Recap part 1

Okay, so I only have 2 posts left so I thought I’d recap:

Starting from the beginning, college:
Try for Ivy League schools or business concentrated schools
If you can’t get into those, major in business related majors
If you’re past the point of college, find a Grad School and major in finance or accounting.

At College, picking classes:
4 General Rules…again…
1.) Pick Classes that are finance-related, be it indirectly or directly. Wow, I know, how obvious, but I feel the need to point out that your senior year basket-weaving class you took for a 4.0 might, just might, not be helping. I’m not saying don’t take classes that you want to because you find them interesting, I’m saying try your best to shy away from them. If your favorite hobby is photography, take a class on that but if you just want to take squid fishing for the hell of it, take another class that will better prepare you for work.
2.) Pick classes that focus more specifically on your specified fields of study. If you know you love everything about bonds; you eat, sleep, and want to marry a fixed income security, maybe minimize your classes to do with equity stock valuation and focus more on fixed income securities valuation and strategies.
3.) I hate to say it but, aim to have some sort of background in accounting. I know I’ve said this before but, really, it’s so very useful.
4.) Be able to write effectively because your boss will love you.
5.) Amended Addition – Join/Start Finance related clubs

Job Fairs:
1. Bring lots of copies of your resume
2. If its 2 pages, collate.
a. 1 page rule is a partial myth: at our age (college age), came from the fact that most college students do not have enough relevant work experience or education to fill 2 pages.
3. Avoid the black suit; you end up being more easily forgotten.
4. Don’t necessarily get there early when everyone else is; those people have to be there until a certain time and they might be bored by the end. Not to mention being there at the end means you’re the last person they saw, might be more likely to remember you.

Get a summer job/internship during school:
1. Give your resume to career services
2. Go to job fairs and throw your resume to anyone who can catch
3. Apply directly to job’s online through a company’s website
4. Apply to Jobs at Experience.com…and other websites…but Experience first!

I’d also like to reiterate 2 points:
1. Minor or have some background in accounting. As I’ve said multiple times before, I HATE accounting. Can’t stand it. Not anything against people who do, I just can’t stand doing it. But I realize the fact that it is really important to understand because it is the common language of all business and understanding that language will help out to no end.
2. Be able to communicate effectively. When you can write a memo to your boss summarizing an entire industry in 1 page using bullets where he can read it in 2 minutes and full understand every point without reading it over at all…then you can effectively communicate. Get there and your boss will love you.