Rising Junior, 3.25 GPA at Semi-Target w/ no significant WE interested in Corp Finance. Need some major guidance and direction!!
Hello all,
I am currently a rising junior at a semi-target as an accounting major. I completed my sophomore year with a 3.25 GPA increasing from a dismal 3.0 GPA from my freshman year (although the point increase is not very impressive). As far as my career goals/interests go I would like to see myself getting an internship as a finance intern at a F500 company (GE or Boeing ideally) or at a Big 4 in their corporate finance division (Transaction Services or Valuation) and then hopefully working at either place full time.
There are a few problems with my career path though. Firstly I have no major finance work experience. The only remote business related experience I have had was as a corporate relations/development intern at a non-profit firm and that was the summer prior to my freshman year in college. This year I started to heavily recruit using our online recruitment system and some local places (literally applying daily and consistently) but with no luck I didn’t receive any interviews and I also got the same response from the HR people “Sorry we are only look for juniors. Try again next year”. With this I couldn’t find ANYTHING for this summer and so I spent this summer traveling and I don’t know how this will fare when recruiters see that I haven’t done anything finance related this summer. This was a little sample of my terrible luck.
The other issue is my GPA. Although I have a decent alibi for it being fairly low in the beginning (I took all my hard major classes in the beginning like an idiot) I feel like its still going to kill my chances slowly. The good thing out of this though is that now I don’t have any necessarily difficult classes now that I knocked them out, but this still puts me at a disadvantage because I feel like I am automatically booted from all the company positions that I would like to apply to. For the companies that I am interested in I have noticed that the GPA requirements are a minimum of a 3.25 so that automatically puts me at the lower end of the range almost realistically killing my chances of getting an interview.
This fall though I plan to hopefully get a finance related/accounting related internship locally and then see where my chances are but I don't know how far that will get me. As you can see time is slowly running out to make a difference in my performance and I feel like obviously I am doing something wrong. With this I am asking you all for some guidance and direction to help me reach my corporate finance goals.
I have attached my resume to give you all and more in depth look into myself.
Any suggestions, tips, help is very much appreciated
Thanks
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| WSO resume 2.pdf 331.12 KB | 331.12 KB |
I'm still a student, but from a critique of my own resume, it has been pointed out that one shouldn't list microsoft office as a skill.
It's liking listing english as a language spoken; it's expected that you know microsoft office
I have friends at both companies and I can say that your GPA is fine for a regular finance internship. If you are looking to get into the GE FMP internship it may be a bit more difficult as they do tend to care about GPA, but with some networking you may be able to make it work. You should definitely try to get a fall internship while in school to make yourself a bit more competitive.
Also, if you are looking at their rotation programs (FMP and BCFP) you will need to get your GPA up closer to 3.5.
Excel is okay if you include macros, VBA. Remove PP, Access & Word though. OP, I would:
+1
3.25 isn't that bad, you just need to put a little more effort into networking. Also don't say that your GPA is low because you took all your hard classes early, there are much better ways to get around the question of "why is your GPA so low"
why don't you just run your dad's company?
You're a rising junior so you still have another summer that you can intern and still gain experience. I see that you mentioned Boeing, I'd recommend pursuing an internship there next summer. Boeing takes on interns from Freshmen to Fall graduating Seniors. I would advise you to not create a standard resume to send out to everything you apply for. Companies like Boeing use automatic resume screening software to search for key words. Tailor your resume to match the statement of work, especially the core competencies. If you get past their resume filter it pretty much guarantees some one will look at it. Also, when Boeing interviews interns for finance the interviews are all structured interviews (Actually I think all non engineering/non IT jobs are structure interviews at Boeing. Google structured interviews if you don't know what they are, and practice the heck out of them) in structured interviews you aren't asked technical questions, and Boeing won't ask those stupid brain teasers like some other companies.
My advice to you is to apply for every finance internship position posted at Boeing and to try and raise your GPA this semester by busting your butt and going for A's in every class. If you land an internship at Boeing your chances of getting hired at Boeing right out of school are increased significantly, as long as you do a good job as an intern that is.
Also, since you're only a rising junior you still have time to add finance courses. Think about minoring in finance, or switching majors to finance with a minor in accounting. Most corporate finance internships are Excel heavy so try brushing up on your excel skills as well. Knowing pivot tables and Vlookup will be a huge asset in certain positions. Go to YouTube and search "Excel is fun", its basically a free online course that will help you brush up on your skills as well as teach you new things. Also, see if your school has an elective that will help you become certified in Microsoft Excel like my school does, it may help you land an interview.
Hope this helps.
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