I am a Gen Zer who landed a 6-figure job at Morgan Stanley earlier than commencement. Here is what the method was like — and why you need to refresh a surprisingly vital a part of your résumé.

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Gen Zer in a cap and gown — Sara Thomas, 22, (not pictured) graduated from College of Chicago and landed a funding banking position at Morgan Stanley.Iuliia Burmistrova/Getty Photographs

Sara Thomas, a College of Chicago pupil, secured a job at Morgan Stanley earlier than commencement.
She mentioned networking, campus finance golf equipment, and an typically neglected resumé part helped her land the position.
Gen Z continues to be drawn to Wall Road careers, regardless of the lengthy hours and excessive calls for.

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This as-told-to essay is predicated on a dialog with Sara Thomas, 22, a 2025 graduate from the College of Chicago and incoming funding banking analyst at Morgan Stanley. Enterprise Insider’s latest “Path to Wall Road” collection highlighted how finance careers proceed to draw younger expertise, regardless of the business’s lengthy hours and demanding entry-level roles. Entry-level bankers sometimes earn about $110,000 a yr, not together with bonuses. This interview has been edited for size and readability.

I had barely selected banking as a profession alternative once I needed to begin getting ready for interviews.

My expertise was much like most tales I’ve heard about the banking world: the recruiting course of begins early.

Earlier than submitting my internship functions, I spoke to about 5 folks at every main financial institution — largely latest UChicago grads and folks the college’s profession development program linked me with — so they’d acknowledge my identify once they noticed my résumé. Chilly LinkedIn messaging did not work very properly for me. These introductions are sometimes essential to get an interview.

At most banks, I interviewed for a number of rounds, together with calls centered on my persona and technical expertise and a two-hour “tremendous day.” The entire course of lasted about two weeks. Then, by the spring of my sophomore yr, I used to be executed. I landed an internship at Morgan Stanley, and I knew my full-time job could be set so long as I bought a return supply. My prior internships had been at Bain Capital and the Chicago-based agency Ariel Investments.

The one different profession trajectory I thought of in school was academia. I studied economics and regarded getting concerned with economics analysis, however I noticed it wasn’t for me. I simply work higher in a faster-paced finance surroundings. In my free time in school, I attempted to concentrate on golf equipment and internships that may hold me near startups and entrepreneurship, so I joined a enterprise capital fund on campus. I used to be additionally concerned in a campus group for ladies and minorities fascinated by finance and investing. These alternatives actually helped me construct my business chops.

Sara Thomas, 22, is an incoming funding banking analyst and Morgan Stanley.Courtesy of Sara Thomas

I’d inform any school pupil hoping to land a Wall Road or Silicon Valley job: be decisive. Even when funding banking or consulting is not your lifelong ardour, plan to decide to a profession path sooner reasonably than later, so that you could give your self probably the most period of time to organize, community, and do very well within the interviews. And, for the appliance course of, college students have to be cautious with what they placed on their résumé — recruiters pay a number of consideration to the “expertise and pursuits” part on the backside. Do not say that you are a mountain climber in case you have by no means climbed a mountain, as a result of folks will ask you about your hobbies, and also you want to have the ability to genuinely discuss them. In fact, your credentials matter, however I’ve discovered that recruiters are most fascinated by assembly well-rounded folks.