Kayla Larson '27 (Business Management) Financial Advising Intern

Kayla Larson '27 (Business Management) was a Financial Advising Intern at Renaissance Financial in Phoenix, AZ

What was the process for getting this internship, job, or summer experience?

I found the position last summer on Handshake and decided to apply. With my PFFP major, an internship is required to graduate, so I was nervously trying to find something in a short period of time. Honestly, I didn’t have much faith that I was going to find something so quickly.

I was reached out to very shortly after submitting my application and was asked to do a Zoom interview. The minute I started talking to the recruiter and hearing the things he had to say about the company, I was set. He asked me questions about what I looked for in a job rather than the standard behavioral interview questions, which I really appreciated. I was honestly stunned that the majority of the interview was spent getting to know each other and learning about the company rather than testing my ability to do well at the job.

After that conversation, I was asked to come in a few weeks later for an in-person interview. For that interview, I had to pitch a hypothetical marketing event that I could put on to gain clients when I become an advisor. I thought this was such a creative way to showcase my personality while also demonstrating my professionalism and presentation skills.

By the end of the second interview, I left the office feeling great. I had connected really well with not only the recruiter, but also the managers who watched my presentation, and it still felt like this company was too good to be true. The next day, I got a call from the recruiter offering me the position.

It was so exciting to get the offer so quickly after finishing the interview process, and the weight of finding an internship was immediately lifted off my shoulders. Not only did I get the position within three weeks of submitting my first application, but I already loved the company and I hadn’t even started yet. It made me genuinely look forward to the summer, even though I still had a whole year to wait!

Tell us about your internship.

For the internship, we were given case studies to work on. The point of these was to take information from a “client” and come up with recommendations as if we were the advisor. The cases ranged in difficulty, from ones that didn’t require too many recommendations to ones where we had a completely different array of recommendations than our peers.

We worked in teams throughout the summer, so I had one other intern that I worked with, along with a team of four mentors who had different levels of expertise. It was awesome having so many different perspectives and areas of knowledge that we could utilize throughout the summer.

The cases forced us to learn so many things so quickly in order to have a comprehensive understanding of the recommendations we were giving. We would present our recommendations to our mentors, who would ask us thought-provoking questions that you had to be prepared to answer. You couldn’t just sit in a meeting with a client and say, “I don’t know,” so it really pushed us to understand the reasoning behind every recommendation we made.

The presentations were definitely nerve-wracking because you never knew if you had prepared enough, but they got a little easier as the summer progressed. I became more comfortable using the different software, and I was able to use the knowledge I gained from each case to help me with the next one.

I loved working on these cases because they gave me a glimpse into what working with real clients would be like. It showed me that once you have a strong understanding of the material, everything starts to come much quicker and feel more natural.

I would also say that the company culture and the other interns I worked with made the internship even more rewarding. All ten of us interns became so close by the end of the summer, and it was nice having people to spend time with outside of work as well.

How did Eller prepare you for this internship and any advice for other students?

I would say that Eller prepared me very well for this experience. Especially with BCOM, presenting all the time prepared me for speaking in front of people who might be intimidating or know more than you. You learn to be comfortable speaking in front of people even if you aren’t completely confident in the material you are presenting, and I think that improves your confidence a lot when it comes to presentations. I learned a lot of “fake it till you make it,” and that was something that really helped build my confidence in both my Eller presentations and my internship presentations.

For advice, I would say to be yourself and don’t be nervous about it. The presentations may seem scary at first, but they are actually a lot of fun when you are showcasing your knowledge about something you worked so hard on. I also think the company culture and the people you work with make it such a fun experience. Having such a supportive group around me definitely kept me going when things got challenging.

Overall, I think this is one of the best internships out there when you take into consideration the projects, the culture, the people, and everything in between. It was an amazing summer at Renaissance, and I couldn’t recommend the experience enough.