<p>So I'm a freshman this year and it's the time where everyone is freaking out about what he/she is going to be doing this summer. Through my University's career center, I've sort of realized that all the major names are really only looking to hire sophomores/juniors, or even just juniors. I guess a general consensus is that "nobody wants freshmen." I was wondering what/where others suggest that I start with?</p>
<p>Cold call/cold email alum and apply for pwm positions.</p>
<p>sorry but what is a pwm position?</p>
<p>one good thing to try to get into after freshman year which sets you up very well for banking (because let’s face it PWM is just a BS internship that no one gives a crap about since everyone has done one) is to try and network your way (cold call/ email alum, etc) into an M&A or strategy job at a local company in your area. A lot of Fortune 1000 companies have their own in-house M&A or strategy groups. Try and find a family friend or someone in your area that works at a F1000 firm and see if you can network your way into one of these groups. I did this after both my freshman and sophomore years and it got me a great banking internship and a great banking FT offer. In reality i liked those internships so much that after 2 years of banking I now work in M&A at a large F50 tech company :).</p>
<p>Try to get a job freshman summer, doesn’t matter where or what, just a job. You want to show that you could hold down a job and be productive. My duaghter didn’t have any finance internship (without pay) until sophomore year. Junior summer internship is the most important.</p>
<p>thegeezer - PWM = private wealth management. </p>
<p>a lot of people at top UG b-schools take a job at their local salomon smith barney, ubs, morgan stanley, etc. etc in their private wealth management group. These internships are honestly BS since everyone else does them and you dont really learn much. Other things can definitely differentiate your resume like what I suggested in my earlier post.</p>
<p>oldfort - it’s true that you don’t have to anything that interesting but the problem, at least at very competitive/pre-professional schools like Wharton, is that if you don’t do anything interesting you put yourself at a disadvantage for your sophomore summer which then puts you at a disadvantage for junior summer, etc. </p>
<p>Out of my close group of friends at Penn a few of us had interesting freshman summer jobs (i was in M&A at a relatively well known company, my friend worked at a VC, and another worked at a hedge fund), the rest of our group did random (non-finance) jobs, summer school, or PWM. The three of us that got interesting jobs (we all got them through networking or connections) had significantly lower GPAs than our other friends come the next summer…but who got all the interviews out of our friends? we did…it definitely sets you apart.</p>
<p>My daughter is at Cornell A&S, not AEM, with 3.5 GPA she got all the interviews she needed. She built up her resume over time. There is no need for a finance internship freshman year. If anyone is able to get a finance internship freshman year, it is through connections, and most likely not very meaningful. If you were to look at her resume, most people would think she did it on her own.</p>
<p>@oldfort - I am not saying it’s not possible but as schools are becoming more competitive it helps to differentiate you come FT offer time.</p>
<p>I was recently looking at resumes from Wharton that applied for jobs at my company…and when you see candidate #1 vs. #2 you, despite the lower GPA, #1 is more attractive on paper…they look a lot more proactive (even if they got the jobs through connections) it just shows how proactive they were in getting them, etc. As more an more students start to look like candidate #1 (which over the past 2-3 years of looking at analyst resumes i can say is definitely happening) then candidates like #2 become less interesting and get lost in the shuffle. </p>
<p>Wharton
3.4 GPA (finance major)
Post-Freshman: Tech Company M&A internship
Post-Sophomore: Venture Capital internship
Post-Junior: Top IBD internship </p>
<p>vs. </p>
<p>Wharton
3.9 GPA (finance major)
Post-Freshman: Random non-finance job
Post-Sophomore: random finance job
Post-Junior: top IBD internship</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>From what I’ve seen, people with that kind of work experience is not very common. Lots of people who got top IBD offers didn’t have any internships after freshman year, so to the OP: I wouldn’t be too concerned.</p>
<p>I think I will cold call/email local boutiques and try to get a position with M&A.
Do you think that PWM is completely invalidated, then? </p>
<p>Or rather, would it be better to do IB at a smaller boutique or PWM at a BB?</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses!</p>
<p>I agree with astonmartin. Candidate 1 described by whartongrad seems unrealistic.</p>
<p>having reviewed analyst CVs for the past 3 years or so I’ve started to see more and more candidates like #1…however this is only from top targets like Wharton, HYP, Stanford, etc. 2nd tier targets (nyu, duke, georgetown, uva, cornell, etc.) continue to have backgrounds closer to those of candidate #2. </p>
<p>All i’m saying to the OP is that no it’s not NECESSARY to have a good internship after freshman year but it can help set you apart and can help you land a great job even if you don’t have a stellar GPA.</p>
<p>In all honesty, I never studied at Penn…I spent my time partying, travelling every weekend in my friends’ jets to places like st. tropez, etc. I graduated with a pretty poor GPA (low 3.0 range) but because I was proactive and networked my way into good freshman and sophomore jobs (like those listed for candidate #1) I landed a great internship in GS’ TMT group after jr year. Got an offer to go back and then landed a few more offers during FT recruiting…if i hadn’t done great freshman and sophomore internships I would probably have never even gotten a look from GS or other top places.</p>
<p>^ Hey whartongrad, I have a question.</p>
<p>I’m at a semi-target/target atm (Berkeley) and I’m deciding whether I want to go into Haas or do a different major like stats/math. I actually prefer to not major in business if I can help it, but I feel obligated to since I’m not coming from HYPS. So, if you were looking at the resumes, would a stats/math major make me look unique or would sticking to the business school be the best choice?</p>