Moving from tech to IBD
I'm currently working as a Strategy and Operations analyst at a technology firm (market cap > 50bn) and want to move into investment banking (preferably a coverage team like TMT). I've been there almost a year now.
During my year at work ......
~ I applied for a UK Masters degree but was rejected as they typically want a 1st class (I have a 2:1 from a top target in a quantitative discipline). Places like LSE take people with a 2:1 for the MSc Finance programme but I did not get an offer for this programme.
~ I did not land any interviews for off-cycle internships or full-time analyst positions for IBD. When I spoke to recruiters/alumni, the feedback given was because I was competing with people with recent finance experience (I interned at an M&A boutique but a few years ago as part of a university exchange). I also tried adjusting my CV saying I would do a Masters starting this September, and therefore eligible for summer internships, but that didn't help.
~ I tried reaching out to the corporate development/other teams at my current firm but they want bankers/consultants and people with MBA's. My firm won't help fund an MBA for now/I'm also ineligible at the moment as I'm too young.
~ I reached out to headhunters/F500 companies for the corporate development roles. The problem is that they keep referring me to Data Scientist roles, Operations Analyst, Business Development or Sales roles because of my previous experience - none of which interest me. I tried consultancies (not just MBB) but had no luck there either.
~ I cold called tonnes of boutiques during lunch hours/after work but either they are not hiring, want people with recent finance experience or refer me to the larger firms for graduate programmes.
What can I do to reposition myself for banking recruiting? Please feel free to ask any questions and I will reply in as much detail as possible.
Sorry but did I post this in the wrong section of the forum?
This is the correct place for it, but you might try the IB forum - tends to be more traffic in there.
Thank you for your help.
MBA
@"Ponzi_Scheme" But then I can't be an investment banking analyst and therefore lateral into a HF/PE right?
You could theoretically go right into PE/HF without IB. I did just that (I only have a bachelor's w/o IB experience. I was more on the front office tech side - building the computer systems for analysis).
If I was you, I would apply to a top ~15 MBA, and try to land a summer internship into the field you want. Easier said than done, and risky. Other avenues after MBA could be management consulting.
That's the whole point of an MBA for somebody stuck in a position he or she does not want to do, with a few years of experience, that wants to do a lateral or potentiality higher move into a different direction. PM me if you have any questions.
@Ponzi_Scheme I sent you a message
Moving from tech firm to IBD (Originally Posted: 04/25/2014)
Was asked to move my thread here because of more traffic so here goes:
I'm currently working as a Strategy and Operations analyst at a technology firm (market cap > 50bn) and want to move into investment banking (preferably a coverage team like TMT). I've been there almost a year now.
During my year at work ......
~ I applied for a UK Masters degree but was rejected as they typically want a 1st class (I have a 2:1 from a top target in a quantitative discipline). Places like LSE take people with a 2:1 for the MSc Finance programme but I did not get an offer for this programme.
~ I did not land any interviews for off-cycle internships or full-time analyst positions for IBD. When I spoke to recruiters/alumni, the feedback given was because I was competing with people with recent finance experience. I also tried adjusting my CV saying I would do a Masters starting this September, and therefore eligible for summer internships, but that didn't help. I tried consultancies (not just MBB) but had no luck there either.
~ I tried reaching out to the corporate development/other teams at my current firm but they want bankers/consultants and people with MBA's. Also a lot of the corporate development teams are in the USA only.
~ I reached out to headhunters/F500 companies for the corporate development roles. The problem is that they keep referring me to Data Scientist roles, Operations Analyst, Business Development or Sales roles because of my previous experience - none of which interest me.
~ I cold called tonnes of boutiques during lunch hours/after work but either they are not hiring, want people with recent finance experience or refer me to the larger firms for graduate programmes.
What can I do to reposition myself for banking recruiting? I'm thinking I can try to get to the USA via my company, save up for an MBA, and get in via the Associate route but this is really long term (and I really want to leave my tech company asap).
Please feel free to ask any questions and I will reply in as much detail as possible.
What makes you want to leave your current gig? I would imagine that pay, perks, and especially work/life balance are pretty nice. Is it the work itself? What do you do on a daily basis? Is this work somehow transferable to IB?
Just pm'd you some contact details.
Could you pm me some contact details also, I just received a ft offer (M&A) and need some advice, thanks
Great question.
You are correct that it's the work itself. When I was on the 'honeymoon period' everything was excellent but as I got my teeth stuck into the role I realised it just was not for me.
The job is not technical/challenging/interesting enough. I have no problem doing PowerPoints or Excel models though - I just need more.
The work is somewhat transferable (Excel models are operational vs financial though) and PowerPoints are PowerPoints haha - so I moulded my CV as much as possible to IBD work. As an analyst I should be useful in a TMT team I would imagine after some training with the finance/accounting parts.
I found other roles in the tech company that I would love but they want banking or consulting experience for at least 2 years. I see why - they literally demand magic and you have to produce it no matter what. You need a solid grounding of experience to survive at these firms and I realise that more now then I did coming out of university.
Thanks for the PM. Will reach out ASAP.
I was unable to dig up my exact job description but I found something very close:
• Working closely with our Sales and Customer Success operations tools - Taking responsibility of updating and improving forecasting and scorecard operations methodologies using in Microsoft Excel, the reporting tools with past, present and future weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual data. • Maintaining and improving Sales and Customer Success Performance Metrics - Construction of a weekly performance pack by aggregating and evaluating key metrics to drive insight and best practices within the entire EMEA organisation. • Building Reports trough SAP Business Objects - Creation of different types of ad hoc reports to meet different requests from other people inside the team. • Working on various Power Point Slides - Creation, updating and population of different slides matching various requests for senior management reviews. • Drive best practices and reporting of pipeline generation across EMEA - Working closely within the team to produce Pipeline generation reports based on data from SAP Business Objects. • Population of charts within the (tech companies) platform to drive insight - Producing high level overviews for insight at a glance. • Visualisation of core Sales Analytics • Responding to various other high level requests that came up daily.
Technology company to investment banking (Originally Posted: 02/20/2018)
I worked in investment banking for a small banking my junior year summer and ended up taking a job at a large technology company working in data science/AI because I thought the work I'd be doing would be very interesting. About 8 months in the job I realized it is not for me and looking to go back into IB. Any recommendations on how to approach this/is it even possible? Is it too soon to leave my current company? I have degrees in finance/accounting. Would love to hear some honest answers. Thanks
Hey awk1127, I'm here because nobody responded to this thread after a few days...maybe one of these resources will help you:
Calling relevant professionals! TZgoennerei Gkim
If those topics were completely useless, don't blame me, blame my programmers...
Tech to IB (Originally Posted: 05/09/2017)
Hey guys,
I am a rising 2nd year at University of Virginia and am in the engineering school here. The e-school is ranked top 40, but the undergrad business school is like #6 in the nation. I am not planning on transferring because I think my degree in CS will be much more flexible and also more strong in general. I have gotten involved with an investing club here, which could help a little with my lack of financial knowledge. Would I have to get an MBA or a Masters' in something in order to break into IB? I was also thinking about going into tech as an business analyst(coding with some finance, whatever that is called in tech) and then getting a masters' in finance and then from there trying to get into IB.
From IB, I was going to go to an HF or just stay in IB if I wanted to, this part is obviously very very much nebulous so who cares, but just want to get out as many ideas as possible so you guys can fully judge my situation.
Thanks.
I don't know
Nothing is more relevant to finance than finance, plus it'll be easier to get a higher GPA majoring in finance. Majoring CS because it's "safe" doesn't make too much sense here granted how dead set on IB you claim to be. IB gets harder and harder to break in to the older you get. Foregoing recruiting now to get an MSF will not help you but rather hurt you.
I believe what it initially comes down to is GPA, and depending on the role, the major as well.
I have worked with a lot of graduates from UoV during my time at a blue-chip tech corporation. I know most of them did 2 years then went onto their MBA after.
Do you like CS/Engineering?
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