<p>“My D was interviewed for her summer job in October.”</p>
<p>This is a critical piece of information. My prior firm also begins the hiring process for both interns and permanent new hires with interviews in October and tries to be wrapped by November. Also, there is a strong preference (really more of a requirement unless the kid is really well connected) to only hire rising seniors for internships because they want to pick and chose among the interns for the permanent job offers, so next summer is your important year.</p>
<p>The vast majority do get hired via contacts, but the contact is one you can create yourself. You start with professors, neighbors, parents of friends, friends of parents, career center etc. and ask if they know anyone in the business. Then you call that person and say you got their name through x and so on. The book What Color is Your Parachute does a good job of talking about how to create such contacts. Sending in resumes cold is one of the least effective ways to get a job.</p>
<p>A friend’s son was having a similar problem last year. Different field, but same issue. In particular, like you, he had experience that made him seem over-qualified in fields unrelated to what he was seeking.</p>
<p>His resume would have been strong for those fields, but was weak or seemed off-target for the field where he was seeking work.</p>
<p>His mother helped him tweak the resume. Virtually every position a person has held can be slanted in one way or another, as to how to present it, and still be honest. </p>
<p>As soon as he started submitting the revised resume, he had, as I recall, three offers to choose among.</p>
<p>I see that you are planning to go to the Career Center for resume advice, but you may want to do some working/thinking about it now while you have the time.</p>
<p>I would imagine there are parents here who could take a look.</p>
<p>I’m not sure I’m your ideal reviewer/second opinion, as I am not in the Finance field. I do have a Stanford MBA. Sometimes it is just someone looking at it fresh to help you present yourself in a way that is carefully targeted to your objective. You can PM me if you are interested.</p>
<p>Any firm that offers an internship program, as opposed to hiring an occasional summer intern, will be organized on an annual schedule. You need to make yourself available to those companies during the interview on their schedule. Don’t show up after the fact with some story of how you weren’t able to get on the schedule. </p>
<p>There are many smaller firms whose personnel needs are not subject to a steady flow, and who don’t regularly recruit. They serendipitously cherrypick from whomever crosses their path. This can be good and bad. It takes a lot of work to present yourself repeatedly to this type of firm. Also,when you get there, you’ll have to train yourself.</p>
<p>Don’t worry about a lack of “contacts”, or being from a small town. No one really cares about that. They do care about how you present yourself, how smart you are, and how motivated you are to sacrifice your personal life.</p>