Finance Careers and Internships

When you study finance at NIU, you’re on a path to one of the most in-demand degrees in the nation. You'll be prepared for a variety of careers, and we'll provide you with networking and internship opportunities.

Careers

You'll be prepared for a wide range of positions in several areas:

Banking/Financial Institutions
  • Senior banking analyst
  • Mortgage analyst
  • Corporate banking officer
  • Lending officer
  • Credit policy/financial analysis
  • Internal auditor
  • Trust fund manager
  • Treasury management
Corporate Finance
  • Financial analysis area
  • Analyst - finance, planning and administration
  • Financial analyst
  • Project finance manager
  • Financial planning for subsidiaries manager
  • Corporate model analyst
Investments
  • Securities analyst
  • Direct loan analyst
  • Portfolio analyst
  • Pension fund investments manager
  • Investor relations director
  • Securities broker
  • Financial planner
  • Private wealth management

Possible employers in the Chicago area include:

Banks
  • Northern Trust
  • BMO Harris
  • PrivateBank
  • MB Financial
  • First Midwest
  • Wintrust
  • First American Bank
Insurance
  • AllState
  • Kemper
  • CNA
  • Arthur Gallagher
  • Bankers Life
  • Blue Cross Blue Shield
  • AIG
Asset Managers
  • Northern Trust
  • Nuveen
  • Guggenheim Partners
  • Legal & General Investment Management America
  • Harris Associates
  • Calamos
Trading Firms
  • Eldorado
  • Spot Trading
  • Jump Trading
  • Trading Technologies
  • DRW Trading
  • Optiver
  • Wolverine Trading
  • Transmarket
  • Peak6
Advisors
  • Marquette Associates
  • Harbor Capital
  • PPM America
  • LSV Asset Management
Regulators
  • NFA
  • Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
  • FDIC
  • FINRA
Exchanges
  • CME
  • CBOE
  • Chicago Stock Exchange
  • Options Clearing Corp
Consultants
  • AON Hewitt
  • PwC
  • Deloitte
  • Ernst & Young
  • Grant Thornton
  • Novantas
  • KPMG
  • Milliman
ETFs

Powershares / Invesco

Internships

Your internship will prepare you for career success. Our students have completed internships with many employers, including Charles Schwab, General Electric and Wells Fargo, just to name a few. You can find an internship by searching on Huskies Get Hired and attending internship fairs.

Academic Credit

To get academic credit for your internship, you must be a declared finance major in the upper-division program. You must have satisfactorily completed FINA 330, FINA 340, FINA 350, FINA 395 and ACCY 306.

Your internship must be approved for credit by our academic advisor. You must submit an application for finance internship credit and a copy of your employment confirmation letter (on company letterhead). In addition, your employer may need to submit an employer internship request form.

To receive credit, you must:

  • Enroll in FINA 458, Internship in Finance, and pay associated tuition and fees.
  • Submit a daily log of your activities every two weeks of the internship.
  • Submit a final five-to-eight-page typed paper on a topic determined with the advisor when you enroll in FINA 458.

Treasury Management Internship

Every spring and fall, a student enrolled in FINA 430 is selected for a paid internship with NIU Treasury Operations. Interns have the opportunity to attend the TMAC Windy City Summit and network with over 150 major companies. Please email fina@niu.edu for more information.

Micro-internships

You can also complete a micro-internship. These paid short-term projects take place over one to four weeks and require varying hours.

Testimonial

My firsthand experience as a student who has taken finance-related courses puts me in a unique position to empathize with the challenges and opportunities that students might encounter.
Chenfang Su ’17, MSF ’18
Academic Advisor, NIU Department of Finance
Back to top