How screwed am I?

Me too dude, no society positions; applied to every spring and I'm on track to getting rejected by all of them. At least I'm at a target (kind of?) with a 1:1 in my midterms but it feels like literally everyone has committee positions and side gigs. Honestly, I just want some EC to put on my CV that is not BrightNetwork :/

To show that you have an interest in finance, do a course called The complete investment banking course on udemy it’s currently £9.99 because of the Black Friday sales. It should give you an edge when applying for summer internships if you don’t have a spring week on your CV.

Hey, I have two ideas:
Most unis have a pro-bono consulting organisation set up, lots of them through this network called 180 Degrees Consulting although your uni might have something with a different name. Just google 'your uni name student consulting' and search a bit to find yours. You basically apply, don't have to have any prior experience, and get to work on consulting projects for charities (all virtual since Covid-19). This is a really great way to build up professional skills and develop scenarios you can use to answer competency-based questions.
Also, lots of unis have investment societies where you can make model portfolios etc which could be a good thing to look into to show interest in finance.
Other than that, volunteering is always good, maybe try to get on a society committee for a charity-related society?
Hope this helps!

Heyy, thank you sm that was super helpful:-)will try all that for sure😊(though it may be likely all these things reject me as well lol😂)......would it be realistic to expect FO summer analyst role interviews given a profile with a top 6 target uni but bad A levels(which still just abt pass filters tho) and just a couple standard ECs like a bit of volunteering and sports but little to no experience(aside from possibly a couple of online certifications/free access "internships")?.....or is that super unlikely haha?😅😂

1. Experience matters more than any course you're gonna take. Get on LinkedIn and start networking with people at any smaller shops you can find. Angle for interest in their jobs and eventually steer it towards asking for an internship.
2. At most unis there are hardly any society positions for first years anyway. You're not that badly off.
3. If you don't get a summer next year, it's not the end of the world, just follow point 1 again.
4. Get a job during uni if you've never had one before. People like to see that you've actually worked for something in your life.

Thanks, that's rlly helpful!!!Do u maybe have any advice on how to approach people when trying to get some sort of experience? Would it for example, be enough to cold email many places with a motivational statement+ CV, or is it really only worth it if you try build up contact on LinkedIn beforehand with people from the small firms(cuz I am kind of unsure about how to start convos and ask strangers for experience like that lol😅)

1. Experience matters more than any course you're gonna take. Get on LinkedIn and start networking with people at any smaller shops you can find. Angle for interest in their jobs and eventually steer it towards asking for an internship.
2. At most unis there are hardly any society positions for first years anyway. You're not that badly off.
3. If you don't get a summer next year, it's not the end of the world, just follow point 1 again.
4. Get a job during uni if you've never had one before. People like to see that you've actually worked for something in your life.

I am at the opposite of OP. Semi-target uni, can't find motivated peers at uni and feeling very bad about the experience there. Got a few related society positions, too much workload because I am in multiple societies, no actual work experience (not even part time jobs) but I doubt whether it is needed if it's just some random jobs that has nothing to do with the role you are applying for.
The problem I am facing now is that I don't know any technicals. My degree is STEM and I feel lost when I try to understand finance stuff. Being in investment clubs helps a bit but sometimes I still have no idea. I don't know where I can find structured info that I can learn from.

I am at the opposite of OP. Semi-target uni, can't find motivated peers at uni and feeling very bad about the experience there. Got a few related society positions, too much workload because I am in multiple societies, no actual work experience (not even part time jobs) but I doubt whether it is needed if it's just some random jobs that has nothing to do with the role you are applying for.
The problem I am facing now is that I don't know any technicals. My degree is STEM and I feel lost when I try to understand finance stuff. Being in investment clubs helps a bit but sometimes I still have no idea. I don't know where I can find structured info that I can learn from.

Okkk....no need to rub it in like that lol....🙄btw if you knew this was what you wanted to do and are soo motivated+good, why did u go to a semi target even?(not that being at a semi target is even such a disadvantage imo but still)

Also, how did u get positions at finance clubs+societies without knowing much abt finance??....that was kinda my problem cuz some of those ppl at the societies just look at you all weird when interviewing for positions if we go in there without knowing much or if you dont have relevant pre uni experience in the subject lol, even if they are just Freshers positions.....(except for some ofc which just look at our CVs/motivational questions and then insta reject without even talking to us😅)

But yeah if anyone has good suggestions regarding good quality resources to start learning technicals, that would be great!!!!

Soo basically, I'm in my first year at a target uni and didnt manage to get any uni society positions(ok, I'm not exactly a Finance pro rn, but I still got rejd from every single finance related society position I applied for, whether related to actual technicals or stuff like an events officer).....also feel like I'm not gonna get any Spring Weeks at this point(though I have applied to 10 so far and will apply to around 7 more) and dont rlly have prior experience in Finance/any insight days either. So basically, the only activity I'm doing at uni rn is a competitive sport(which I also used to play at a pretty high level when I was younger).

Does anyone maybe have any suggestions about what I can do to at least stand someee shot for getting summer internship interviews next year? Like any activities which could show special interest for IBD positions I could do on my own?......also, considering my A level equivalents were a complete disaster w this Corona system(was previously achieving around the equivalent of A*AA at school but very unexpectedly only ended up w the ABB equivalent), I was wondering whether it is even worth giving it a shot for FO penultimate internships next year at this point or whether it would be wiser to explore other options such as adding an industrial placement/a masters?

Plus, I know that not studying and neglecting uni work is like the worst, most counter productive thing I could be doing rn😅, but I literally cannot get myself to study properly at all atm partly cuz I'm so freaked abt not getting any good internships ever....

Any suggestions abt any things I could do at all to make this any better or strengthen my profile for internships next year would be great!!!Thxx:-)

Pardon me, but what is a spring week?

@rebellionium I am also at a semi-target. It's really not that deep if you put the work in. Everything I said to @pinkleopard558 applies to you. It is my personal opinion that you should have worked somewhere before, regardless of whether it is relevant or not. But I'm not HR, I have no idea what that amounts to. My advice is to cut some society positions if you can. There is diminishing returns on society positions and you should just do the ones you enjoy/are the most relevant/give you the best experience or responsibility. Technicals is literally irrelevant if you're a first year (although tbh I'm thinking you're a second year), at best they're going to ask you what a DCF is and what the S&P 500/FTSE 100 is. That's not very hard to learn regardless of what degree background you come from. In addition, technicals largely depend on what you're going for. ER technicals are different to banking technicals which are different to S&T technicals. But regardless, having spoken to numerous decision-makers, technicals is the most forgiven part of any interview. They just care if they can work with you. Technicals can be taught.

I don't like this "I am STEM so I am disadvantaged" mindset that some people have. Most finance prospects actually come from economics degrees (like me) and despite what some people might think, economics has very little to do with financial technicals. We have to learn them too. What you really need to have is commercial awareness anyway and that comes from reading (and understanding the news). Listen to the FT News Briefing, read the FT, google anything you don't get.

I can see you're overwhelmed but you just need to take a breather and take a holistic view of what you need to do. Work through it logically.

The best resource you have is Google. Nothing you cannot find on there and I subscribe to the belief that anyone who fails at using this resource doesn't know how to use google, hasn't tried or doesn't know how to research.

I get that we dont rlly need to know technicals for Springs, but if we do go for messaging on LinkedIn to find summer opportunities, would it not look stupid/fake if we know nothing and say we are passionate abt someones work?

Thx for all your help btw!!!