Reaching out to Alum in diff area of bank
IB
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(Baboon, 142
Points)
on 9/3/09 at 12:39am
So I am going through the alumni list at my school and looking at people who are currently working for investment banks, however there are alot of names which are, for example, in global markets or sales and trading but are VP's and MD's. Now since my interest is in IB, should I still reach out to these people? Do I make it clear that I want to do IB when they do not work in Banking but still are closely connected with the bank. Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks.






I think that
I think that it depends on the area. I usually treat this issue in a ranking fashion - when you've run out of IB alumni, move into S&T and Capital Markets, and so forth. S&T and CM often have a lot of overlap with IB, so it definitely wouldn't be a bad idea to reach out to these people, expand your network and maybe more.
Regarding strategy, I wouldn't lead off with "I want IB, so help me," but instead, I would send them an email mentioning the alumni connection, your interest in their bank and then mention your interest in IB and their field and your trying to learn more about each as recruiting season comes around. This gives them a connection to show, expresses your interest in IB, but doesn't turn them off in that you are "also interested in their field" If you hit it off, they might put you in touch with a few bankers that wouldn't have met to talk about that business as recruiting talent isn't a personal thing - it's not offensive to go to IB and not S&T, they just want good talent with the firm. And hey, you might actually like the way their group sounds - stranger things have happened.
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