A BIG thank you to WSO from a non-target!

I felt that it was necessary to write this post now, as an important step in my life has transpired recently. Coming from as much of a non-target background as possible, I have managed to get the coveted SA offer from a BB, and I could not have done it without WSO.

To put what I said in perspective, I'd like to point out that I'm an international student, and that I'm coming from a country that few people I go to college with would be able to point to on a world map. I grew up in severe poverty, and have been supporting my parents with three jobs (one full-time and part-time) since I was in my mid-teens, all the while going to high school. At one of those jobs I was lucky enough to meet a colleague who told me that it was possible to study in the U.S. for undergrad (however strange it may sound, where I'm from this is not obvious to people, especially kids in high school). I applied to several schools, got a full scholarship from one, and ended up going there not only for its good academics, but also as an opportunity to help my family even more.

As it is a small private school, the only finance group on campus attracted people interested in many areas of finance. I was again lucky, as the then-leader of the group was a senior with an offer from an MM IB. I enjoyed what he was teaching us (what to read on WSO, basics of DCF, comps, etc.), but what I really took to heart was his stressing the importance of networking and internships for non-targets. So, I spent most of my free time studying, working three campus jobs, and reaching out to people (I really don't want to use the term 'networking', it always felt too artificial to me).

It is through this large effort in reaching out, and getting in touch with a friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend that I managed to land a regional semi-BB IBD interview in my freshman year. At that point I had already put in a lot of time reading WSO and learning the basics, and had already done a couple of (bad) DCF models on my own, so I had something to leverage. While the interviewers were impressed that I understood the concepts as a freshman, they nonetheless told me that these internships were meant for juniors and that I shouldn't get my hopes up. But, I got lucky again, and I got contacted about a month later with an offer for an internship.

My second internship was quite similar -- reached out to many, many people, leveraged my knowledge and previous experience, and got an M&A internship for my sophomore summer, this time in NYC. While I wasn't working full IBD hours (averaged about 65-70), I tried to use ALL of my free time to meet people in New York. (Note: 90% of my contacts came through cold-messaging people on LinkedIn)

This year, I continued reaching out to people, and finally calling up people that I had met/spoken to over the last 2 years. I have probably spoken to at least about 200 people. As many users on here have said, it is vital that you don't treat the relationships as Niccolò Machiavelli -- people are more than peons, and it is infinitely more valuable when you make genuine contacts with people than when you call people solely for the purpose of "networking". I have learned something, however banal, from everyone that I have spoken to. In the end, even though I am a non-target student, I managed to land first-round interviews at almost every BB and a couple of independent advisory firms. Eventually I got invited to a special final round (not an accelerated one), and I managed to get an SA offer from the BB. I have yet to prove myself and get the even-more-coveted FT offer, but all in good time.

Without WSO I would have not been able to be where I am, as I have gotten a lot of information just reading and absorbing posts, and have met many extremely kind and helpful people (a big thank you goes out to @Kidflash). To reiterate: I did NOTHING on my own, and have gotten A LOT of help from a bunch of people along the way.
With that said, I would love to help out others in any way that I can, so please feel free to ask any questions, and I'll do my best to answer them.

Thanks again monkeys, keep working, and don't give up!

 
Best Response

Fantastic post, +1. Congratulations!

I admire your humility. But for all the thanks that you're giving to luck and other people, give equal credit to yourself also. You stuck your neck out to talk to people while working your ass off - that alone sets you apart from 90% of the hopefuls here on WSO.

I'm interested in hearing about your experience during the interviews. Not the technical stuff, but what was the response of the interviewers to your story? Also, 200 people, eh? How do you plan to stay in touch with even half of them? Especially as you said that you don't think of it as "networking"...

Move along, nothing to see here.
 

First of all, thank you all for the support -- it is very much appreciated! I'll try to address the questions/comments below.

@CAinPE

First, it was a bit difficult to transfer this into my story, as it seemed to me that there was a fine line between explaining the situation and seeming like I want to solicit an emotional response. As a consequence, I've tried to tone the story and other answers down a bit to just the essentials. To give an example: I've gotten the question about handling menial work in investment banking multiple times. What I wanted to reply was that, after doing actual SHIT work cleaning a septic tank in one of my jobs when I was a teenager, banking menial work would not really be that bad. Of course, this would not have been appropriate :)

Second, while I have spoken to a lot of people, some have been more polite, some less polite. I will definitely try to stay in touch with the people that I really consider close. And besides -- relationships are a two-way street, so it's not all on me :)

@Conyak

I used to have more success before LinkedIn limited/reduced their character count in invites. I would try to be brief, polite, and to the point: Who are you, how do you know the person, and what is it that you want? (I would usually ask for brief informational interviews, 10min or so) If you can get LinkedIn Premium (even on a trial period), do it. It's really valuable. I also won't be reinventing the wheel when I tell you to have an Excel file with a list of people, when you've reached out to them, whether they have responded, a couple of details about them, etc.

 

Oh man, congrats.

Pretty much in a similar situation as yours. Networked the whole summer to get some interviews. Still waiting on them to happen. It is fucking brutal. Hopefully, I'll be able to make a similar post soon enough!

 

Congratulations! Very inspiring story! I find that international students that come from economically challenging backgrounds are often the hardest workers. At my school they rarely complain about the workload and are just happy to be working towards their degrees and their dreams. I'm sure in a few years you'll be able help your family back home become financially comfortable. You work ethic is an inspiration to us all!

If you don't mind could you talk a bit about what your networking approach is like? I've tried networking at many events in the past but nothing (ie, internship, job) has ever come from it. When you network what are the questions that you ask and what are your goals when talking to people? At my school the students at employer presentations line up one after another to talk to a MD or VP. When it's their turn they start pummeling them with questions wit hardly an introduction. I end up feeling sorry for the bankers that have to talk to students.

 

@MRCR

I always found the term "networking" to be awkward. It's really no different to meeting new people anywhere else -- you want to be yourself, polite, and respectful. I went to a finance conference recently, and everybody was asking the same questions: "What is it like being VP/MD?", "Do you have any advice for a non-target?", "How much do technicals matter?" -- all very easily googleable questions that don't make you stand out. I think that if you really want to ask a question, you should ask about something that you are genuinely interested in, and something that won't be a waste of the person's time.

Again: Be respectful, thoughtful, do your homework, and most importantly -- be yourself.

@DickFuld

Mr. Fuld,

Thank you! It definitely means a lot coming from a fellow non-target, especially one as baller as yourself!

 

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