FT Recruiting Advice
To provide some context into my situation, I am a third-year student, and incredibly passionate about Investment Banking.
For financial reasons I attend a nontarget school, where I am majoring in Mathematical Economics and Finance. I have a 3.8 GPA, and last month I scored a 750 on my first GMAT (no practice baseline).
I have worked an internship in fiscal policy research and an internship at a startup PE fund ($250mm AUM), and have two upcoming roles, one with another small PE fund ($3B AUM) and one as a Summer Analyst at a little-known MM IB. At the MM bank I’ll spend 4 weeks training, and six working rotational between M&A, IPO, and Consulting teams.
I want to work at a BB/EB bank more than anything I’ve ever wanted, and I’m willing to do whatever it takes to land a FT offer.
Is there anything that will make my application stand out and/or prepare me for recruitment?
Also, how should I go about networking for FT roles?
Hey mate. There’s a few threads on this but you seem genuine so my comments are the market is tough rn but networking is absolutely meh for FT recruiting so network network network. Reach out to everyone and everyone and keep contacts warm. For interviews, know your technicals and be able to talk about your summer deal experience. But most importantly remember it’s still just a job. Your language is a bit of a red flag. It’s great to have goals but don’t put your self worth on your job. Get your foot in the door and you can always lateral down the line but remember that there should be more important things in your life than an office job
Hi,
Thank you for the response, and for your genuine honesty!
That's completely fair, and I understand that the process is going to be especially competitive given my background and the current market, exacerbated by the practical certainty of a recession and deal-flow dry-up.
Is there any advice you could offer for networking? Who should I reach out to? How should I reach out to them?
Regardless of my odds, I intend to give this all I can, and at the end of the day, whatever happens, happens, but I would genuinely appreciate any and all advice.
That said, the only bank my school has alumni at is JPM, and I am fortunate enough to have a chat via Zoom lined up with an Executive Director tomorrow, is there any advice you could offer to help me make sure this goes well?
She seems like a truly kind person, and I would like to develop a strong understanding of her background and a positive relationship.
Hey again,
I hope you've been well!
It's been a while since I made this post and received your feedback, and I found myself back on WSO looking for advice and remembered this chat. I figured it would be polite to update you on how your advice contributed to my success.
When I first posted here, I was under the unfathomably naive assumption that being qualified was all that mattered. Your advice kicked off a process that brought me to my current understanding, which is that there will always be fewer roles in banking than qualified applicants, and connections are all that really differentiates one qualified applicant from another.
Following the summer analyst role, I landed a couple more internships during the school year, founded a quantitative management firm (not because I was qualified to do so, but because I wanted to challenge myself and expand my practical understanding of statistics, derivatives, etc., my philosophy being that classrooms and structured work can only take one so far), and managed to leverage my experiences to land an investment analyst role with my university endowment fund.
From there, I used the endowment fund's network to make connections and land as many coffee chats as possible (my median for the Spring semester was three per day). Eventually, I ended up chatting with a VP at an EB, who liked me and informed me that they were running a closed recruitment process. He put me in touch with an Associate and their Head of Investment Banking, I interviewed twice, attended a Superday, and received a full-time offer.
With thanks, and truly wishing you all the best,
A soon to be Analyst I
Is it appropriate to network for FT before my summer internship? Or is that frowned upon?
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