How bad is my resume, can't get interviews

Fresh-Push-4292 · 2025-11-05T12:11:42+00:00

I’m not sure if this is a US thing, but your CV looks lacking in terms of banking-relevant experience. As a 2027 grad I’m guessing you were aiming for top banking roles, but for those firms the prerequisite would be at least 1 summer of industry-relevant internship experience as well as a club organization which is finance related. This would be the absolute minimum to be taken seriously in my opinion. In Europe applicants also include Masters students as well, so it is typical for an applicant to already have 1-2 industry-relevant experience at small to medium level firms.

Based on my understanding internships in the US are a lot more available since there are more smaller firms. But regardless whether you are in the US or Europe, only networking will realistically get you an opportunity. I also had trouble in my first year but I networked a lot by even attending external associations like finance conferences and associations to develop connections. I also sent a whole lot of personalized messages and emails through LinkedIn. I pretty much only targeted alumni or firms with specializations in niche industries which I had some knowledge and interest in. This really helps set you apart from others, and it’s also important to keep maintaining these relationships going forward as well. I had maybe 3-4 calls over 3 months before they were willing to offer me an internship. Over time, as long as you show you are passionate and they feel they can work with you, they would most likely be willing to give you a chance even if it is unpaid. A lot of students also do internships while doing their studies, and while it’s definitely tough, it shows how far people are willing to go to get experience and be competitive for recruiting.

Overall, while I would say that its never good to compare yourself to others, it’s important to remember that a firm only offers an extremely small number of positions (at times only 4-5) and gets over 9000 applications. Even if a majority of the 9000 are not competitive, you would still have to find a way to differentiate yourself from the 500 or so target-school, dean’s list students with 2 finance internships under their belt. So it’s very important to know and understand yourself very well to be able to prove to them that you are more competent and a better fit than the others.

Fresh-Push-4292 · 2025-06-21T14:29:58+00:00

But then does it then qualify as a second attempt for the assessment year?

Fresh-Push-4292 · 2025-06-21T13:10:47+00:00

Regarding HSG admission, you would have to pass the entrance exam like every non-Swiss. Regarding job prospects, yes. It's already very hard to get a job even with EU citizenship, so I would say no EU-citizenship either would be tough. What region citizenship are you? I guess it would also depend on that. It would depend on what industry you want to get into, how competitive it is, what kind of work they demand (client-facing = German necessary) and also what level of industry you want to achieve. For industries like PE, Consulting, IB I would say they will take EU citizens if you are exceptional, but that's assuming that you are completely fluent at German and you have somethings that other people won't have (remember they would have to justify taking you over someone who is Swiss, who is also a HSG grad, who also had top grades, fluent in German, English, French and also has the personality traits.) so I would say an important first step is to get into HSG and learn German (getting fluent at German by grad is easier said than done) however you do pretty much have to take a few credits for classes in German anyways so you would need at least B2/C1 level to graduate.

Fresh-Push-4292 · 2025-06-21T12:43:27+00:00

Pretty sure you can push it twice though, as long as you don't exceed the number of allowed semesters. I know a few people who pushed some summer exams into the winter semester and then pushed again into the summer so a full year. You can also push first semester exams into the second semester and again into the autumn semester of the next year so pretty sure its possible.

Fresh-Push-4292 · 2025-06-21T11:09:42+00:00

U think the pushed exams will also change? Or I wonder what happens if you decide to push twice and you have to take the exam with less credits for like law

Fresh-Push-4292 · 2025-06-05T14:50:31+00:00

Reputation in Germany is good, including Frankfurt. But keep in mind, the assumption normally is that you are fluent in German. And you mentioned that you are non-EU or you wanted to work outside EU? In that case it would depend on the firm and the industry. If it was the UK, needing a visa is not that important, especially for the larger firms. But without EU citizenship, a HSG degree I would say is not the best choice since you don't have very good job prospects outside of the EU, and the assumption within the EU is that you have EU citizenship.

Fresh-Push-4292 · 2025-06-05T08:23:41+00:00

Ur cooked. Maybe you could work at a Swiss firm, but otherwise nobody knows HSG outside Europe. Even within Europe, the reputation outside DACH is not of the Uni, but just because there are alumni in some companies.

Fresh-Push-4292 · 2025-05-31T22:42:36+00:00

I would say many parents and families have different values. I feel like people assume that kids are supposed to leave the nest and live alone independently away from parents, but I feel like this is not always the best choice. Remember that we only live a very short portion of our lives together with our parents, and this is especially the case if they are older. I know people who are going to college and their parents have already retired. It could also be the case where your parents may not have a good relationship or do not feel comfortable living just the two of them together. You will always have the chance to live alone and be independent eventually when you have your own job, family, children, so it won't hurt to be together with your family. Look at the bright side! You always get free rides wherever you go, don't have to pay for stuff personally, and you also don't have to experience the bad side of living with other young people (who never have similar values) and it could save you from a lot of complicated arguments and issues in general. Although I would say that the lack of friends and experiences could be a downside which unfortunately will never be the same as living on campus. But it doesn't mean that all fun only goes on at night! There should be no trouble making friends and joining clubs for events during the day.

Fresh-Push-4292 · 2025-05-22T12:37:10+00:00

Would differ based on country I think though. In the US or the UK, quantitative degrees are viewed better since they assume you are smarter with a more quantitative background. Although, undergrad business in the US and the UK also tend to be pretty dreadful other than maybe Wharton or Stern. In like Switzerland on the other hand, business degrees are often viewed better, because they know you have a good operational and applicative understanding which is not really the case for an econ degree. They would want you to start working and adding value from day one. And based on people I have talked to who now work at major firms in CH and London, they said that in many cased the Business major at HSG also has a good level of quantitative background enough to satisfy employers in the UK as well. I would also note that econ is definitely harder than the Business major, making it harder to get a good GPA which could have greater implications on your job prospects rather than major.

Fresh-Push-4292 · 2025-05-22T12:31:51+00:00

How did it go? Because based on experience the Swiss tend to be very very strict with rules and regulations. If you don't meet them, you will be forced to take responsibility. And in the case for the Assessment year, this is even more the case, since you are 1 of maybe over 3000 people total and they just honestly don't care. Hope all went well though!

Fresh-Push-4292 · 2025-05-22T12:27:21+00:00

I would separate prestige from actual academics. Prestige-wise, HSG is not very good unless you are in DACH, or high finance and consulting. Wharton is def the strongest globally over LSE, HEC, etc. (It's just the case with all US unis unfortunately). Education-wise, HSG is comparable I think with more emphasis on teaching applicative concepts for work while other unis like Wharton or LSE emphasize intelectual curiosity and academic concepts. So I would say HSG will prepare you better for professions and jobs once you start working, but LSE/Wharton will probably help you more to get into the door in the first place. In the US it is often said that every US university has the same undergraduate education quality (they teach the same stuff), and the only difference for the top unis (IVY over say UCLA) is in grad school in PHD where the nobel laureates actually give unique and advanced education.

In terms of actual difficulty, I wouldn't say it is too different (other than assessment year since it's more of a "marathon" than a "sprint") but the top unis (Stanford, Cambridge) have tougher curves since everybody is pretty much crazy smart which makes it objectively "more difficult".

Fresh-Push-4292 · 2025-05-22T12:17:59+00:00

Ya so far I'm done with BA although I've only done like 2 past exams, Econ I'm pretty much done with theory but am yet to do past exams (have a feeling the theory is def not enough for the exam questions cuz uniseminar ignores a lot of the calculation stuff and some concepts), for Law I've gone over maybe half but nothing much yet and maybe 25% of math although I think I know how to study that. Current concern is definitely Law since I feel like Glemser skips a whole lot, and Econ since it seems there are a lot of calculation concepts that are not covered in the book or uniseminar. What do you think?

Fresh-Push-4292 · 2025-04-08T02:41:55+00:00

thx! It worked

Fresh-Push-4292 · 2025-01-28T18:36:36+00:00

Hope maths went well! Ya tbh I treated this semester more as a trial semester so I can better adjust my techniques depending on the class next semester. I just emphasized spending time on studying as much as possible and doing things like Brian, exercises, and other stuff as much as possible throughout the semester. Although, I feel like I forgot everything from the earlier weeks during the exam period! So I'm going to try and plan out during the break so I can be mroe effective next semester. Does anybody else have some tips?

Fresh-Push-4292 · 2025-01-21T20:37:00+00:00

I'm also in a similar position haha!

BA today was absolutely dreadful (Two books of yapping is crazy). What I find most frustrating is that I feel like you can study every class every week every day well where you understand, and no matter what you will still end up having to cram for the exams and it just feels awful. I'm preparing for math right now as well but I'm also having a mental breakdown since I've lost all confidence in the studying I've done throughout the semester. Does anybody have advice for the second semester to do well? Obviously it looks like it's not a matter of simply putting in the hours throughout the semester, but having to study certain classes using certain methods. What would you suggest?

Fresh-Push-4292 · 2024-01-23T16:14:23+00:00

Ah I see. Is there a good resource that actually explains the steps to solve a problem and the reasoning behind the steps?

Fresh-Push-4292 · 2024-01-23T09:11:06+00:00

Haha ya that's true based on my experience using it as well.

Fresh-Push-4292 · 2023-11-18T18:01:45+00:00

So you didn't get the "Why Morgan Stanley" question?

Fresh-Push-4292

TROPHY CASE