Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Students Vie for Internships

daniel smith/THE HOYA Students are in the midst of navigating the recruiting process to score competitive jobs and internships in the financial world.
DANIEL SMITH/THE HOYA
Students are in the midst of navigating the recruiting process to score competitive jobs and internships in the financial world.

It can be hard to imagine working 80-hour weeks during summer vacation while friends are traveling abroad or relaxing, but Georgetown students interested in the sometimes cutthroat world of finance and consulting welcome the opportunity to land lucrative paychecks and potentially a job offer.

To attain these coveted positions, students are going through a grueling job recruitment process lasting the better part of four months — from January to April — and consisting of a dozen or more interviews.

Financial services and consulting firms hire summer interns and entry-level employees through a recruitment process conducted on college campuses across the country early in the spring semester. Many students participate in the recruitment process as a career stepping stone.

“People place such an emphasis on recruitment because it is such a clearly outlined process,” Josh Sattel (COL ’15) said of the intern recruitment process. “While exciting and interesting careers are obviously the major draw, it’s also nice for prospective applicants to know a ton about what they’re getting into. The job-internship hunt can be scary since it is so wide open. With banking and consulting recruitment, you more or less have a pretty good idea of what you are getting into.”

Students involved participate in a long process, including networking to gain a comprehensive view of a firm, getting to know Georgetown alumni currently at the firm, attending on-campus information sessions, applications, first-round, on-campus interviews and finally, more in-depth second-round interviews.

The process can also involve missing school to travel to a company’s office, but missing a few classes can be worth the reward of landing a position.

“If you make it through these short first rounds, you will generally get a call to come up to the New York offices for a day that will include many more interviews with different people within the firm,” Sattel said. “The interviews are a great way to learn more about all of the firms or banks, as well. A ton of different places recruit on campus, but consulting firms and large banks seem to be the most prominent.”

Interns are usually paid a similar hourly wage as full-time employees, and sometimes overtime for anything over 40 hours. Google, for example, pays $5,832 per month, PricewaterhouseCoopers pays $4,162 and JPMorgan Chase pays $4,031, according to Yahoo Business Insider. Whether or not interns receive job offers depends on the specific fit of a firm with an intern.

Harry Metz (MSB ’15) will be interning for Morgan Stanley’s Investment Banking Division this summer in New York City. He views the process of landing a position as a science.

“Each company is looking for different things,” Metz said. “One’s resume and GPA [do] not secure an internship; they are large components, but the interview is as important or more important than those two things. The process can be extremely stressful at times.”

Metz advocated the use of “The Vault Guide,” a book containing sample interview questions frequently used by investment banks. But the system is not without its flaws.

“In my mind, these questions are not representative of a candidate’s intelligence or critical thinking skills,” Metz said of the interview questions used in “The Vault Guide.” “It shows how well [potential interns] can memorize an answer and present it in a manner that seems natural. I think the system can be improved, but the format is foreign to me as of now. From what I have heard, consulting interviews are case-based, which seems like a much better system.”

Those interested in finance are willing to subject themselves to the process with the hope of landing a full-time job offer after the 10-week program is over. Metz classified the program itself as a 10-week interview, with the internship serving as “the first step to getting a job.”
The process can be long and tedious, forcing students to balance schoolwork and the job search. Jill Weakland (MSB ’15) described the process as “nerve-wracking.”

“It seemed like a long process when I was going through it, doing lots of applications every few days as various deadlines pass and attending lots of company information sessions to meet the recruiters,” she said. “A lot of the process is stressful, and I was pretty happy once it ended.”

Weakland will be working as an analyst in the technology department at The Royal Bank of Scotland this summer. She attributed her success during the process to a keen knowledge of both business and technical skills.

“[Recruiters] are looking for students who are looking to learn about the company and the job and students who can add value to the company,” she said.

There are huge upsides to landing an internship, including the prospect of being offered a full-time return offer at the end of the program.

“A great internship means a great job the year after,” Weakland said. “The available internships and entry-level jobs recruited for at Georgetown are more lucrative than jobs found elsewhere, mostly because the companies are in very lucrative industries and are willing to pay for the high value added by Georgetown students.”

Not everyone enters the process entirely certain in which field they want to end up.

After going through the recruitment process, Jessica Chen (MSB ’15) landed a job at BMO Capital Markets in the investment banking division.
“I literally applied to everything, from investment banking to asset management/wealth management to consulting,” Chen said. “I even looked at some retail and marketing jobs. In the end, I had wanted to try investment banking for the summer and to sample what the infamous Wall Street Life has to offer, so I went with BMO.”

While a high GPA and a cleanly polished resume can be good predictors of who lands a coveted internship, Chen attributes most students’ success to luck and the chemistry between student and recruiter.

“As long as you have the basics down for technicals, storytelling and building off of your resume in a convincing, genuine way, and connecting with your interviewer shows that you are easygoing and good to work with, which, in industries where 80-hour work weeks are the norm and team dynamics are crucial, is a number one priority,” she said.

There are many resources available to Georgetown students to prepare for the rigorous process. Job postings and updated recruitment information appear on The Hoya Career Connection website, and the Career Center offers resume revisions, cover letter editing and career advice on different career options.

“If there is no interest whatsoever, preparation for recruiting itself — investment banking or consulting — is a very tiring ordeal in and of itself, never mind the actual internship program,” Chen said. “Be careful to not jump on the bandwagon simply because it’s the bandwagon.”

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