Interested in a role within the finance & technology industries?
Many companies within these industry niches start their recruiting process early. To help students navigate this process, the USC Career Center’s Peer Career Navigators will be hosting workshops and coffee chats throughout the semester to share everything students need to know for a successful recruiting cycle.
Here are five concrete actions you can take this week that were covered in their first workshop: Breaking Into Finance & Tech (workshop recording available on YouTube!).
1. Map out recruiting timelines for your target industries!
Timelines vary by industry, and many are starting earlier and earlier every year. Here is a brief overview of when many of the companies in finance and tech niches start their recruiting process:
- MBB (McKinsey, Bain, BCG): Summer internship applications typically open December through January and target students in their sophomore year. Full-time roles open around June/July.
- Investment banking: This is the earliest-moving category. Evercore’s Summer 2028 applications opened in September this year — the earliest the firm has ever released them (historically it’s been January). Applications are due November 10th, and submitting early gives no advantage since all applications are reviewed at the same time. Interviews across banks are expected to run November through March.
- Big 4 (EY, Deloitte, PwC, KPMG): Many roles are open right now on a rolling basis. EY caps applicants at two applications per six-month cycle, so it’s worth talking to someone who’s worked there about which roles you’re most competitive for before applying. KPMG’s advisory recruiting opens September 22.
- Software engineering: Recruiting spans the whole fall semester, largely through career fairs and Handshake.
Build a simple tracker (a spreadsheet or Google Form works) with company names, expected open dates, and application deadlines, and check it weekly.
2. Identify which specific sub-function you’re actually interested in
Broad categories like “consulting” or “finance” cover very different jobs, and being vague limits what you can get out of your networking conversations:
- In consulting, risk/financial consulting (serving many clients) is different from strategy, M&A, or modeling work, which often sits under a separate advisory arm — each with its own interview process.
- In investment banking, firms split into bulge bracket (Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Citi, Barclays), middle market (e.g., Raymond James), and elite boutique (e.g., Lazard, Moelis, Evercore) — each with different deal sizes, culture, and workload.
- In private equity, technical modeling roles aren’t the only entry point — firms like Carlyle and Ares also hire for investor relations, business development, and ETF sales, which lean on relationship skills over modeling.
- Equity and credit research function as a counterpart to investment banking — IB raises capital for companies, while researchers analyze and write about those raises. USC students can read live reports through CapIQ.
Do this now: Before your next application or coffee chat, write one sentence naming the exact sub-function you’re interested in (e.g., “risk consulting” vs. “strategy consulting,” or “financial modeling” vs. “ETF sales”). Use that sentence to guide your questions.
3. Audit and fix your resume
Here are high-impact edits you can make to your resume:
- Add a number to every bullet where possible. A bullet without a metric is a missed opportunity to show impact.
- Use direct, active verbs. Replace passive phrasing like “assisted with” with “built,” “created,” “managed,” or “presented”.
- Match verb tense to timing. Present tense for current roles, past tense once a role ends. Refresh your resume every couple of months or right after finishing something.
- Never include anything you can’t speak to in detail. Interviewers almost always start with your resume, and hesitating or getting a detail wrong undercuts your credibility.
AI tools are fair game for tightening language (check out Quinncia). Never fabricate experience.
Do this now: Go through your current resume line by line and check each bullet against these points. Rewrite anything that fails more than one.
4. Look beyond traditional “tech companies” for tech and fintech roles
You don’t need a CS degree or a job at Google to build tech experience:
- Fintech companies like Stripe, Block, Plaid, and Robinhood (all cited as having open roles at the time of the session) hire on varying calendars for both technical and non-technical positions, including product management.
- Non-tech companies hire tech talent too. Disney hires software engineers; NBCUniversal hires for cybersecurity. These roles offer the same experience without requiring a “traditional” tech employer.
- Big 4 firms hire for data analytics. Transaction Analytics and Strategy roles were open at multiple firms at the time of the session.
- Government and remote roles are a solid entry point if you’re early in your career. California state agencies were cited as hiring for both tech and finance roles remotely.
Do this now: When searching job boards, filter by function (software engineer, data analyst, cybersecurity) across all industries instead of searching only within “tech companies.”
5. Start a structured networking outreach process
- Find the right contact. Use LinkedIn to find alumni or club connections. Tools like SalesQL (free) or CareerShift (available to USC Students) can surface a work email from a LinkedIn profile.
- Match the channel to the industry. Investment banking generally expects email; MBB and Big 4 are comfortable with a LinkedIn message.
- Keep the ask small and specific. Request a 15–20 minute call, and mention something concrete you have in common (same school, same club, same background).
- Respond fast. Reply to scheduling emails within an hour or two, send a calendar invite promptly, and attach your resume to it.
- Follow up after the call with a thank-you note referencing something specific discussed. Only if the conversation went genuinely well, ask if they’d be willing to connect you with another analyst or colleague.
- Track every contact — name, company, how you know them, and notes from the call — so you can follow up naturally months later (e.g., when applications open) instead of starting cold.
Do this now: Identify three people to reach out to, draft a short and specific message for each, and send them before the end of the week.
Recruiting for finance & tech was described as a numbers game. Apply early and broadly, even to roles where you’re unsure you’re the most competitive candidate. Pair that volume with consistent, personalized networking and a resume that’s accurate, metric-driven, and current, and you’re doing the highest-leverage version of the process.
