The Harsh Reality of the Job Market for Intern

I want to talk about something that people do not tell you when you start looking for a finance internship. The process is really tough. I know this because I went through it. I sent out more than 200 applications and over 500 emails to people who graduated from my university. I also had a lot of conversations on LinkedIn. Met with the people at the USD Career Center many times. Even with all that effort I only got asked to interview a few times. The numbers are pretty sad.

What makes it even harder is that you do not hear back from most of the places you apply to. You spend a lot of time making sure your application is just right. Then you never get a response. This means you do not know what you are doing wrong or if you are even doing anything. Not knowing what is going on is really frustrating. It can be even worse than if someone just told you that you did not get the job.

The way you apply for finance internships is also a problem. There are a lot of websites where you can look for jobs, like LinkedIn and Indeed.There is not one place where you can apply for all the finance internships. This is a problem because you have to put in the information over and over again. You have to keep typing in your GPA, your experience and your skills. This is all stuff that's already on your resume. Some people have studied this. They found out that when the application process is long and annoying good candidates get discouraged and give up. Even though we know this, things have not changed much. This is a problem for students who are already busy with school and trying to learn new skills.

Finance is a hard field to get into. There are a lot of people competing for the jobs. Sometimes you are competing with people who have already had internships or who know a lot of people in the field or who have even gone to graduate school. This makes it really tough. If you are a student from another country it can be even harder. Some companies in the United States do not want to hire students even if they do not need to sponsor their visa. This is not fair because some international students are allowed to work in the United States without any help from their employer.

If you keep trying you can succeed. I know this because it happened to me. After a time of applying and not hearing back I finally got an internship. I got it by reaching out to people who graduated from my university. I am now working as a Wealth Management Analyst at GIA Life in Mexico. My experience of being from another country actually helped me get this job. I learned that it is not enough to apply for jobs online. You have to make connections with people and reach out to them directly. If you do this you will find a job that's right for you.