Nasir attended the Bright Network Festival last year, where he was able to meet representatives from Goldman Sachs to discuss the company and how he might go about becoming a part of it. After hearing about a role opening in a Bright Network email, Nasir has recently secured an industrial placement as a financial analyst with Goldman Sachs. We had a chat with him to find out what he thought of the application process.
Why did you choose a financial analyst placement with Goldman Sachs?
I’ve always been a big fan of Goldman Sachs. I really like their culture and their reputation - it is one of the biggest banks in the world. I went straight to their representatives at the Bright Network Festival as I knew they were the ones I wanted to meet with. From there, I started networking with the right people.
What was the toughest part of the application process? And your favourite part?:
Toughest: the video interviews – they weren’t too hard, but were new for me and a challenge. I made sure I researched before doing it and it helped a lot.
Favourite: The cover letter - you have all the chance in the world to express yourself and your passion in few words and I really enjoy that. I made sure to include the names of the people I had met at the Festival in my cover letter which I think helped. The cover letter is the first stage and if you don't do it right you get scraped off - and I like that. The thing that is going to make the difference are the two important documents - the CV and cover letter.
Were you surprised by anything in the process?:
The last stage of the interview was more competency and personal experience based rather than what I know about banking, insurance etc. They wanted to see confidence and a passion to learn more. That surprised me because I was expecting more technical based - but it was not the case.
What three top tips would you give your fellow Bright Network members?:
1. Explore different sources - articles, journals, blogs, talk to people, careers fairs – all will give you new ideas and help you decide what to do.
2. Try to include any volunteering and extracurricular activities on your CV, as this comes in useful for the competency questions .
3. Be very aware of what’s happening around the world - key policies, news, politics.
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Big thanks to Nasir for chatting to us. If you need help on writing your CV, why not try using the Bright Network CV Template?
