of the nicest guys I ever worked with), and even though his GMAT was 40 points under average, he got into top schools everywhere.

So, yeah, if everything else is perfect, you can get into a great school with moderate to little ECs, but if you have them, they can help a lot.

 

I don't know about Ivey in particular, but most of the time your EC doesn't matter as much as your impact. Did you just sign your name on the list or did you run for a leadership position and noticeably improve the organization?

Commercial Real Estate Developer
 

Yea that's what I was getting at, I suppose I did not phrase my original question in the best manner, but the core of my question is in regard to this issue. Any advice on how to position myself to getting those leadership roles and meaningful positions within a service/org?

Thanks in advance

 
Best Response
ovoxomo:

Yea that's what I was getting at, I suppose I did not phrase my original question in the best manner, but the core of my question is in regard to this issue. Any advice on how to position myself to getting those leadership roles and meaningful positions within a service/org?

Thanks in advance

Honestly, just step up and do it. You know that moment when someone needs to step up and everyone is kind of quietly keeping to themselves and avoiding responsibility? Be the person to step up.

I've been highschool class vice president, vice president and president of my fraternity, a committee chairman and president of student government, president of graduate student government, graduate class president, got to sit on the board of directors of a 501(c)(3) as well as a charity organization, co-chaired an action council with ULI, etc. etc. etc. and I'm not anyone incredibly special. I don't go into these things all pompous or hyper ambitious or anything. I'm probably in the lower 50% on this site as far as intelligence goes sadly enough. I didn't go to college anywhere special. There are always times in life however when someone needs to step up and you just need to raise your hand or sign your name and take responsibility.

As an undergrad, this is the prime time. A lot of student governments are below their max capacity (there are supposed to be 100 senators and only 80 nerds run, for example) so check into that. Hell, college kids think sit ins and protest signs are getting things accomplished. If you set meetings with the administration and talk respectfully to them like adults instead of special snowflake safe spacers, it's amazing the kind of things you can get accomplished and the kind of recommendation letters you can get. Clubs flounder about without a purpose. Investment clubs, PE clubs, whatever. Go in there and say "I want to do case studies" or "I want us to pay to host an excel modeling workshop" and all of a sudden you're an idea guy.

The key to leadership is to lead before you have any title or position. Do the work a president should do in year one before you have any title to your name and then when elections come around, you'll be the obvious choice. Half of those positions I held I ran unopposed - a lot of times because I was already the "acting leader" in a sense. Opportunities come to those who make them. Make them.

Commercial Real Estate Developer
 

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"It is better to have a friendship based on business, than a business based on friendship." - Rockefeller. "Live fast, die hard. Leave a good looking body." - Navy SEAL
 

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