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Breaking into a career in your field of interest is rarely straightforward. It often involves mastering technical skills, staying on top of industry trends, and networking with professionals to stand out in a competitive job market. For professionals early in their career, the challenges don’t stop there—securing internships or entry-level positions at top firms often means navigating rigorous interviews, building an impressive resume, and demonstrating both analytical expertise and strategic thinking. In a market where small details can make or break your candidacy, understanding what sets you apart is essential. That’s where Open Avenues steps in: to break down barriers and provide expert guidance tailored to your journey.
In this edition, we’re thrilled to bring you insights from Maria Rocha, a Financial Analyst Build Fellow at Open Avenues Foundation. Maria collaborates with students on projects that tackle real-world challenges in Financial Analysis and Corporate Development, equipping them with the tools needed to thrive in a demanding industry.
Outside of her role at Open Avenues, Maria serves as a Financial Analyst at i5growth, where she works on supporting tech companies with corporate finance and corporate development services. She has honed her expertise in areas such as financial analysis, enterprise valuation, market research, and mergers and acquisitions (M&A). Maria also holds both a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in Business Administration, adding academic rigor to her practical knowledge.
Whether you’re an aspiring financial analyst or looking to break into the finance industry, Maria’s invaluable advice will offer actionable tips and industry insights to help you stand out. Read on to learn how to position yourself for success in the fast-paced world of finance.
A: When it comes to resumes, what tends to stand out is how certain skills have been acquired by the student. Oftentimes, resumes are not well written, a student might just mention a course they did in college as opposed to how the course will help them in this job. This is exactly what recruiters need to see: what and how skills will help candidates thrive in the jobs they are applying to. More importantly, showcasing your skills is sometimes more important than speaking about unrelated or irrelevant past experiences. When the company I work for is hiring, it is not necessarily looking for experience at big companies or big universities, especially in early-career professionals.
My advice to students and any early-career professional is to check the job description of the job posting, check the words they use and try to incorporate them in your resume. It’s important to tailor your resume to incorporate key words.When analysing tons of resumes, recruiters are usually looking for key words, especially in the description of the courses and internships they had. Additionally, make sure your resume is easy to read and skills are easy to find. There are so many templates you can find online. Resumes should not be cramped or difficult to follow.
Lastly, in terms of cover letters, I’m seeing less of them as the evolution of AI has made it hard to assess them. Having said that, if you write a cover letter, the cover letter is a great opportunity for you to showcase your soft skills, write about what you are expecting out of that job and what you are expecting from your future. My advice to students is to write how the job helps them achieve their goals. This really helps the recruiter see if there is alignment between your goals and the company and if you understand the job description well.
A: In my opinion, soft skills are very important. It might sound very obvious but they make a big difference. After Covid, there is a lot of remote work and in this context, being able to communicate and collaborate both in meetings and asynchronously is invaluable. For me, developing good, efficient and assertive communication skills is key. It’s not just about speaking or verbal skills: communicating and collaborating with a team, knowing how to update your team or manager, and even communicating when you need help to do something are extremely valuable skills to have in the workplace.
During Covid, a lot of students had to start taking classes remotely and I feel that this new wave of graduates may have missed on learning key communication skills. That makes it even more important for them to show how they have acquired these skills outside of college through internships, projects (like Build Projects), part-time jobs and maybe even outside of professional settings. For example, team sports is such a great way to learn communication skills as it is the foundation of the sport.
Having said this, I acknowledge it can be a hard skill for an intern or entry-level analyst to tell a recruiter about in their resume. However, they might have experience communicating ideas, opinions, information or asks in an internship, in group work in college and even with professors. All these experiences count and students need to make sure they clearly communicate this on their resume but also in an interview.
A: One thing that helped me in my career is that I put a lot of effort in finding a job where I care about what I’m doing. When you care about what you’re doing, you don’t want to let your client, team or employer down. The company you work for is able to tell when you deeply care and enjoy what you’re doing. For me personally, caring about your work will take you further than hard skills - those are easily learned but passion or enthusiasm isn’t.
In recruitment processes, this is essential. I have learnt that when people work jobs they like, everyone can feel it and even the outcome is much better. As a student early-in-career, I recommend you try to find different internships or projects to explore what you like. Maybe you envisioned a career in a certain position, but when you get an internship there you don’t enjoy it; maybe you get a role you’ve never imagined to have and suddenly you love it. Keep trying out things until you find a job or industry you deeply care about. That’s the secret for me.
Maria’s advice is a great reminder to keep exploring what you like, what you’re good at and, most importantly, what you care about. This will influence the work you do and how you face challenges. Also, she made an important point on working on your communication, collaboration and other key soft skills while expanding your hard skills throughout your college experience. However, she focused a lot on putting effort into the story you share about yourself, your skills and how you can add value to a team. Start applying these insights today and take control of your career journey! Stay tuned for more expert advice in future editions of our Coffee Chat Series.
Danila Blanco Travnicek is the Director of Program Strategy & Evaluation at The Build Fellowship where she leads the education programming and its initiatives. She is a social entrepreneur who has been working tirelessly for over 10 years in the nonprofit sector to ensure more people have access to quality education. Danila holds a B.A in Business Management and a master's degree in Teaching and Nonprofit Management. She is a Professor at the University of Buenos Aires, an international speaker and facilitator and has managed and led programs with social impact in Latin America, U.S., Europe and Asia. She also received scholarships to study abroad in Finland, China and the United States.
Tanashya is the program coordinator for Open Avenues Foundation. Tanashya supports Open Avenues' marketing efforts and works on program strategy and evaluation. Tanashya holds a master's in marketing has previously worked multiple marketing strategy and content marketing roles in diverse fields including corporate wellness, financial services marketing, and fintech marketing.
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