GUSIF’s Principal Recruiting Criteria
Throughout our recruitment process, GUSIF expects all applicants to be respectful, open-minded, and considerate not only towards GUSIF members and leadership, but also towards other applicants and Georgetown community members. This is a baseline characteristic that we expect of all our members, and we will not consider applicants that fail to adhere to this.
Beyond this baseline, GUSIF looks for three main characteristics across its applicants: Passion & Commitment, Teamwork & Leadership, and Innovation & Analytical Capabilities. Below we’ll discuss each of these, as well as their relevance to the written portion of the application, excluding the resume.
Passion & Commitment
GUSIF gives every member the tools and resources required to be successful in the Fund, so it falls on the members themselves to take the most advantage of what GUSIF has to offer. With that said, we’re looking for students that demonstrate a track record of passion and commitment to their personal interests outside of academics (financial as well as non-financial), and that we expect will take the most advantage of everything GUSIF has to offer.
Relevance to the Application:
The first two questions, especially the first, are where you can most effectively showcase your passion & commitment: you should be able to convince the reader that you will be passionate and fully committed to the GUSIF experience. You don’t have to have any prior business/finance experience - a strong track record of passion & commitment for other interests along with a justification for why this passion & commitment will carry over to GUSIF works just as well!
Teamwork & Leadership
Because of the team-oriented nature of our work, we must ensure that every member we take on has the interpersonal capabilities to interact with a diverse group of people both in small and large group contexts. Additionally, every member we take should be someone we see capable of taking on a leadership position in the Fund in future semesters, for which a track record of leadership experience is greatly valued.
Relevance to the Application:
This is another area where the first two questions can showcase this quality, although this will also be somewhat informed from your resume (e.g.: how have you worked in teams before, do you have leadership experience, etc.). This is an area where a business/finance connection isn’t necessary - being the President of your Chess Club could speak very well to teamwork and leadership experience even if it has nothing to do with business/finance!
Innovation & Analytical Capabilities
GUSIF emphasizes intellectual curiosity and problem solving ability. That being said, GUSIF is looking for students who are able to ask the right questions and apply the knowledge they have acquired to new problems.
Relevance to the Application:
The last question on the application is your opportunity to showcase your innovation & analytical capabilities. Financial buzzwords are much less important than your analytical thought process here - we want to understand why you think the company is a good investment opportunity. Specifically, we want to understand what the market is missing: how do you see this company differently than your average investor? If it’s such a great opportunity, why hasn’t everyone bought stock in this company already?