Pakistani Student wanting to break in to Investment Banking

Hi, I'm a Pakistani student studying at a non target university in Turkey. I'm absolutely insane about investment banking (ECM, DCM and M&A). I have a high GPA finally after messing up my A levels and first two years. I have a summer internship in Grant Thornton in 2016 and two part time jobs teaching English, but my penultimate year summer is coming up and I've been applying everywhere online (I'd preferably like to go to London or the US) but I've only managed to get an online interview from one in London. I also like rugby and cricket, and like to jam with friends every now and then. My university is a new private university as well so sadly no alumni networks. I'm hoping for the best, anyways nice to meet you guys and hope I'll be getting to know a lot of you!

 

Reach out to the local boutiques in Istanbul. You will get a shot at internships but full-time conversion would be difficult because you are probably not fluent in Turkish.

Local boutiques: 3 Seas Capital Partners, İs bank, Odin Financial

Be prepared with your technicals! These places are the only few firms which are willing to take an intern but they want you to know your stuff. Odin takes like 1-2 intern per summer (in the last 2 years or so - source: LinkedIn) and you are basically competing with locals who interns in BB as well from MsC Finance/ MBA kids.

If things are not working out for you by the end of summers, go for masters in UK.

To the best of my knowledge, there is a lot of Project Finance activites going on in Pakistan at this stage, so if you are interested in that, maybe have a look at it too. Your likely destination would be somewhere in middle east after 2-3 years of project finance experience.

 

Hey A2Z, thanks for your advice! I went ahead and applied to Odin today along with another internship opportunity at my university career centre, and I'll take my time researching the rest and contacting them. I was also thinking doing my masters from a target school in the U.K. or the U.S. was going to be a necessity. Apparently there are 3 target schools here in Turkey for J.P. Morgan and GS. I'd probably be legible for a full scholarship from here, and it would give me a chance to improve my Turkish too, but I don't know how that would work out for the end goal...

 
Best Response

Your top tier targets are: Koc, Sabanci, and Bogazici. I would advise you against doing a masters in Turkey or in any of the three places mentioned. Not because they aren't good, but you wouldn't get opportunities that you are looking for. Let me break it down this way; your GS and JPM hires 1-2 kids only from Turkey in London office each year. From what I am aware, they are usually focused on the Turkish markets/ sectors/ deals/ coverage. Therefore, they will 99% of the time hire someone who is good (lets assume you meet this criteria) + Turkish language. Language skills here means that you can read a book, take a lecture, makes notes, have a discussion and write the exams in Turkish as well. Honestly, even with 2 more years of practice you wouldn't have made that much progress. At the same time, here comes the contradictory advice, if you can manage to learn the language, your wouldn't have time to give more time to extracurricular activities, your exchange semester, part time job, social life etc. There is only a limited amount of time you have, to get ready for.

Your best bet would be to go to a target in UK. However, with BREXIT looming around, nothing is certain at this stage for the next 2 years. But getting a degree would help you break into Middle East or Singapore if London doesnt works out.

Also, if you are also thinking about PE after 2-3 years, it would be substantially more difficult to break into. Turkish PE firms make investments in Turkey only. Here they need you to be completely fluent + if you look at the profiles of the people working in PE industry, they are mostly HPS MBA + NY/ London BB IB or MBB Consultants who wanted to move back to Turkey.

Give your best to get an internship wherever you are aiming for, regardless of how small short you have. But after summers, give it a serious thought on your future plans and current situation. Because grad school means last year you will have GMAT + application. Also, there are couple of companies that also give loans to international students for tuition fees - they are quite high 11-13%. So if money becomes an issue, take a look at that too.

 

Wow thanks that was really helpful, I'll definitely look up the loans to international students. It should be a lot easier to break in with a UK degree, and i'd be a lot more comfortable working in English than in Turkish!

 

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