Posted in: Experienced, Qualifications & High Education 27 February 2010 13 answers
Anonymous

Question: Investment Banking Career: How should a Uni student use the free time in summer?

I am a MSc Management student at Warwick Business School…I know the best way to utilize the summer is to work as an intern and gain valuable workex…I am applying to the internship opportunities but lets say if I don’t get one what should I do to utilize the time properly…I have applied to LSE summer school and got an admit also but I think the course is very theoretical and doesn’t give any practical hands-on learning experience…

I request the readers to advice me on what training should I invest my time and money on during the summer term….

Thanks…

Answers (13)

  1. Summer schools are a waste of time and money to draw rich foreign kids and put them in a nursery and have phd and unqualified students to teach them a few tricks.

  2. Unpaid work experience, networking with companies, studying like doing CFA, IMC, FSA exams, learning Excel, VBA, C++, maybe look at wallstreetprep.com, learning a language, reading books about finance, e.g. Random Walk Down Wall Street, Black Swan, When Markets Collide etc. get at me if you need some unpaid experience.

  3. @ michaellab

    I am in similar situation to the author. I am currently on a gap year have been accepted onto the MSc Finance programme at Warwick which I shall start in Sept 2010. I am also looking for any intern / unpaid work positions and was wondering if you had any positions available atm? I studying for the IMC & CFA level I atm, but will be free until september.

    Mr.Profit

  4. Like whocares said, LSE summer school is very expensive…I would love to learn the financial risk management course, but its the cost that is putting me off…well, I am preparing for IMC and hopefully will take the exams by oct’10…CFA at this stage will be too much to handle considering the fact that I do have a dissertation to write!!:)

    Thanks for your posts, I am hoping to receive more responses from the readers on this forum.

    @Michaellab: I wish to find out more about the opportunity you had mentioned, but how can I get in touch with you?
    @Mr.Profit: Congrats on the admit. Where/Which IMC training are you taking,if I may ask?

  5. @ nblueblaze

    I just bought both books online and am self-studying. The content is pretty simple, I covered most of it at undergrad level. If ur still studying at warwick, the finance dept might be able to subsidise you as i think they offer scholarships for the CFA level I as well.

    Mr.Profit

  6. well, i am also doing the same…bought the books from amazon…most of the subject matter has been covered in the corporate finance n fiinancial analysis lectures at warwick..imc is quite simple actually..
    ………………………………………
    Requesting inputs regaring my original query from readers on this forum…thanks.

  8. To relax, get a tan, do some travelling etc. Not too sure I’d have been willing to engage in unpaid work experience during the summer when I was at University (2 yrs ago). CFA / IMC / SII will certainly go down a treat however, and can be studied on the beach……

  9. @metcalf1704 & @GetRealEnjoyLife : thanks buddies!:)

  10. If you get an internship, then great, if you don’t have a great summer, don’t waste your youth by doing a stupid course.

    Travel, go to the beach, shag as much as you can, live a little. Maybe do a language course in a really exotic location, but with real people not the kind of one dimensional banker types you are going to spend the rest of your live with.

  11. For summer school students, LSE = lets see europe.

    fact

  12. Get drunk and lay in. Thats what students do.

  13. @Youth & @ahsj : I get what you mean…thanks a lot…cheers!:)