Best way to ask to push resume?

broadstbully:

"how can I best position myself for an interview at your firm?"

I've tried it this recruiting season and have gotten good answers/responses/suggestions

Chiming in because no responses yet....I have only recently started in IB (did my SA last year) so I'm not yet in a position to push for students/am not involved in any recruiting, but if I were in that position it would depend on our relationship - if you come across as someone who clearly is talking to me to tick the networking box and you have no interest in me/we have nothing in common, I won't feel compelled to help you out. While I wouldn't expect to think you're actually talking to me because you're genuinely curious about my background specifically (ha), I would push for you if we actually got along well and had things in common and I liked you as a result of that.

From the other side (in my experience), the people that got me interviews and really pushed for me (often without me directly asking) were the people I got along with, and the people who initial conversations with turned into actual friendships - I'm still in touch with them, catch up for beers/coffees etc.

Short answer - you've gotta make them genuinely like you. Kind of like how (in my experience again) the people that get offers and interviews through info sessions/meet & greets are the people who don't really ask banking questions, but instead chat and get along with the bankers.

I'm a first year, just started a month or two ago and I get tons of emails from kids at my school. The only situations in which I would push a resume are if (1) I know you personally and can vouch for your character/personality/work ethic/skills or (2) If your resume is phenomenal. I haven't pushed one yet, and plenty of kids have reached out to me. It's just not worth the risk of pushing a bad candidate, especially when you are a junior on the team. As a more senior banker it might be a different story, but that's just my experience

If you guys hardly pushed anyone's resume before, how does networking actually work for an guy with average people skills? Or will you guys at least help somebody the get an interview?

There's a lot that goes on other than pushing a resume. Most banks will keep an excel spreadsheet for recruiting, and they will keep up with your contact with the bank. I would never hesitate to say that someone reached out, sent a resume, called me, was nice, etc. But it is rare that I would send a resume to the guy who runs recruiting for my group in an unsolicited setting. When they ask who has been in contact with us and shown interest, you just want to get put on that list. I think it's pretty rare that someone really goes to bat for a candidate, because if their resume is string enough, it gets everyone's attention. Where it can seriously help you is if you have a strong contact/relationship with a senior banker. They can make things happen, but when you're networking, I think the entire goal is to be on that recruiting spreadsheet as someone who has expressed interest and people seem to like.

I had the feeling that most people that tried to network with me weren't actually that good and I didn't feel like pushing them into my firm would make sense. Then again I had one kid who was really bright and had a strong background so I sent his CV around to friends at other firms as well and he just got a great job somewhere else.

I've mostly networked with junior analysts at banks (especially those on the recruiting team) as I was under the impression those were the people who reviewed resumes. It seems a little tough reaching out to senior people since many of them can't afford the time to speak with suck-up Juniors. Should I be making more of an effort to reach out to VPs/MDs as oppose to junior bankers?