What Happens to Finance Grads That Don't Have Internships?
We all have them. The friends that think everything is going to be okay, just because they went to a top 50 business school and have have a GPA above a 3.5. They will say things like "Employers aren't going to expect me to have relevant work experience. I have't even graduated yet!" or "How do I network?" Of course most people on this forum see this as a completely flawed ideology, but the truth of the matter is that more than 50% of college graduates had that mind set in school and yet we still have a some what productive economy.
So I'd like to get a first hand account from some of our experienced users, if possible. Is it really the end of the world to not have any relevant internships at graduation? Do these people usually get their shit together at some point over the next 10 years? I mean there has to be a bunch of jobs in between IB at a BB and being a financial advisor for Northwestern Mutual. Right?
I know a bunch of people from my parents' generation who were fuck ups/hard drug users until they were 30 and are pulling in more than 200k per year now. My father didn't even make it out of high school and he still got pretty close to the 100k bench mark. Does America's youth really have to work that much harder to be as successful as their parents?
All I know is there are two primary entry points to landing a Wall Street job: 1) after you graduate from undergrad, and 2) after you get an MBA.
For both of these entry points, having a successful internship is almost crucial to landing a full time offer. We have something like 10 interns, and will probably give 6 of them offers (just speculating). Looking ahead to next year, these incoming kids should pretty much satisfy the department's need for fresh meat. Maybe the economy starts to heat up and management decides to hire 2 more grads....maybe not. The bottom line is there are 6-8 full time slots and most of them will be filled by people who had a successful internship.
I talked to a girl from Harvard a few weeks ago working at a cool tech startup. She wanted to transition to Wall St., but that's just such a tough sell. Unless the economy significantly improves there are simply too many candidates and too few openings.
Note: I did read an article in the WSJ recently about how there is a lack of Associates at the big banks right now, and this definitely seems true given what I'm seeing. Basically Analysts and Associates are getting tiny bonuses, being asked to work ridiculous hours, and over the past few years they have simply quit Wall Street. This could provide a small opening for some, but I wouldn't take my chances.
I work as a teller at a bank (Edit: I'm only a rising sophomore in college), and many of the managers or personal bankers are finance grads. So I would think that many end up at a local retail bank and move up in the ranks for some years. I also know some people who jump directly into grad school (non-MBA or lesser ranked MBA). So definitely not the end of the world, as hard work will get you places.
is the abve fctrng in inflation/currency translation ?
If you don't have an internship at graduation, you might get lucky. Most finance grads I've seen that didn't ended up doing some shitty job. One took a post-grad internship and converted that into a solid position (definitely not IB, but still roughly $65k all-in which is better than retail banking). The other I can think of off the top of my head went to work for family business. He never had an internship, but he was working for said business throughout his college career.
http://t.qkme.me/3p85w1.jpg
It's a lot easier and a lot harder. More information makes it easier, but because it's easier for everyone, that makes it harder.
wait.. is this true? people with college degree in finance work as bank tellers at retail level? is this common?
I am asking because I was curious about what types of jobs people with finance degrees usually end up with, in case they strike out at high finance (IB) or F500 corporate finance. If working at retail bank or becoming the 'financial advisor' at an insurance shop is the next set of available options for finance grads, then I think finance degree isn't as much valuable as many people give it credit for.
Back office ops (BTW, some if not most of these BO jobs are better than the average job out there)
Agree with Unforseen. So many people see BO as the bottom of the barrel for finance, when in reality it isn't nearly that bad to most other entry level jobs in other fields (out of UG).
Exactly. I think most of it has to do with the fact that a lot of kids on this site are from target schools and their peers go into great careers outside of IB, so as a whole the people they associate with would never have to consider ops. Coming from a non-target state school I can tell you that 80%+ of finance grads at my school would love a job that pays as much as ops out of UG. Not to mention what the liberal arts kids end up doing, which is basically law school or some horrible job in sales/administration/"marketing"
Ops pays $70K base at most BBs - great gig if u valu work/life blanace and have other stuff goign in the backgroudn
I would understand people going into Ops roles, there is no shame to that. hey, it's at least a corporate job with decent pay.
What I find to be really horrible is people with degrees in finance going into bank teller positions at retail banks, or retail sales at insurance chop shops. people with high school diplomas can do these jobs.
Some kids just dont care. They are perfectly happy just fucking around in college for 4 years then after a few months of being unemployed they take a Northwestern Mutual insurance sales job just because it pays the bills and hope they marry somebody that makes a decent living.
doing retail sales at an insurance shop after getting a college degree in finance/ economics would suck. big time. i used to think BB ops was a dead end job.. maybe i was totally wrong about that.
your name say it all
Not to be an ass, but there is no such thing as a top 50 school. You went to Stanford/Harvard/Yale/a couple others, or you have an MBA, or you have an especially unsexy MBA from xx community college.
Actually there is, see US News puts out these rankings. If you're ranked somewhere between numbers 1 and 50, you're in the top 50. It's pretty simple.
That said, you're kinda right. As far as undergrad business schools go, there are a few tiers:
1) Targets for top banking/consulting companies, can really go anywhere
2) Regional/semi-targets, usually focused around an industry in a certain geographic area. Could also be an office near the school or a senior exec went to the school
3) Big 4 targets that don't have banking recruiters, usually large state schools with strong programs
4) Schools with strong F500 recruiting (usually due to location)
5) Other schools
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