GUEST COMMENT: A guide to selecting advisable extracurricular activities for would-be investment bankers

As I browsed through last summer's intern Facebook, I couldn't help but be in awe of CV upon CV from highly talented individuals.

It seems each year the candidates just get better.

What I did find myself doing, however, was glossing over the academics, glossing over the work experience, glossing over the finance related awards and challenges, and looking for something that would tell me more about that person. After all, I've got to sit with him/her day in, day out and let's face it we only take two weeks off a year so thats a lot of time we'll be making conversation!

There was the girl who likes dance and enjoys travelling and horseriding, the guy who has a passion for martial arts and the guy who has an ant farm! Let's face it, I would not be pleased if his ants follow him to work, but he certainly stood out and made me look twice.

The moral of the story is that extra curricular activities are what helps differentiate between a mass of (academically really rather similar) candidates. .

If you want your extra-curricular activities to act in your favour, you're best off working backwards from the main competencies banks look for.

These include:

Team work

Leadership

Creativity

Innovation

Problem solving

Working well under pressure

Dealing with challenging situations

Healthy competitiveness

Therefore, you want to show that in every aspect of your life you are challenging yourself, you're creative, you're a leader, and you handle difficult situations well. It can't be all about your academics.

How can you do this? Well...

It may seem very basic but I would suggest you make a spider chart with these

competencies and put 2 or 3 examples of extracurricular activities illustrating thse down for each. This will ensure you have them on the tip of your tongue during interview and that you don't use the same example over and over again....believe me it happens.

If you want to have a good range of examples, you'll need to:

1) Participate

Sign up for a uni sports team, be involved in the various societies and offerings - not only does this improve your extra-curricular participation and give you conversation topics, but should you choose to be involved in a business related society it allows you to make contacts with your like minded peers who you may be able to share information with i.e Finance Society. Journalism Society.

2) Stand out

It helps to break away from the norm. Have you got any unusual hobbies? Do you have a passion that may strike up a conversation? It may be ant collecting, salsa dancing,

To this day one of my closest mentors is the man that interviewed me in Round 1 for my summer internship over 3 years ago. I had written on my application that i had a passion for flying and was obtaining my license and it turned out he was a flyer too! What should have been a 25min technical grilling turned into a 40min chat on flight paths and planes.

He ended up hiring me onto his desk. I sat next to him for two years before he moved on, and to this day I believe that initial common connection opened the door for me to show I had the academics and talent the bank was looking for.

The author is a junior banker who wishes to help others get into the industry