As a business student, gaining any resume builder possible is one of my foremost goals. Day in and day out, I look for opportunities in the form of virtual workshops, internships, externships, summits, you name it. The big caveat is that many of these opportunities are limited to sophomores and juniors, so as a freshman with extreme anxiety about job security, I often find myself out of luck. Enter the Goldman Sachs Possibilities Summit. A program dedicated to first-year students that gives extensive insight of Goldman Sachs as well as providing professional development opportunities in the form of networking and resume building. Of course, I leapt at the opportunity to apply for this experience as very few programs like it exist. About a month after applying, I received word that I was accepted into the program and rejoiced! Three months later, I am still involved in the Summit and can confidently say I have some notes to share.
More about the SUMmit
To provide more context, the Possibilities Summit is a virtual program offered by Goldman Sachs, which is a top player in the Financial Services industry. The program itself lasts for the entire 2025 calendar year, January through December. The Summit is split up into nine groups, each group based on multiple marginalized identities. Each year, this program is open to undergraduate freshmen, making it unique compared to many professional undergraduate opportunities. This year, that means they were recruiting from graduates of December 2027 and June 2028 (me!). Primary goals of this summit include exploring the opportunities at the firm, boosting students’ personal networks and images, and being fully prepared for upcoming recruiting through interview prep and resume reviews. As a student in the summit, my responsibility is to complete a series of tasks each month and attend one virtual webinar session per month. These tasks include videos, readings, and creating reflection posts based on what I have learned. I am now on month three of the summit so here is my review thus far.
Pro #1: Convenience of being online
The dawn of online programming has been a lifesaver for me in college. It gives me flexibility in completing my tasks on an asynchronous schedule. Furthermore, it opens up the program to students across the United States. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy an in-person event very much. I love dressing up and having genuine face to face contact. However, given other circumstances, virtual programming has been super beneficial for me in the long run. Goldman Sachs HQ is located in NYC, which would be good (as a native New Yorker) if I were not living in Storrs. I love New York, but transportation for this would be quite difficult. Now, I can complete the Summit from the comfort of my dorm room.
pro #2: Different Summit groups
The splitting up of different summits made it easier for me to connect to the program. I am participating in the Hispanic/Latinx Summit for this year, and it’s been extremely interesting to see. One of our assignments included writing a bio and adding our LinkedIn profiles so we can connect with fellow participants. It was incredible to see people from so many different impressive places that also share my background. I was even fortunate enough to connect with a member of ALPFA from New Jersey, and now we have plans to meet up at our Regional Student Symposium in late March! Making these relatively smaller groups from a very large cohort makes it much easier to connect thoroughly with the program.
CON #1: Time management issues
One thing that’s for sure about being a college student is that you will be very busy. Juggling classes, exams, clubs, health, and relationships is one of the most difficult things to adjust to, especially in your first year. That being said, as this is a program exclusively for first year students, it can be extremely difficult to find time throughout the week to sit down and watch hour-long videos complete with reflections and articles. On top of that, the virtual live webinars that occur once per month are scheduled at a time where many students still have classes or are starting to attend their extracurricular meetings. Considering all of these factors, I would conclude that it’s not hard to get done as a whole, but it can be hard to prioritize it and fully take advantage of it as a resource.
Con #2: Imposter syndrome kicking in
My biggest negative feeling associated with participating in the summit is the inevitable and fearful feeling of imposter syndrome. It can be so easy to pick up in any situation and hard to ignore. As I applied for this program, I researched how they boast a low acceptance rate, so getting in felt so rewarding and reflective of my hard work. However, once we began to introduce ourselves in the program, I couldn’t help but notice how many students were coming from target schools like Ivies, UC schools, and other programs that are extremely difficult to get into. While UConn is a great school and a rewarding experience thus far, it sounds different from saying you go to Cornell or UCLA. Furthermore, I felt compelled to look at the LinkedIn profiles of these target school students only to be wowed but also scared that I haven’t done enough. I felt out of place and scared that I didn’t deserve to be there. Fortunately over time, this feeling has decreased, but it’s certainly hard to ignore. In other ways, it inspires me to work harder so I can feel more accomplished and worthy to be there.
Overall thoughts and feelings
I’m still quite far from being done with this year-long program, but so far, the experience has been rewarding and worthwhile. I would say it’s extremely hard to get through anything without a few cons, but the presence of those cons has helped me grow and see things in a different perspective. Identifying what may be wrong and how I can cope with those things is potentially just as rewarding as the pros themselves.
I would definitely recommend applying to this program to any incoming freshman next year. There are some other companies such as Morgan Stanley and CVS that offer similar programs to explore, but I firmly believe that this is the most in-depth and specific one you will find.