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Career/Major Advice for an Undergrad Junior - Page 2

post #16 of 62
11/9/11 at 3:59pm
Vault.com has interview guides for banking industry. Also industry guides as well. You can buy them online or in book stores. You career services may have an account with vault to look at the web versions. Mine did but I lost access a year or so after I graduated. Good luck. There are some banking industry specific websites that someone else can point you too cause I'm not familiar with them.

Finally try glassdoor.com. Look up the company you're meeting with as posters can post interview questions asked. I love the webpage.
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post #17 of 62
11/9/11 at 4:17pm

If it's a 'front office' gig at an investment, you will probably be asked some technical questions about finance (walk me through a DCF, what's the relationship between the financial statements, etc.). You should use Google and to learn more. For 'middle office' or 'back office', it's probably all behavioral. And if it's not investment banking (retail), it's probably a couple questions about the business.

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post #18 of 62
11/9/11 at 4:36pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by pseudonym View Post

^ I have a close friend/mentor who just graduated from Harvard and now works at McKinsey. He said the same thing, but I'm assuming he loves the work.
Just an update: I'm enjoying the fashion internship, but I also just got an e-mail saying I got an interview for a summer internship at a NYC bank. I haven't had an interview at all for a Finance-related position. Anything I should learn up on before going into the interview? Out of 50 who applied at their presentation, the e-mail only had 10 or so. There will only be 4 picked, btw.
Thanks a lot. I can take this to PM if you guys want to know which bank it is.

Know NPVs, ratios, legislation, how to value cash flows. What type of bank is it / what type of work. You could have excel with no mouse, and stuff like that. I can probably give you more specific tips depending on who you are interviewing for if you want to PM me, just went through quite a few interviews these past two months.
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post #19 of 62
11/21/11 at 10:27am
Thread Starter 
^ Thanks for the info. I studied up on those topics, but the interview was mostly behavioral. I think I did alright; I'm just crossing my fingers.

My phone was acting all screwy for the past few months. Through a voicemail, I was contacted of a potential internship through a family connection (trading commodities). Little did I know, the voicemail was from 2 months ago; I gave them a call today and it turns out the internship position was just filled.

Crazy how one little error can really fuck things up. Discouraging, to say the least, especially for someone in my position. Not to be a debbie downer or anything, but it's really a numbers game at this point. I fucking despise it and it's getting harder and harder to stay positive.
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post #20 of 62
11/21/11 at 12:01pm
Get a new phone asap. Service providers sell cheap ones for like $10 (at least ATT does).
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post #21 of 62
11/21/11 at 1:01pm
Thread Starter 
^ Already waiting for the new one to come in.

I'm trying to salvage the situation with the family connection. I'd hate to waste the time/effort my mother put in to get that connection for me.
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post #22 of 62
11/21/11 at 2:22pm
Yeah if I passed on an opportunity to someone and I thought they blew it off I wouldn't be impressed. Good luck
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post #23 of 62
11/21/11 at 4:55pm
Thread Starter 
^ I really don't know how to recover from this.

There's no use explaining that my phone was the cause of this in the first place. I don't like excuses, but in this case, it's my only leg to stand on. I'm trying not to dwell on the negativity, but this is a situation I've never been in before. Any advice (besides sending him an apologetic e-mail)?

PS - I never e-mailed him initially asking for an internship. My mother just mentioned that he worked in Finance,and I just wanted to get his insight/advice and a personal one-on-one conversation (this was 2 months ago; and he just responded by telling me he wanted to grab lunch and talk). I didn't expect he had an internship position available, so there's also that.
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post #24 of 62
11/21/11 at 8:43pm
You could send an apologetic email then ask if he could meet for coffee (see what I did there? He'd appreciate you demoted yourself to a 10 minute meeting).

Oh wait, what pussy leaves a voicemail for his acquaintance's kid about a possible job, never hears back and doesn't follow up with at least the acquaintance? "Yo, what happened I thought your kid needed a job? I left him a message to meet and I never heard back. He land on his feet, it would have been nice to know." The fact you left them hanging for two months should've gotten back to your mom before you finally caught the vm.

Anyway, send the apologetic email and move on. If you're lucky he'll give you another shot to meet.
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post #25 of 62
11/22/11 at 8:35am
Thread Starter 
^ Thanks for the help, Joffrey.

No need to send out an e-mail, apparently. I just checked my e-mail and he wants to meet up for coffee.

I hope he's not on here. That'd be a major lulz.
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post #26 of 62
11/25/11 at 8:30pm
Thread Starter 
Just had an hour long conversation with the family connection over coffee earlier today.

I've noticed the common advice among all the "professionals" I've talked to is: do something you're passionate about and the money will follow. After I poured out my concerns to him and at the end of our talk, he shook my hand, looked me dead in the eyes, and told me: "You already know what you want. You're just trying to rationalize it."

I can't imagine myself doing this fashion thing full-time; there are way too many external circumstances; I want to make a nice salary. I want to want what others (e.g. my fellow finance major friends) are interested in. I want to be interested in DCF analysis, corporate valuation methods, staying up-to-date with markets and various stocks. But I don't have an overly active interest in it the way other people do. Yeah, I can tell you what's going on currently, but don't bother asking me about specifics.

After the horror stories I've heard of people burning out in IB/S&T after just a few years (before 30-years-old) (the family connection mentioned this numerous times), I definitely don't think IB/S&T is for me. Is the notion of "if you work in the back office, you're not getting out" true?
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post #27 of 62
11/25/11 at 9:24pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by pseudonym View Post

Just had an hour long conversation with the family connection over coffee earlier today.
I've noticed the common advice among all the "professionals" I've talked to is: do something you're passionate about and the money will follow. After I poured out my concerns to him and at the end of our talk, he shook my hand, looked me dead in the eyes, and told me: "You already know what you want. You're just trying to rationalize it."
I can't imagine myself doing this fashion thing full-time; there are way too many external circumstances; I want to make a nice salary. I want to want what others (e.g. my fellow finance major friends) are interested in. I want to be interested in DCF analysis, corporate valuation methods, staying up-to-date with markets and various stocks. But I don't have an overly active interest in it the way other people do. Yeah, I can tell you what's going on currently, but don't bother asking me about specifics.
After the horror stories I've heard of people burning out in IB/S&T after just a few years (before 30-years-old) (the family connection mentioned this numerous times), I definitely don't think IB/S&T is for me. Is the notion of "if you work in the back office, you're not getting out" true?

Most of finance work is boring as hell, even if you're passionate about it. If you're not passionate about it, I'd strongly advise against getting anywhere near finance as a profession.

Here's the deal with your career: The majority of people are not "doing what they love" for work because whatever it is they love either doesn't pay the bills or they don't want to do it professionally. As such, the best most people can hope for is to work in a field that you're somewhat interested by, that pays decently, and gives you plenty of time off to pursue your interest. Finance hits one of those two criteria and strikes out swinging on the two others.

You sound like just another grad trying to convince himself that he really wants to do finance because it's the thing to do. Don't do it.
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post #28 of 62
11/25/11 at 9:41pm
Consulting is the way to go (for the exit opps.).
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post #29 of 62
11/25/11 at 9:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by GreenFrog View Post

Consulting is the way to go (for the exit opps.).

Depends what. Some consulting has terrible exit ops.
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post #30 of 62
11/25/11 at 9:54pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lord-Barrington View Post

Most of finance work is boring as hell, even if you're passionate about it. If you're not passionate about it, I'd strongly advise against getting anywhere near finance as a profession.
Here's the deal with your career: The majority of people are not "doing what they love" for work because whatever it is they love either doesn't pay the bills or they don't want to do it professionally. As such, the best most people can hope for is to work in a field that you're somewhat interested by, that pays decently, and gives you plenty of time off to pursue your interest. Finance hits one of those two criteria and strikes out swinging on the two others.
You sound like just another grad trying to convince himself that he really wants to do finance because it's the thing to do. Don't do it.

Thanks so much for the quick reply, L-B.

I hoped to have Accounting as a fail-proof back-up, but after some major trouble with Managerial Accounting class, I never wanted to touch another Accounting class ever again. Beyond all of these finance books I look through every day, I don't know what other choice I have (besides the first few posts in this thread).

I agree with you on the majority of people "not doing what they love" note. I don't know which will make me succumb first: my need for a good income that helps me keep a certain lifestyle or my dislike of my job (note: I'm assuming here that I'll hate my future finance-related job/s).
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