When to start networking?

I will be a freshman this year at UW (University of Washington).
I'm hoping to go into investment banking, and I know that my school is a non-target.. I will be joining some business clubs and etc, but my main question is: when do I start networking? Is freshman year too early? Should I get people now who I can do interviews with later?

Thanks!

 

As impressed as I am with people that start early, something about high school kids being giddy about wall street is saddening.

You might not even want to work in finance a year or so from now. Wait till you finish your first semester.

 

Yeah it's never too early. Start now, but start small. Don't start networking for that NYC BB IBD job your want to have after junior year yet. But start contacting local people and whatnot, through whom you can get a relevant internship between your freshman and sophomore year

 
JDimon:
Yeah it's never too early. Start now, but start small. Don't start networking for that NYC BB IBD job your want to have after junior year yet. But start contacting local people and whatnot, through whom you can get a relevant internship between your freshman and sophomore year

Would I be better off doing internships after my freshman and sophomore year, or should I be taking summer classes? I'm also gonna try transfering to a target school after freshman/sophomore year. Bad idea?

 
yuriyv:
JDimon:
Yeah it's never too early. Start now, but start small. Don't start networking for that NYC BB IBD job your want to have after junior year yet. But start contacting local people and whatnot, through whom you can get a relevant internship between your freshman and sophomore year

Would I be better off doing internships after my freshman and sophomore year, or should I be taking summer classes? I'm also gonna try transfering to a target school after freshman/sophomore year. Bad idea?

Do internships over the summer. If you are up to it, you could take a summer class during an internship, but ultimately, assuming the goal is landing the best full-time offer in industry when you graduate, you need to gain work experience, not take more classes.

As for transferring to a target school, I think that's really up to you. It might make it a little easier to get top jobs - will you be okay with finding new friends when you get there and everything?

 
hokiefan757:
Is there a certain year (freshman, sophmore) or time in the year when you should start cold emailing/calling people?

Start now. Thank me later. Sooner the better. You can start building relationships and getting experience freshman year.

Frank Sinatra - "Alcohol may be man's worst enemy, but the bible says love your enemy."
 
Best Response

Can't hurt to do it now. If you're going to network with people at the top places, try and get referrals. No way you can get a BB IBD SA as a freshman. Network with some firms that might be open to giving a freshman an internship, if you can get something above the typical ML PWM internship you will be way ahead of most people. Don't be narrow-minded, networking with people who aren't at BBs can be very beneficial too..

But if you're a freshman, make sure you get adjusted to college life, make friends, join some clubs/ECs, and don't let your GPA go to shit. If networking gets in the way of that then postpone it a bit.

 

I'm just now finishing my core classes, and I've already started. I have a job at a gym and I've met a lot of helpful people and gotten their emails/phone numbers. It looks like it may pay off, too.

 

always... can't hurt. Hell even failing is a positive, you learn what not to do and build a tougher shell.

BTW chill.

I feel like starting sometime in July would be better since its closer to recruiting season and you could cut through a little BS and directly ask them to push you resume up.

June is not much of a difference than july. about 30 days really

 

just ask for advice and then put 'or if you know of any other positions at ___ that I may be a fit for' if you want. everyone knows the advice is bs, but you can be slightly more direct w/o forcing them to actually give you a job. or go the coffee route.

 
Lotin:
I just wrapped up my freshman yr. I started networking right after first semester was over and I had a solid GPA to add to my resume. During second semester I just shot out hundreds of emails and started to build connections.

what university do you go to?

 

NOW... the sooner the better.

Also, I'd suggest making initial contact w/ out mention of interviews or jobs just hear what they have to say and be a good listener. They'll eventually talk about it with you, but if you're networking w/ someone that has no idea who you are it'd be annoying to talk about analyst recruitment in June w/ zero 'relationship'.

Start calling / getting your resume out now [unless your waiting to start a meaningful internship and want to include it]. Develop a story / quick pitch to give and make the contact. Let your relationship build over a few months; maybe ping them every so often w/ questions, but not easily 'google-able' questions. If they haven't asked by August about your intentions for the upcoming recruitment season; steer them on course w/ some subtle hints or if its getting late be direct.

'Before you enter... be willing to pay the price'
 

The sooner the better, but read some of the networking guides/tips first so you don't make a fool out of yourself.

If you're trying to be an analyst, I'm assuming you're graduating next year and that you don't have a banking internship this summer. You need to be working hard from now until you get an offer if you really want it.

MM IB -> Corporate Development -> Strategic Finance
 

not when is the best time, in my opinion, but finding the best quality networking opportunities. and for that, you network every day. networking is a process, not just an action that you do here and there. networking = developing relationships. developing relationships = constant and faithful maintenance and development of said relationship. whether it be the searching online or in the paper for possible opportunities, to the initial contact with said networkees, to the development of a relationship that could either turn into a friendship, a work opportunity, or both, or neither.

never ending process, or ebb and flow; rather than start networking or stop networking from time to time.

"Everything comes to those who hustle while they wait." -Thomas Edison
 

I had a lot of success in the summer as I was very early and people appreciated that. Also, if you network in the summer they aren't being baraged by 500 other kids and are more likely to give you the time of day.

Plus everyones happier in the summer!

 

Where could I get a relevant internship during the summer of my freshman year? I mean, I wouldn't have any experience to put on my resume to get that internship, so what could I do to increase my chances of getting a relevant internship with no experience (aside from extracurriculars like the investment club or something)?

We spend a lot of time making the unimportant measurable while the important remains immeasurable
 

First of all, relax! It's admirable that you're starting so early in the game, but a LOT can change between now and college application time, and even between your date of acceptance and the start of your first semester. I was gung-ho about being a Foreign Service Officer/diplomat all through high school; a week spent amongst other IR majors quickly changed all that. Enjoy high school while you can; you probably think I'm crazy to say this, but it's a nice place to be, and you will always have time later on to network and be an "adult."

Right now, your focus shouldn't be networking with people for the sake of networking or taking weekend trips to NYC/Chicago (unless you're going to those places with your friends to have a good, non-work-related time!), especially when, as you said, you're "still very uneducated in the fields of IB and networking."

So, what should you focus be so early on? Quite simply, learning as much as you can about IB and the vast world of finance. High school is a great time for learning for its own sake -- your work schedule is fairly predictable and not too heavy and since actual school time isn't too intense, you should be soaking up every bit of information on any topic that interests you.

How do you start? Since you're interested in IB, check out the 'what should I read?' section of WSO (under FAQs in the blue bar on top of the site, in the 'industry specific' section; I can't post links, otherwise I'd give you a direct one). Then, go to your local library (or the Kindle webstore), and read everything in the easy reads section (don't worry about interview and technical guides right now). From there, go to Goodreads or Amazon, and look for similar books to the ones you liked from the WSO list. Skim the WSJ's Markets section, Barron's, Deal Book, or Bloomberg headlines every day, and read the articles that interest you. It will take some time initially, but you'll get the hang of it soon enough.

Once you get to college, then you can worry about the networking aspect of it all. Armed with a year of finance knowledge under your belt, you'll be more memorable to the upperclassmen business students and people you chat with than the typical wide-eyed freshman who isn't quite sure what IB and M&A are, but who knows that he's supposed to want it.

Things might be radically different for you this time next year, and that's OK.. Either way, I wish you the best of luck, and hope you enjoy what's left of your junior year!

 

I started after the first trimester. at that time, my business card (remember, no linkedin in the 80s) read "incoming toddler with a passion for finance and legos" and recruiters began to salivate. after I learned to form coherent sentences and about 30% of my baby teeth fell out, I purchased my first suit. my mother sent out announcements for all of my life events (birth, birthdays, half birthdays, first solid defecation, first nobel prize, first DCF in crayon, etc.) on the finest bone/eggshell stock, with fonts dependent upon the quality of the recipient's finishing school. public school? comic sans. philips exeter? silian grail with a watermark.

my father had a resume drop for babysitting duties because he wanted to be sure I received only the best care. we even had our driver take us around town to interview the prospective sitters. we used all of the usual questions "walk me through your resume," "sketch out a DCF, LBO, and timeout policy," "you have a CIM from the next microsoft, a proposal from GE to buy IR, a dirty diaper, and a date. it's friday night, what do you tackle first and why?" the vetting process was brutal. people tried to talk about how they'd cold called their way in, we even had a pop in (someone literally popped into our rolls at a stoplight on the LIE and asked how to get into the business), but my father had a process, and unfortunately the rules of supply & demand dictated the end result.

once we selected a candidate, we met her parents. also, diversity is real, my dad always had a caramel fetish (not unlike thomas jefferson if he had colombian slaves), and we ended up selecting a buxom 16 year old named ariella. her father had relocated back to the hamptons from colombia after the whole escobar nonsense started to boil over. he was a good ol boy who had left the disgusting quagmire that is Georgia for his finance career in NYC, eventually got connections into the shipping industry, and moved south of the border for a while, made a few million, came back into high fih-nance.

this is where the networking began. upon seeing the trophy wife, I spit my pacifier (I was a thumbsucker, even in primary school) into her cleavage, at which point the father commended my good taste, asked for my business card, and hinted that he was up for partner at goldman soon (remember, this was the 90s, GS wasn't publicly traded). as I tried to ignore nature calling (I'd only recently been potty trained), I imagined what life would be like either feeding on his wife's silicone masterpieces or in a corner office in midtown.

over the years, GS partner & I became close, he introduced me to cocaine, I introduced his daughter to the kama sutra. our relationship got on the rocks after I beat him handily at our annual cape cod golf outing (it didn't hurt that he was getting crushed in the tech bubble either), but it improved meaningfully after I showed him my paper trading portfolio on this new thing called eTrade. he immediately moved all of his money to me and referred his friends.

unfortunately starting a hedge fund isn't so easy, so after I lost everyone's money by buying small cap bank stocks during the crisis (I wasn't wrong, I was early in march 2008, but everyone pulled their money), I decided to take a sabbatical. oddly enough, my GS contact was doing the same (though a more tax evasion-y/avoid prosecution type vacation). after a few mai tais on the beaches of some island you haven't heard of, he referred me to his college roommate at Silver Lake, who owed him a "big favor." needless to say, I played hardball and in exchange for never mentioning where I saw him (or that I knew him ), once the indictment passed, I made partner and intend on retiring in 2 years. it really is all about relationships

TLDR: it's never too early OP, get busy hustling or else you'll get hustled.

 
thebrofessor:

I started after the first trimester. at that time, my business card (remember, no linkedin in the 80s) read "incoming toddler with a passion for finance and legos" and recruiters began to salivate. after I learned to form coherent sentences and about 30% of my baby teeth fell out, I purchased my first suit. my mother sent out announcements for all of my life events (birth, birthdays, half birthdays, first solid defecation, first nobel prize, first DCF in crayon, etc.) on the finest bone/eggshell stock, with fonts dependent upon the quality of the recipient's finishing school. public school? comic sans. philips exeter? silian grail with a watermark.

my father had a resume drop for babysitting duties because he wanted to be sure I received only the best care. we even had our driver take us around town to interview the prospective sitters. we used all of the usual questions "walk me through your resume," "sketch out a DCF, LBO, and timeout policy," "you have a CIM from the next microsoft, a proposal from GE to buy IR, a dirty diaper, and a date. it's friday night, what do you tackle first and why?" the vetting process was brutal. people tried to talk about how they'd cold called their way in, we even had a pop in (someone literally popped into our rolls at a stoplight on the LIE and asked how to get into the business), but my father had a process, and unfortunately the rules of supply & demand dictated the end result.

once we selected a candidate, we met her parents. also, diversity is real, my dad always had a caramel fetish (not unlike thomas jefferson if he had colombian slaves), and we ended up selecting a buxom 16 year old named ariella. her father had relocated back to the hamptons from colombia after the whole escobar nonsense started to boil over. he was a good ol boy who had left the disgusting quagmire that is Georgia for his finance career in NYC, eventually got connections into the shipping industry, and moved south of the border for a while, made a few million, came back into high fih-nance.

this is where the networking began. upon seeing the trophy wife, I spit my pacifier (I was a thumbsucker, even in primary school) into her cleavage, at which point the father commended my good taste, asked for my business card, and hinted that he was up for partner at goldman soon (remember, this was the 90s, GS wasn't publicly traded). as I tried to ignore nature calling (I'd only recently been potty trained), I imagined what life would be like either feeding on his wife's silicone masterpieces or in a corner office in midtown.

over the years, GS partner & I became close, he introduced me to cocaine, I introduced his daughter to the kama sutra. our relationship got on the rocks after I beat him handily at our annual cape cod golf outing (it didn't hurt that he was getting crushed in the tech bubble either), but it improved meaningfully after I showed him my paper trading portfolio on this new thing called eTrade. he immediately moved all of his money to me and referred his friends.

unfortunately starting a hedge fund isn't so easy, so after I lost everyone's money by buying small cap bank stocks during the crisis (I wasn't wrong, I was early in march 2008, but everyone pulled their money), I decided to take a sabbatical. oddly enough, my GS contact was doing the same (though a more tax evasion-y/avoid prosecution type vacation). after a few mai tais on the beaches of some island you haven't heard of, he referred me to his college roommate at Silver Lake, who owed him a "big favor." needless to say, I played hardball and in exchange for never mentioning where I saw him (or that I knew him ), once the indictment passed, I made partner and intend on retiring in 2 years. it really is all about relationships

TLDR: it's never too early OP, get busy hustling or else you'll get hustled.

Gotta give respect for writing that much

 

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