Worried my career in finance is over before its begun....
Hey guys,
First post on here... I am graduating from Western Connecticut State University with a BBA in Finance in a month. Currently I have 0 job prospects though I have doing a lot of applications. My GPA is a 3.5 and I have done 3 internships. One at Wells in Equipment Finance, one at IBM in Personal Property Tax and another at Praxair also in PPT. I recognize that those are not very helpful for trying to get a position in Finance. My goal is to become a trader and to do so by first being an analyst. (... I know, very nondescript)
I have been applying to all analyst positions which I see being listed and have gotten 0 feedback from the banks/ asset management companies. I am feeling totally screwed, like there is no hope left for me to get a position in finance.
My uncle is a partner at PWC and passed along my resume to a recruiter. Currently my application is being reviewed (just submitted today) and I expect that I will at least have an interview. The position is in Valuations. I am graduating with 126 credits, of which only 6 are accounting courses. Because of this I expect not to receive an offer from PWC either.
If you guys could please provide insight as to what you recommend I do to get my career started I would appreciate it. Also I will be inserting my resume below for comments/ critiques.
Thanks for the help!
PROFILE
Financial Investments and Markets graduating senior with three tax/finance-related internships in fast paced, team-oriented environments; data analysis experience includes routine use of Microsoft Excel (V-Lookups, Pivot Tables). Excellent communication skills and the ability to relay concepts concisely.
EDUCATION
Western Connecticut State University, Danbury, CT
Bachelor of Business Administration (December 2018)
• Major: Financial Investments and Markets; GPA: 3.5 / 4.0 Dean’s List
• Course Highlights: Investment Analysis and Portfolio Management, Financial Engineering, Fixed Income Securities, Financial Decision Models, Money Banking and Capital Markets, Financial Institutions, Micro and Macro Economics
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Praxair Inc.: Danbury, CT April 2018- Present
Personal Property Tax Intern
• Prepared and file tax returns; Coordinated with Personal Property Tax Manager verifying the validity of all tax charges, and ensuring proper distribution of tax payments
• Worked with a multi-company team during merge compiling property tax records under one entity
• Research nation-wide company owned real estate values to arrange for filing disputes over valuations
IBM: Southbury, CT September 2017- January 2018
Personal Property Tax Intern (Full time)
• Reconciled corporate personal property tax bills against in-house depreciation schedules
• Communicated with clients regarding the origination of their personal property taxes
• Collaborated with an international team ensuring the accurate and timely disbursal of tax payments
Wells Fargo Equipment Finance: Danbury, CT June 2017- August 2017
Summer Analyst
• Performed industry reviews to develop a sense of current and future market conditions
• Analyzed corporate financial statements determining our teams comfort level in entering into loan/ lease agreements; Established appropriate credit limits on each obligor
• Underwrote loan agreements for exposure amounts ranging between 500K to 12M
• Standardized documentation process, streamlining our team’s future data collection process
COLLEGE ACTIVITIES
WCSU Finance Club: Vice President September 2017- May 2018
• Created a budget and gained approval for funding from the Student Government Association
• Won our clubs StokTrak competition during two different semesters
Mock Supreme Court: January 2018- Present
• Developed knowledge about the assigned case by studying prior Supreme Court cases relevant to the case at bar; Formulated arguments; Presented one side of the argument to a panel of judges
TECHNICAL SKILLS
• Strong Proficiency in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel (Pivot Tables, Goal Seek, VLOOKUP)
• Familiar with basic computer programing (VBA, and HTML)
• Fluent in Spanish and Portuguese
you are so fucking money and you don't even know it:
That was a fucking good scene.
Western Connecticut State University = a very non-target for wall street
Regarding "Finance" as a major...
"According to some statistics and information pulled from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, finance majors have median starting salaries of about $50,000, with mid-career median salaries of about $90,000."
You would have been much better off if you had majored in a hard topic like Math ans Statistics, Actuarial Science or Computer Science.
if you want my 2 cents (i was a rates BB trader/market maker, and now i'm a prop trader)...i suggest you learn how to code in Excel VBA, SQL and Python (this is actually super easy if you apply yourself...lots of free video courses on youtube that are surprisingly good)....and then learn how to use TensorFlow (a Library of code that you can access with Python) to build a neural net (neural nets are coded simplified decision machines similar to the human brain, but orders of magnitude simpler) and use that to do some machine learning (also free courses on youtube).
This tech stuff might sound intimidating at first, but that's only because its something you don't know yet. You are young enough to absorb and learn the material quickly. These skills will make it much easier for you to get a job on wall street. Knowing how to code is always a useful skill...and will be an order of magnitude more useful to you than your "Finance" degree.
I appreciate the suggestion about learning how to code.... but lets not get into the "you should haves" lol Looking back, I should have applied myself more and gotten better grades in High School so that I could have gotten into a target school and never ended up in this place to begin with. ''But here I am. Trying to salvage a somewhat shitty situation
you can learn to be an entry level coder in one month, spending 1-2 hours per day...and then you can apply to all sorts of entry level tech jobs..which can quickly lead to more advanced positions. thats my advice.
Thanks brother, I do appreciate you. Do you have any programs that you recommend I use to learn to code VBA/ Python?
its all available on youtube
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