Ask Borno about undergrad business internships

[Borno]

I'm a 4th year undergrad student at the Richard Ivey School of Business in Canada and I've done a marketing internship for Canadian Tire a top Canadian retailer and now I'm working at Deloitte Inc. (consulting) as a Business Analyst.

[fightingcoward]

Is it possible to get good internships with just an average (3.0 on 4.0 scale) GPA?

I'm going into my 4th year as an undergrad.. is it a good idea to get an internship for the summer after graduation?

[Borno]

A bit more context would help.

Grades are often your foot in the door but if you can swing an interview grades generally go out the window.

If you're looking to do post-grad work then certainly do a summer internship, but unless you can't find a full time job immediately it doesn't make much sense to get an internship after you graduate.

If you get an internship you don't have a secured offer full time and future employers might wonder why you only wanter a 4 month position when you were ripe to start full time.

But. Full time recruiting is usually in September - November and summer intern recruiting is in December - March so it depends on your time lines too.

If its about having experience, FT probably looks better than intern because the connotation of greater responsibility for FT.

[eviljeff]

Have you heard of that internship where you actually run a house-painting company? You do all the hiring and oversee everything, etc. This maybe only in the States or only in CA, but it sounded pretty amazing.

[vin17]

I'm going to be starting my 2nd year of a B.Comm program. I will likely be specializing in accounting (3rd year). My goal is to get my Master's from U of T or Laurier.

General advice appreciated.

[emon87]

What did most of your fellow class of BAs at Deloitte do for internships? Did they get consulting internships or were they all over the board?

[hlacheen]

Major?

[Borno]

I applied specifically to consulting. I have friends that applied to ERS, Audit, or Taxc also. They don't randomly place you, its what you apply to.

[Borno]

Student Works painting is supposed to be an awesome way to make money, but they can really screw you around when it comes to 'liability'. i.e. they set limitations on you for not being able to paint insides of houses, which you make way more money for. And if you do this and break anytnhing they don't cover you.

They also take pretty high vigs for just their brand name. You do all the hiring, payroll etc.

Great experience -I ran my own interlock stone driveway sealing company for a summer and I highly recommend it or something similar.

[Borno]

OK. Being more specific would be good, but in general start thinking about which big 4 accounting firms interest you. Its always going to come down to the people. Look at each firm's UFE pass rate, I know PWCs is very high.

For a MA you got lots of time if your planning on doing a CA first. If not, then I don't know why you would want to spec. in accounting - once your an accountant it can be tough to shake the label for the first little while I've heard.