Twenty rising juniors and seniors traveled to Charlotte on April 23 to visit Wells Fargo Bank and Bank of America for an exclusive banking/finance industry trip sponsored by Elon Career Services and the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business.
Selected participants attended sessions with executives, associates and recruiters to gain career insights and advice.
At Wells Fargo, human resources staff shared details on the recruiting process for summer and full-time analyst roles and outlined their key expectations for resumes and interviews.They encouraged students to visit their corporate websites to study recruiting time lines and processes.
Panelists also advised students to visit their websites frequently throughout the year, as jobs or internships may post invariably with narrow windows of opportunity to apply.
Students were also urged to aggressively build relationships through networking. In fact, Wells Fargo indicated that 40 percent of new analyst hires in the past year resulted from internal referrals that ensured interviews for candidates.
Throughout the day, students were exposed to a variety of roles at the banks including sales, trading, investment banking, operations, and digital marketing. They also learned about critical factors for career success such as maintaining a positive attitude and high work ethic, and how to leverage career opportunities amidst market turmoil.
A highlight of the visit to Bank of America was the opportunity to meet three Elon alumni and learn how they landed their jobs through networking. Students said it was encouraging to see the success of Elon alumni and their willingness to help other Elon students on their own career paths.
They said they also learned that the finance industry is often less concerned with specific academic backgrounds than with how an individual expresses interest, demonstrates leadership, acts professionally, thinks critically, solves problems and brings unique value to an organization.
Participating students said they plan to stay in touch with the alumni and other contacts they made during the visit, and many plan to apply for internships or jobs with the banks during their recruiting season next fall and winter.