I attended a career fair hosted by the university, and stopped by the Northwestern Mutual booth to inquire about available internships within the finance field. I talked to the first recruiter, who didn't seem to know much about the actual positions and just talked about the company, so I made my way over to the other recruiter (who turned out to be the actual person in charge of recruitment at the office). We didn't speak for long, but I think I made a good impression, and within a week, I was called in to schedule an interview.
Before any of the interviews took place, I did some research online and found many negative thoughts about this internship. Many people said that it was a scam, and as I went through the interviews, I could definitely see what others meant by this. As an intern, you are given a mentor, who is a financial advisor within their company. Upon completion of training and meetings, you are to build your own client base via family/friends, and set up appointments with them. Then your mentor comes in and speaks to them about their needs, the company's products, etc. Initially, you are asked to only observe, but then take over when you gain more experience. You are given a certain percentage of the sales, as well as $100/week stipend pay.
There are 3 rounds of interviews. All of them are one on one. The first one is the deciding factor of whether or not you'll get the second and third interview, as they are done together (they're back to back and regardless of how you do on the second one, you'll go into the third round).
The first interview is with the head recruiter. It was all extremely personality based, and in addition to telling me about the company and position, they really try to sell it to you as they have been ranked as having one of the top ten internships in the US. I left with a pretty good impression of the company, and the next day was called to schedule my second and third interview with the director of recruitment, and the internship program director. What I learned is that the first and second rounds used the same interview template with the same exact questions: Tell me about yourself. Why have you chosen finance as your major? What do you think is your greatest accomplishment? Do you have siblings? What do you think of sales? How do you feel if asked to sell to friends/family? Where do you see yourself in 5-10 years? The first two interviews were around 30 minutes. The third round was about 15 minutes, as she assured me interviewees who make it to the third round are adequate candidates. She just went over the program with me and asked if I had any questions.
Within a week, I received a call to discuss my future as a financial services intern.
