Got their Business card. What now?

About 3 weeks ago, my dad took me to a meeting he had with a BB bank. It was a very casual meeting, so I ended up talking to a couple of the bankers in the meeting most of the time. At the end I mentioned that I was thinking of applying to a sophomore internship at their bank, they said they would gladly help me and gave me their business cards. I'm now raging at myself for not sending a thank you email after the meeting, but 3 weeks have passed now so I guess I can't do that anymore. Applications for sophomore internships aren't till December or January, should I just email them around that time? Or how should I follow up now?

 

Follow up now. Tell them it was a pleasure to meet them at whatever the meeting was called and ask them if they would have 15 minutes to spare so that you can learn more about their experiences and the bank.

If you wait til December, you're fucked.

 

After you ask them for a phone call? You'll contact them again when you call them. Then after that it depends on how the phone call goes. If you talk about anything that would come in a current events type of thing, you could shoot them an email saying "hey, did you see this, how do think it will affect XYZ?" sort of thing. This keeps you relevant.

Then you'll contact them again closer to the recruiting season where you could ask them how best to position yourself and yada yada yada.

make it hard to spot the general by working like a soldier
 

Thanks a lot guys, one last question. I know it might sound stupid, but I think they could take it in the wrong way. The meeting was conducted in Spanish, however I know that they speak English as well. I feel much more comfortable emailing them in English, but I do not know if they will take this as if I don't think their Spanish is that good.

 

As the other posters have said, get a call now and then just come up with something up to contact them monthly via email and reach out on the phone again in the autumn. Whatever you talk to them about, their industry group, a deal, some general economic thing, recruiting, etc, research it, stay on top of the news for that topic and have something to talk to email them about. You don't necessarily need to expect a reply but you simply want to say something intelligent and keep your name in front of them.

edit: English should be fine even if you conducted the interview in Spanish.

 

That seems a bit pushy. I usually won't contact someone again after 2 failed attempts and I hear that is the general line. Depending on how long it has been I would wait a few more months to reach out one last time, and depending on how confident you feel email the assistant and CC the banker, such as "Hi 'assistant', I'm reaching out again etc etc, I understand you must be busy, 'banker' CC'd above indicated I try to set up an appropriate time to speak with him with your help. Please let me know if any of the following times work: x, x, x."

Hope that helps.

 

Call his office number and see who picks up. I'd be willing to bet that his office phone goes to his assistant. Explain your situation to the assistant and see what she says.

If you're really worried about it being tied back to you, use a friends phone to do this.

1) I'd say number one, it's clear you're at the bottom of his priority list 2) If it were me and a kid tried that hard just to talk to me on the phone. I'd give him 10 minutes.

 

That's a terrible assistant. Should have at least told you something. If the VP copied you on an email to his assistant, then it's kind of her responsibility and she should have done it. Perhaps the VP switched assistants? Or perhaps he left the bank? I would email the VP one last time.

P.S. perhaps download streak for gmail. You can track whether or not they opened the email, and when/how many times.

JC, john cena, jesus christ, etc.
 

Stop being a bitch and reach out to him. The worst thing he can do is say no. It's not like he's going to flag your resume to every company out there because you asked for an internship.

alpha currency trader wanna-be
 

Basically, if you reach out to him he's going email all of his friends about how annoying your request was, and you'll probably never get a job in consulting.

Just kidding, you should just tell him you are interested in interning with him. If you've had a conversation, he clearly liked what you had to say enough to give you his card. He met you at a career event, he knows that you are probably interested in an internship.

 

Thanks all, I will be emailing him. But this is my first time with this stuff so I'm not sure what exactly to say. Should I make it sort of like a mini cover letter and sell myself? and should I include my resume with the email?

 

I had a BB interview last year, went great. MD didn't even bother to talk about timeframe; just shook my hand afterwards and said we'd love to have you join us after graduation, seems like a good fit.

Then I asked for his card and immediately wished I hadn't. Will never forget the look of utter disgust that slowly crept over his face. Never heard from him again, now I'm working back office at Jefferies. Fucking Jefferies. Be careful when asking for a card.

 
consultant09:
I had a BB interview last year, went great. MD didn't even bother to talk about timeframe; just shook my hand afterwards and said we'd love to have you join us after graduation, seems like a good fit.

Then I asked for his card and immediately wished I hadn't. Will never forget the look of utter disgust that slowly crept over his face. Never heard from him again, now I'm working back office at Jefferies. Fucking Jefferies. Be careful when asking for a card.

...well done.

 
consultant09:
I had a BB interview last year, went great. MD didn't even bother to talk about timeframe; just shook my hand afterwards and said we'd love to have you join us after graduation, seems like a good fit.

Then I asked for his card and immediately wished I hadn't. Will never forget the look of utter disgust that slowly crept over his face. Never heard from him again, now I'm working back office at Jefferies. Fucking Jefferies. Be careful when asking for a card.

I heard MD business cards are like the Ark of the Covenant, if you look at one directly, your face melts. That happened to a buddy of mine... poor ol' Faceless Brett now works Quiznos.

 

MDs' business cards at my bank are better quality than the rest of ours, slightly raised text and I think a bit thicker. Not that I care but was surprised when I first noticed.

As for asking, it's a hard one. In my experience it was always a case that senior people who wanted me to have it offered themselves. But then again a friend of mine got his job as a result of getting a senior guy's card and then a year or so later contacting him, so who knows....

 

send him an email telling him where you guys met, how he inspired you and that you are creating a career path for yourself and you were wondering if he could give you any insights. also try and send him a good stock analysis idea now and then, obv. he doesnt need your help but you will show passion and competency in finance.

 

If the guy handed his card out he shouldn't be surprised that people like you may contact him. Otherwise, he shouldn't have handed the cards out in the first place. Closer121 has the right idea about the approach. The more constructive you can be in your e-mail the easier it will be for him to write you back. Just make sure that if you send a stock analysis you check you calculations and proofread your analysis. The worst thing that you could do is shoot yourself in the foot upfront with an obvious error.

 

If that's the case, what (besides money) makes you want to work in hedge funds or for a firm like his? He is going to want to see evidence of a passion for investing or something related to investing. If you tell him you are too busy to research a few stock ideas than he might not take your interest very seriously. I'm sorry for being so critical but you need to figure out a way to stand out among the others that may be e-mailing him from the same event you attended.

 

What would you think of me waiting to contact him until I'm closer to applying for jobs (I'm not a senior)? I doubt he remembers me; I didn't say a word.

This is why I am wondering whether it might be crossing a line to use his contact info.

 

SeanC has it right. Just shoot him an email saying where you met, maybe mention something from his speech that stuck with you, then ask for some advice or contacts that would be willing to talk with you about getting in the industry. I used this tactic multiple times when I was in college when we would have presentations from some of the big banks. It works best with guys at the Associate/VP level who are sometimes eager to guide a college kid into the right position, but it might even work on someone more senior.

On a more general note, if you ever have a chance to talk to a specific member of a recruiting team during a larger presentation, it helps if you can discuss something that will stick in their head. I had a buddy that would somehow find a way to connect with recruiters over the most odd subjects...skiiing, working out, WSJ articles, vacations...basically anything out of the ordinary. While this didn't necessarily show off their finance skills, it did give the recruiter something to attach to him when they saw his resume ("oh, this is the guy who I talked to about..."). Shoot them an email the following day, reference something you talked about, and it will go a long way toward seperating you from the rest of the resume stack. I used this tactic to get an offer from MS, and my buddy used the same thing to swing an offer from Lazard. Sounds stupid, I know, but it works....

 
  1. Massage his balls, (Figuratively) and tell him he inspired you.

  2. Stock analysis, not for content but to demonstrate compentence for someone our age. Very impressive to guys like him.

  3. Some interesting article you have read recently. (Use WSJ, IBD, whatever.)

  4. Thank him for his time.

Good luck man!!!!

 

dont send your stock picking ideas. that is not the way to go. just ask questions about your career, his career, why he's interested in stocks, etc. if you send him stock ideas you risk sounding like an idiot - which is probably the most likely scenario (not cause of your intelligence, but u are not at the right caliber yet).

he will most likely try to set u up with one of his friends that is looking. and thats what you want.

 

zonk, i agree that my stock picks would be immature at this point. my concern is that he'd have no reason to set me up with anyone, and he'd just get irritated... he's running above 5bil in assets and he's probably got other things to worry about.

 

Don't send him stock picks. Just send him a feeler at this point. If you're gonna be in awe of these people then you'll never get anywhere. I've sent emails to reputed HF managers and formed relationships from scratch just through emails/phone calls, and they aren't even alums or people I had met before.

If you're concerned about how the email might come off then post it on here or pm it to a couple of people to get their opinions.

 

you're in college and you don't have time to research stocks? aaahahahaha.

ok now that i got that out the way...yes, just send him a brief email. say hello, i met you the other day, nice to meet you, etc, im looking forward to getting into finance, do you have any advice. don't overdo it with pages of research or how you have a shrine to him in your bedroom. he probably won't have anything for you because you're younger but you can send him emails with "questions" once in a while to keep up the connection

 

Kinda creepy, but it's still good thinking. Maybe come up with another way of how you found out about him ha.

If your dreams don't scare you, then they are not big enough. "There are two types of people in this world: People who say they pee in the shower, and dirty fucking liars."-Louis C.K.
 

for the record, do you think someone of importance would put their business card in a fishbowl? doesn't really seem like something a hot shot would do. I'm not saying the guy isn't important, but think about the kind of person that would do such a thing.

looking for that pick-me-up to power through an all-nighter?
 

He is going to be pissed off at you when he finds out you took his business card out of the bowl and he is no longer in the running for the free lunch.

I suggest the following: Email the guy. Tell him he has won lunch for himself and nine co-workers. Tell him it is fully catered and that the food will be delivered to his office. When the day arrives, buy the food yourself and bring it to his conference room. You then have the attention of 10 bankers and you can make your pitch as to why they should hire you.

You know, I started typing the above as a joke, but hell, it could actually work....

CompBanker’s Career Guidance Services: https://www.rossettiadvisors.com/
 
CompBanker:
He is going to be pissed off at you when he finds out you took his business card out of the bowl and he is no longer in the running for the free lunch.

I suggest the following: Email the guy. Tell him he has won lunch for himself and nine co-workers. Tell him it is fully catered and that the food will be delivered to his office. When the day arrives, buy the food yourself and bring it to his conference room. You then have the attention of 10 bankers and you can make your pitch as to why they should hire you.

You know, I started typing the above as a joke, but hell, it could actually work....

What's funny is that I had the same exact thought--a first I was like oh that'd be pretty funny...but it actually COULD be effective, and so much different than anything anyone else has ever done. Especially because you don't actually have any connection to the guy.

 

I dunno, I'd feel a little weird hiring a guy who does something like that. Though I'm sure others feel differently.

If your dreams don't scare you, then they are not big enough. "There are two types of people in this world: People who say they pee in the shower, and dirty fucking liars."-Louis C.K.
 

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