It was Jimmy Buffett who told us it is always five o’clock somewhere. It is also always recruiting season somewhere.

And that means the big finance companies are on the road running information sessions. You’ve seen them before:

You walk in to see a room with chairs lined up facing a screen. There will be a PowerPoint presentation, oh yes, there will be PowerPoint. The company presenting sends a few “representative” employees who just happen to be recent grads themselves. Old people can’t recruit and relate to college students. For our purposes, we’ll call them Sarah and Steve today. They won’t be making hiring decisions, but you don’t know this.

After you make an awkward entrance and introduction, you try to find a seat that’s not too conspicuous but not too far away. Time to sit down and take in the PowerPoint presentation.

Afterward, you get the opportunity to mingle and ask questions. Invariably there are a few obnoxious students who get right in the face of Steve and Sarah and ask annoying questions all in the name of trying to impress.

Oh yeah, and there are about a dozen people circled around Steve and another dozen around Sarah lobbing questions at them from all sides.

At this point you are thinking to yourself, “Why the heck did I even bother coming to this thing?”

You went because information sessions can be an important tool in your networking arsenal, if you play your cards right.

So let’s talk about how to become a master in the art and science of the information session. Doing so is guaranteed to improve your chances of landing that dream job in finance. In this article, we’ll cover:

• How to develop the correct mindset before you attend
• How to make the proper entrance and introduction
• How to stand out from the ground and be noticed
• How to turn a finance information session into an interview

It’s five o’clock, so let’s turn you into an finance information session rock star …

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