A Letter to Employers – September 2023

September 15, 2023

Dear Employer Partners:

We are writing to address our shared interest in the recruitment of Georgetown undergraduates for Summer 2025 financial services internships. For the past six years, financial services has been the most sought-after destination, with approximately 23% of our students entering the field upon graduation. The majority secure their positions after a junior-year summer internship. As we all know, the recruiting timelines and practices for those internships have changed considerably in recent years. In light of this, we would like to share our concerns and plans moving forward.

As an educational institution and a career services office, we prioritize equitable and consistent access to opportunities, student preparedness, and professional conduct. Our concerns regarding summer 2025 internship recruitment during fall 2023 are threefold:

● Awareness & Access. As first semester sophomores, students are exploring their majors, internships, study abroad, research and service opportunities, and are typically not honed in on and/or ready to consider (let alone, commit to) plans for the summer before their senior year. Students who are not “in the know” due to lack of family connections, student club memberships, or career center engagement are at a disadvantage.

● Education. Bulge bracket, middle market, boutique firms? What is investment banking, sales and trading, wealth management, corporate banking? What type of experience within financial services may be a good fit based on one’s skills, interests and experiences? What is ‘meaningful work’?

● Professionalism. This encompasses everything from knowing and telling their personal “story” to networking with alumni and corporate representatives, to accepting, and not reneging, on a job offer.

We believe these concerns are best mitigated by allowing us the time to build awareness through our career center’s programming and our communication channels. Where does this leave us? We ask that you participate in spring 2024 programming, which begins January 29 for summer 2025 internships. We will accept date requests for the spring semester starting on November 6.

We highly value our employer partnerships, respect your business needs, and look forward to working together.

Sincerely,

Susan Campbell
Director
Cawley Career Education Center

Jacki Banks
Associate Director of Employer Relations Cawley Career Education Center