Jay Ummadi
Junior at Iowa State University
Investment Banking Summer Analyst, Stifel
Jay is a great example of how the FMC® Program gives individuals the tools to impress. As a current junior at Iowa State University, Jay has secured an internship as an Investment Banking Summer Analyst with Stifel in New York City.
Originally from India, Jay moved to the United States with his family at a young age. His family bounced around before settling in Iowa, where he has spent the majority of his life. With his close ties to family, Jay decided to stay close and attend ISU. From taking his first step on campus, he has made the most of his time — and decisions. With little doubt in his mind about what he wanted to do professionally, Jay began preparing himself and his resume for Wall Street.
While ISU places a few students each year in these highly competitive internships within the finance world, it is not a core recruiting university for most Wall Street firms. During his freshman year, Jay began networking with fellow students, professors, and mentors in order to best position himself for an internship later in his college career.
FMC Program
At the start of his sophomore year, Jay was introduced to the Adventis FMC Program through several on-campus student organizations. He quickly decided to dive in and further advance his budding financial skillset through the certification course. This decision ultimately helped Jay gain admittance into The Wall Street Club, a selective student organization that helps students prepare for and win internships in investment banking and other competitive fields.
“I was able to talk about Adventis and the FMC program and show my interest in investment banking. So that really helped out a lot.”
Preparation Process
With his growing experience and toolset, Jay was offered a co-op internship with a wealth management company during his second semester of sophomore year. While this internship didn’t require any strong technical skills, it did offer an opportunity to hone his Excel skills learned through the FMC Program.
“The FMC® Program still really helped me out. Every day I would be on Excel, navigating through pages, and a lot of the commands that I learned through the program, (control + page-up, control + page-down, alt + tab), learning these different commands really helped me move through these Excel shortcuts and really set me apart. Formatting was a huge thing. Attention to detail, things like that really set you apart from the other interns.”
Following his sophomore internship, Jay began the process of recruitment for a junior summer internship. He developed strong connections through the Wall Street Club and used the FMC Program to help mold his story and work on behavioral questions such as, “Tell me a time that you had to work hard.” Even with his first interview coming at the end of his sophomore year, Jay continued to master his story and interview prep, eventually landing his internship at the beginning of junior year.
Advice to Underclassmen
Through all of this skillset building and resume improvement, Jay has remained focused on his story — knowing this is the element that separates the good applicants from the great applicants. Companies are looking for smart, innovative, self-starters, but they are also wanting to work with individuals who are not cut from the same cloth. They want to hire applicants who possess unique experiences, backgrounds, and narratives.
“Recruiting happens so early these days. My strategy was to mainly focus on having a good story. The story is the most important thing, not just in networking, but also in interviews. That’s the first question they ask you. So I was able to incorporate the FMC program into my story. Why I really enjoyed it. Why it made me want to do investment banking… Just having that good story allowed me to hop on the phone with a lot of bankers that I just emailed and reached out to, hoping I would get as many responses as possible. Whenever I’d get a response I’d make the most of it by telling them my story… The more people you talk to, the more interviews you win.”
So if you’re an underclassman interested in the world of finance, and looking to land a career-launching internship, Jay wants to encourage you to make the most of your time — and use it effectively.
“The biggest thing if you are a freshman or sophomore is to know that time is on your side — in this scenario. So you want to make the most of that because you can’t really start too early networking, you can’t start too early by taking the FMC program. The sooner you take it, the better story you’ll have… and the easier it will be to land interviews in the future.”
Adventis Financial Model Certification
Adventis is an industry leader in helping college-level students gain the real-world experience they need before starting their business or financial careers. Through skill-based certification courses on financial modeling, we are helping reduce the learning curve and getting students on the right track to making an impact in their internship or job from day one.
Our Adventis FMC program helps students learn to accurately build-out and conceptualize financial modeling after taking the FMC course. With our expert-level training, you will be certified and armed with the skills needed to launch your finance career.
