Resources and groups to help you
- SEO is a company that helps students from diverse backgrounds get into top universities and then into the most competitive careers. Sign up and then you get an email from them once a week. They host their own spring weeks, talks with industry professionals, Step into Banking and Consulting programmes, masterclasses with firms, and they'll even refer you to sponsor firms. They've helped me so much and I'd 100% recommend.
- Rare is another company that offers a similar thing but is a little more selective, so you need to fill in an application to get accepted. They help with breaking into banking, consulting and law. They offer more bespoke help, with one-to-one CV reviews and interview prep calls.
- upReach is another one to look into, but upReach has even stricter eligibility requirements.
- PrepLounge: use this to find consulting case interview partners. A BCG consultant once told me all of her friends that used PrepLounge received MBB (McKinsey, BCG, Bain) offers, while the rest did not.
- Wall Street Oasis: stalk the forums to learn about what people think about different firms, and get career advice.
- 400 questions guide: learn this back to front to pass all of your investment banking interviews.
- Askivy: great advice for understanding, and interview prep for, investment banking, private equity, venture capital and hedge funds.
This is by no means anywhere near exhaustive. There are so many organisations available to help you; you just have to look. Sometimes it's not about the opportunity itself, but someone you meet during these opportunities that you connect with, and who changes your life.
Opportunities you can take
Probably common sense, but here are some of the opportunities you can take:
- Join societies. Don't join something for the sake of boosting your CV. It's better to join fewer things and have a tangible impact within them through taking on responsibility. From here, you are better positioned to add bullet points to your CV, discuss your experience in an interview, develop useful skills, and enjoy yourself. If there isn't anything you are interested in, start your own. You will learn so much from the process, and I promise it'll be worth your time. Otherwise, look out for opportunities outside of university. Collaborate with students from other universities, get involved with a local non-student organisation, or work with a company.
- Internships and work experience. Hopefully, through reading these guides, you'll understand the importance of this one, and how to secure some. If you can't find anything that you're interested in, send cold emails to companies you'd like to work for. Through this approach, you'll probably get a lot of rejections, but you only need one company to say yes.
- Jobs. If you're working at a supermarket or somewhere part-time during university, then this develops your skills and indicates hard work and commitment.
- Entrepreneurship. Start your own project and make some money. Challenging but very worthwhile.
- Attend company webinars and insight days. A lot of firms offer insights into their industry in the form of a webinar or a selective event that spans a couple of days. Again, try and explore as many industries as you can, as you don't know what will pique your interest. Work on your application, as some of these can be surprisingly selective. Sign up for updates on company websites, and from organisations like SEO and Bright Network, to keep up to date on these.
- LinkedIn. Use it for networking.
- Morning Brew. Reading the news doesn't have to be a chore. This newsletter is actually addictive.
- Spring weeks. Finally, if you're interested in banking at all, you should look into spring week programmes. These are 1-week insight programmes that take place in April of your first or second year at university and give you an insight into a company. Read what a spring week is and how to secure one.
Societies, part-time jobs and projects all count for more when they're written well, and the CV review checks how yours read.