A Letter to the Wall Street Hopefuls

Meighan Grady is a Darien resident and a current freshman at Holy Cross in Worcester, MA.  She wrote this piece about obtaining a Wall Street internship:

I was fortunate to spend a day at a global investment bank over fall break, learning about many different aspects of Equities trading and Capital Markets. After a full day on many desks, I could not help but hope that a job in finance was in my future. The major question: how do I get there? The obvious answer: get an internship.

If you thought the college application process was grueling, you are in for a real treat. To obtain the elusive Wall Street Summer Analyst position, we must set out with the margins adjusted perfectly on our resumes, a minimum 3.2 GPA, leadership positions, a spot on a varsity team and a course load that is somewhat relevant to the internship. If you are not coming from Yale, Harvard, Stanford, or Penn, we also have to rely on alumni within the bank to pull strings for us. My father has always told me that with college, it's not about where you go – it's about who goes there now and who went there before you. This means that we have to network our butts off, casting the largest net possible within our alumni base to succeed. With over 2,000 college juniors applying for about 60 internships at a typical bank, we would have a 3% chance of acceptance. Great odds, right? On top of all of this pressure, we must also be charismatic, knowledgeable, inquisitive, and diverse in some way. If you can handle this, you can handle anything.

So what can we do as college freshmen? Because, let's face it, if you are reading this as a junior, your ship has unfortunately sailed. To start, find your career services office. The counselors may be skeptical when you come in as a freshman but stand tall and explain to them that you are in it for the long haul. They will help make sure your resume has the perfect format and that your cover letter is addressed to the right firm. Just a tip – don't talk about how the firm is going to help you, talk about how you're going to help them – they'll eat it up. Oh and God forbid you have any spelling errors... With that said, the most important thing you can bring with you to an interview is your GPA. Anything below a 3.2, and at some places a 3.5, forget about it, you won't even get a look. So, if you didn't secure an internship for this summer, focus on your grades first and foremost, they will get you very far. The second most important thing you can do is obtaining leadership positions on campus. It's like the college application process except this time it is your choice what club you join, not your mom's. Find something you are passionate about and dedicate yourself to it 110%. Although you won't be securing leadership positionsas a first year, you will be positioning yourself to move up the rankings in years to come. Finally, work during the summer. If you can afford to participate in an unpaid internship, definitely seize that opportunity. If not, try to become head lifeguard or start your own pool cleaning business – anything that shows these recruiters you can handle yourself in a work setting.

As a liberal arts student, I am already put at a disadvantage. At Holy Cross, we aren't business majors and we haven't taken classes tailored to navigating the stock market. We must use our liberal arts educations to our advantage by being the critical thinkers, eloquent writers and flexible learners into which our colleges have molded us. This is a PSA to all the students who don't have someone showing them the ropes and telling them the importance of starting early. Even though you might feel like the 100 emails you receive a day from your school don't pertain to you yet, anything that says, "networking" or "pre-business" needs to be opened and put on your calendar. The job market has become too similar to the Hunger Games, do whatever you need to survive, as long as you come out on top. Some kids are going to school to learn, but we all know we are here to get a job. Best of luck and may the odds be ever in your favor (unless they're in mine then, well, too bad).

K
Submitted by Katonah, NY

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