20 February 2023
What opportunities are there for first-year uni students in Finance?
Opportunities in finance for first-year university students in the UK are usually spring/insight weeks or days, with some summer internships and scholarships you can also apply to. Not sure which ones you’re eligible for? Employers specify the expected graduation date for each programme. If you are a first-year student in 2023 with an expected graduation date in 2025, you will be eligible for 2023 insight days, and any other opportunity that specifies a 2025 graduation date. Unfortunately, you will not find part-time job roles in finance, but if you’re looking to improve your CV, a part-time role in another industry (e.g customer service) is a great way to improve and demonstrate transferable skills all employers look for.
What do these opportunities involve?
They will usually consist of various events including talks on company culture, skill-building sessions and work shadowing current graduates or interns. This is a valuable opportunity for you to gain experience in finance, learn more about what each job entails, network with professionals and peers, and grow your transferable skills. Whilst most of these opportunities are only a few days you can still gain a lot from the experience and be fast-tracked in their summer internship application process for the following year.
How can you find opportunities?
Log into your Topgrad app and select the insights category to find and track open opportunities. You can also use google searches, your university and private careers websites to find springs to apply to. Most opportunities will open in Summer/Autumn but you may find a few openings from January onwards, apply early to avoid being burned by rolling deadlines!
How to apply?
Most applications involve a CV, motivational questions, psychometric tests and a video interview (Hirevue).
Our tips:
Ensure your CV is in a Banking and Finance style format, one page only! Look at the company’s culture/values pages to help understand what each company is looking for in their motivational questions and situational judgment tests. Reach out to your careers service for help with psychometric tests and try some practice ones online (Job Test Prep is an excellent resource for this and many universities will pay for it). Video interviews typically give you 2-3 minutes to record your response to set questions, this can be intimidating at first. Make sure to prepare some examples showing where you have demonstrated transferable skills like teamwork and time management to prepare.
For more hints and tips for each of these stages check out our Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/topgradapp/
And good luck!
