How helpful is the university career centre in preparing you to secure a finance internship or job?

[sw20001]

Keen to hear people's different experiences so future society committee members and career advisers can improve their offerings.

I am in my final year at Bristol. I don't want to slander the name because they have some great opporunities, but frankly, neither societies nor the careers service have helped me get to the point in my career I am at today. It has been a lonely climb. While I have seen a significant improvement in the societies providing CV, cover letter, networking opportunities and interview help during my time here, the university needs to work on informing students that they can take advantage of these things in the first place. It’s the keen ones who already have experience that use these things the most, yet are the ones who need it the least.

Finance societies attract two types of people: those with more knowledge, who have an expectation that new members will be as well versed in the field as they are, and those who are new and want to learn. This can lead to the former being dismissive or arrogant to those who they should helping. Then the latter group can get intimidated and subsequently drop out. Women unfortunately seem to make up the majority of this group, and that is perpetuating the fact that societies are 90% male dominated. My friends find it funny that I attend their events, asking me why I want to spend my free time putting up with “all the tory men” (this is not necessarily the case, but I can see why societies are being stereotyped like this by outsiders, when what might spring to mind for them is suits and money). It’s not a very motivational environment to be caught in the crossfire between people with no interest in finance, and people with too much interest in the material/power-hungry aspect of finance. The societies can be fun to get involved in and I still attend their socials, but socials are not for the sake of my career. Perhaps I will see benefits being reaped 5 years from now when I reach out to the network I have built with them, but that is besides the point of answering the title of this thread.

The careers service seems great for students looking to go down some routes, particularly in the arts and start-ups, but while they have made a wonderful effort within the finance space, they aren't up to speed. I was lucky enough to get hooked up with an investment banking mentor via them in December of my second year, but by this point, I was at the tail end of applying to summer internships and so there was only so much he could help me. Had this scheme been run in first year, it could have been much more beneficial to me. One thing they are very good at is seeking feedback. They run copious amounts of focus groups, one of which I went to tell them why this should run earlier on - I just hope that my feedback is used!

Besides access, I think the main issue lies with not letting people know as soon as they come to university what is out there for them: I literally did not know what a spring week was until my dad said I might want to apply to one. What about my peers who don’t have this figure in their lives? I am a campus ambassador for a recruiting firm, and it is saddening to have people approach me at the end of application cycles asking if I can help them out, because by no fault of their own, they realised they had to apply to things a month too late.

I hope some of us can be the change!

Has anyone had similar or completely different experiences at their university?

 

[JustAnotherHuman1]

Interesting post. Bristol is actually a pretty strong semi-target, probably the most targeted out of them all. What you need to realize is that life isn't fair, and investment banking isn't the only way to have a successful career. A pigeonhole is a real thing, just as closed-mindedness. Some people will never get into banking, for better or worse, and it wouldn't be their own shortcoming even, but rather "destiny". Who knows?

They might even miss out on a good graduate programme and might need to go an alternative path. It doesn't matter over the long run. Spring weeks are certainly important and are very valuable to secure and might be a decently good indicator, but I think the culture at these top investment bank feeder unis is way too cut-throat. There are so many memes about this, especially at the likes of LSE, and it's easy to become a droid when everyone around you is also a droid...

I think there are many ways to succeed, and while a career in investment banking out of university is certainly the best way to go into any type of business/managerial role down the path and maybe make big quid, it's not the only way, and having more spring weeks under your belt won't make you a better person or more likely to become CEO of Goldman Sachs 20 years later than someone who has secured only one at Nomura or had none. Yes, really. It doesn't correlate like that.

When I was undergrad, applying to spring weeks, I have seen people securing like 10+ spring weeks and attending as many as like 3 or 4. Where are they now, almost a decade later? I know one of them left the industry and now works in business development at a relatively well-known startup, probably earning like 90k, which is nothing to scoff at in the grand scheme of things, but it's not like they are pulling in 300k in a strong year as VP at Morgan Stanley. If you are catching my drift. The other one? Dropped out of uni, for whatever reason I don't know, might had been personal, but I'm making a point here. There is no straight line that can be drawn. I also know of someone who got a spring week on the back of being a relative of an MP. Fair? Certainly not, but it happens. You just don't know about it.

Re career services, I also found that they are pretty much useless, but I attended a semi-target on the lower end. The answer to this is quite simple: IB is notoriously difficult to get into, and these cookie-cutter career services are not really made for that. Anyone working there, who is good enough and exceptional, won't work at the uni's career service but found their own consultancy. Right? They'll give basic advice, but that's about it. You'll learn a lot more from your peers, interview and CV clinics at your society.

 

[magellan1]

It isn't easy to quantify the contribution of your university to getting an internship or job in high finance. In general, top universities have the privilege of attracting the smartest and most hard-working people, so it is not very clear whether the successful outcomes achieved by such people are mainly a result of their personal characteristics and effort or their university. I went to a top-target uni for my undergrad and got spring and summer internships. The university did not help me directly to achieve that (e.g career services, internal job portal, preparation for tests, interview preparation, etc.). However, it has helped me a lot indirectly. Firstly, the environment was highly competitive and encouraged me to stretch myself to be successful. For example, when I started university I had no idea what a spring week was but a few weeks after the start of the first semester I saw some of my colleagues talking about it, submitting their applications and I also joined the race. Secondly, the name of your university helps when you have little work experience. Banks receive hundreds of applications and they have automatic systems for filtering candidates. If you come from a non-target university, your application could be discarded automatically. Thirdly, good universities provide better networking opportunities. It was very easy for me to find people who had done the same course a few years ago, worked for major investment banks and were willing to give me career advice. Finally, target universities allow you to stay on the leading edge and be on top of industry trends. One has the chance to participate in workshops organized by the leading firms in the industry and attend lectures from top academics who are conducting important research.

 

[sw20001]

It isn't easy to quantify the contribution of your university to getting an internship or job in high finance. In general, top universities have the privilege of attracting the smartest and most hard-working people, so it is not very clear whether the successful outcomes achieved by such people are mainly a result of their personal characteristics and effort or their university. I went to a top-target uni for my undergrad and got spring and summer internships. The university did not help me directly to achieve that (e.g career services, internal job portal, preparation for tests, interview preparation, etc.). However, it has helped me a lot indirectly. Firstly, the environment was highly competitive and encouraged me to stretch myself to be successful. For example, when I started university I had no idea what a spring week was but a few weeks after the start of the first semester I saw some of my colleagues talking about it, submitting their applications and I also joined the race. Secondly, the name of your university helps when you have little work experience. Banks receive hundreds of applications and they have automatic systems for filtering candidates. If you come from a non-target university, your application could be discarded automatically. Thirdly, good universities provide better networking opportunities. It was very easy for me to find people who had done the same course a few years ago, worked for major investment banks and were willing to give me career advice. Finally, target universities allow you to stay on the leading edge and be on top of industry trends. One has the chance to participate in workshops organized by the leading firms in the industry and attend lectures from top academics who are conducting important research.

I very much agree with you here, so thank you for raising! It's an important factor that I rather dismissed in my post. Definitely helpful seeing other people around me working hard and I am grateful to be in a work-hard play-hard environment.

 

[sw20001]

Interesting post. Bristol is actually a pretty strong semi-target, probably the most targeted out of them all. What you need to realize is that life isn't fair, and investment banking isn't the only way to have a successful career. A pigeonhole is a real thing, just as closed-mindedness. Some people will never get into banking, for better or worse, and it wouldn't be their own shortcoming even, but rather "destiny". Who knows?

They might even miss out on a good graduate programme and might need to go an alternative path. It doesn't matter over the long run. Spring weeks are certainly important and are very valuable to secure and might be a decently good indicator, but I think the culture at these top investment bank feeder unis is way too cut-throat. There are so many memes about this, especially at the likes of LSE, and it's easy to become a droid when everyone around you is also a droid...

I think there are many ways to succeed, and while a career in investment banking out of university is certainly the best way to go into any type of business/managerial role down the path and maybe make big quid, it's not the only way, and having more spring weeks under your belt won't make you a better person or more likely to become CEO of Goldman Sachs 20 years later than someone who has secured only one at Nomura or had none. Yes, really. It doesn't correlate like that.

When I was undergrad, applying to spring weeks, I have seen people securing like 10+ spring weeks and attending as many as like 3 or 4. Where are they now, almost a decade later? I know one of them left the industry and now works in business development at a relatively well-known startup, probably earning like 90k, which is nothing to scoff at in the grand scheme of things, but it's not like they are pulling in 300k in a strong year as VP at Morgan Stanley. If you are catching my drift. The other one? Dropped out of uni, for whatever reason I don't know, might had been personal, but I'm making a point here. There is no straight line that can be drawn. I also know of someone who got a spring week on the back of being a relative of an MP. Fair? Certainly not, but it happens. You just don't know about it.

Re career services, I also found that they are pretty much useless, but I attended a semi-target on the lower end. The answer to this is quite simple: IB is notoriously difficult to get into, and these cookie-cutter career services are not really made for that. Anyone working there, who is good enough and exceptional, won't work at the uni's career service but found their own consultancy. Right? They'll give basic advice, but that's about it. You'll learn a lot more from your peers, interview and CV clinics at your society.

I sort of see what you're getting at - getting a job is something you have to expect to put a lot of effort into, off your own back, and your university isn't going to and shouldn't be giving you two feet to stand on or dictate what career path you go down. If you're relying on that to be the case, something like IB is not for you. I personally don't think there should be an expectation that any society or careers service can get you into something so competitive (so apologies if I made it come across like that), just like the best actors don't necessarily come out of the top drama schools. But they can make you feel supported and are a space to connect with like-minded people. On this last point, that I think you missed in my post, women don't necessarily feel like that is provided at university.