It's all about who you know. Forget trying to kiss ass for minutes at a time at mixers. Talk to the guys you interned with and try to get in with them or get referrals from them. If possible, take the initiative and seek out people in positions that can help you and reach out to them. Get aggressive, get creative, get hired... hopefully.

Maybe there might even be guys here who can steer you towards people who are hiring. If nothing else, there are some guys here who can give you better advice than me. I work for the gub'ment.

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I can tell you that Cornell University Alums look out for each other and you should no problem getting a job related to hospitality and real estate. Not so sure about investment banks. Cornell is the top hospitality school in the country go with that strength.

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Loving my BMW

I've had some pretty high people tell me that your grades, degrees and past don't mean anything in comparison to the people you know. Network. I'll let you know if thats bullshit or not in May. Are you looking for an internship for the summer now or a real job for '13?

I know my Mom worked on Maiden (Madoff) Lane in Manhattan for a summer and hasn't been back in the city willingly since. The Banking climate sucks and the only people I know that are getting in at big banks are in IT right now.

Thanks guys. I have been working on using connections primarily from my father and grandfather ( i hate doing that, but honestly, i need to suck up my pride and do it)

e61, Its funny that you say that, the Alum network for the hotel school is incredible. Unfortunately, i hate the hospitality industry now. I'm interested in commercial real estate and finance--if i ended up as a hotel manager, i'd probably lose my mind and would rather jump off a cliff lol.. I suppose i could find a hospitality real estate firm such as the hotel division at JLL...

I'm looking for an internship this summer; and hopefully a job offer after next summer for when i graduate. I found a place that does personal investment management for individuals and family's with over $3MM in assets.. They currently manage about $19 billion in assets. I think that could be a cool place to work. Anybody have any opinions on working for a company such as that?

meiac, i agree with the networking idea--but it depends on where you're looking to go. Banks look at your resume, they wont even consider you if you have below a 3.5.. And i think you also need to at least have a 3.0 to get a decent job right out of college. After your first job, nobody will ask about your college GPA..

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BMWCCA

My school is a feeder for BOA - very few of the kids going there have a 3.0 but a lot have friends who have the right country club memberships in Charlotte. I had an internship with a Fortune 150 EPCM firm this summer, and it wasn't because my resume got scrutinized, its because I knew people who worked with the boss at his last job. It wasn't in my major, and it wasn't something I was particularly qualified for, but it was experience working in Corporate America, some connections who want me to keep in touch for next summer, and it was a great learning experience for what I don't want to do with my life.

Also another two cents, I have a few friends that went to work for firms like you're looking for, and a lot have been laid off. You might want to do something (possibly with Hospitality) for a few years to get some experience then head off for a masters. If you have another language, they'll like you a lot more because every program I'm looking into cares more about you having spent time overseas than other things.

Go out and meet people.

Naz, I am sure you have considered it, but how'bout using your finance major coupled with your track in the School of Hotel Admin, and consider a finance/auditor CFO wanna be start with a company in that biz: Marriott, et al?

Maybe investment 'bankers', (never understood the 'banking' connotation), are better, more fun, less shark-like, and have a conscience these days. But the several I had close biz relations with, going public in the '80s, helping find a company buyer in the late '90s, were not a fun group...their slightly veiled greed was only surpassed by their disingenuousness and outsized egos, and their utter inability to get a real job in any line of biz that actually produced real products, or really served some industry.

I may be nonobjective, but IB ain't my career wish for my kids, or grandkid.

And, agree: unless biz is really diff than a decade+ ago when I walked away, it is connections, friends, friend of a friend, and some utter luck to get the ball rolling down the road. Plus, no one I know starts off in Career 101, and 'stays there', company-wise or 'slot'-wise.

My 50cts, (leveraged and covered by CDOs/CDSs, lol!)
GL, Ol'UncleMotor

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Ol'UncleMotor
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Agree with others, its about who you know and not what you know.

Also, please read the following and check out the charts:


Jim Rogers Suggests Giving Up Finance For Farming

While there are many people who work on Wall Street for reasons that have nothing to do with money (trading gives them a thrill, they enjoy analyzing companies, they love the hours, it’s what they believe they were put on this earth to do, etc), there exists at least a handful of individuals who got into this whole thing for one reason and one reason only: the cash. To those people and more, investor Jim Rogers has some advice: become a farmer. Perhaps you’re a first, second or third year investment banking analyst whose timing (re: when you graduated college but also dating back to when you were conceived) could not have been worse, for whom the year 2006 and the associated bonuses are but a dream. Perhaps you’re a seasoned veteran making great money who’s wanted to try something new but couldn’t think of an industry that could beat your current pay. Perhaps you’re employed by a hedge fund whose performance YTD is not inspiring confidence in this year’s bonus. Perhaps you’re a banker who wants to be compensated in cash and not company stock paid out over 14 years. Doesn’t matter if you’ve never done manual labor in your life, if you don’t know the first thing about milking anything, if you’re emotionally scarred from the one time you rode a tractor. If you wanna make some real money, start working your contacts on the farm.

If you want to become rich, Jim Rogers, investment whiz, best-selling author and one of Wall Street’s towering personalities, has this advice: Become a farmer. Food prices have been high recently. Some have questioned how long that can continue. Not Rogers. He predicts that farming incomes will rise dramatically in the next few decades, faster than those in most other industries — even Wall Street…But in the past few years, thanks to a wealthier (and hungrier) emerging-market middle class and a boom in biofuels, the business of growing has once again become a growth business. At a time when the overall economy is limping along at an anemic growth rate of 1.9%, net farm income was up 27% last year and is expected to jump another 20% in 2011.

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BMWUser, interesting what you say about getting in it for the cash. Honestly i'm in for the experience for now. Thats why i'm looking at it as an intern. Its something that I can really try "risk free" without signing a full time contract. At most, I lose a summer--but get a great resume booster...

mD,

Good point about Marriott. As i've gone through the hotel school, I have looked into pursuing a career with a company such as marriott and working my way up to regional director, etc. However, I am not fond of operations of hotels, I hate the day -to-day operations such as directing housekeeping, front desk, etc.

I was employed by Marriott for 2.5 years during highschool. and although it was incredibly fun as a highschool job, i cannot see myself doing that as a career. I'd lose my mind.

My real goal is to be in Private Equity Real Estate. Thats where my passion lies right now. The barrier that i'm running into is that these places either hire MBA graduates or people who have worked in banking for 2+ years. I wish there was an easier way in. I figured that working in banking could lead me to other opportunities. Its a small risk because I may end up loving it too!

such a confusing time

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BMWCCA

Naz you're not alone. I'm at UNC and despite the good recruiting program, I think I'm going to fall thru the cracks (fall recruiting just ended). Not very confidence-inspiring when approx 80% of the 110-person accounting class gets an offer during fall recruiting. God forbid I graduate next May with a $43k student loan debt without a job- the whole point of me going to UNC was to land a job in the first place!

Like you've heard above, just network. Go to alum events, ask for connections, informational interviews. It's about putting a voice/face on the resume. I've been driving all over three states whenever I can but it's been nice to at least get to know and keep in touch with a handful of folks.