Non-Target Bound HS Senior — Looking for Advice on Early Networking & Prep for MBB
Hi. I’m currently a high school senior committed to a lower semi-target / high non-target NESCAC school for next year, and I’m hoping to break into MBB after graduation. Scrolling through these forums has made it pretty clear how important networking is, especially coming from a non-target background, so I wanted to ask for advice on how I should be approaching it.
The college I’m committed to is known for having a very tight-knit alumni base, so I’m hoping that helps with receptiveness and response rates. That said, I know I’m on the younger end compared to when most people start networking seriously, and as a HS senior I obviously don’t have much “value” to offer yet. Any guidance on how to approach outreach at this stage without coming across as premature or annoying would be appreciated.
I’m also open to any broader advice on what I should be doing now to get ahead of the curve—relevant skills to learn, early prep for technicals, resume-building ideas, or anything else you’d recommend for someone in my position.
Thanks in advance.
touch some grass, MBB cycles are later then banking so you have plenty of time to have fun at school and become a personable person
this comment is so out of touch. since you’re currently not a college student you’d don’t understand the competitiveness of IB/Consulting recruiting and nowadays if you’re not prepared coming into college, you’re not going to get into the top clubs and subsequently going to have a much harder time recruiting. For example, I’m a senior and will be working in M&A and I was initially wanting to recruit for RX for junior summer and I got absolutely crushed by my peers because I realized I wanted to do RX in sophomore year (which was way too late) and everyone already read every single guide/book possible and placed well. So stop spewing this bullshit of “not worrying” or “touching grass” if you’re not in college rn just because when YOU were in college all you had to do is have a resume and show up with your dick in your hand to get an IB job.
I was both an MBB and Big 4 partner. I now run a boutique that competes with MBB for talent. I have looked at probably 10,000 undergrad resumes and interviewed probably 500 undergrads over the years. I am currently hiring undergrad level applicants.
A2 is right and you're wrong.
I got my MBB offer, not by showing up "with my dick in my hand" but by having actual experience doing actual things that were differentiated vs others. I'm a veteran, I had sales experience, I had a PhD. That's obviously harder coming out of undergrad, but that is the answer. You need to go make yourself (and your resume) look different than everyone else's.
That means, go do an interesting and different internship. NASA or EPA or Peace Corps or whatever. Or work with a research professor and do a research project/write a paper. Do something that actually interests you. Your plan of looking exactly like every other hardo at a "lower semi-target / high non-target" who majors in econ and does a certificate in business management and interns in finance then tries to have 300 coffee chats wherein you are transparently trying to find a way to ask for a referral after 10 minutes of knowing someone is nto going to get you noticed. Being different in an interesting, authentic way gets you noticed.
Be you. Touch grass. Don't be a dick to people that are trying to give you advice. The kind of person who says "when YOU were in college all you had to do is have a resume and show up with your dick in your hand to get an IB job" is not the kind of person MBB wants to hire. Do better.
Because you probably want a partially useful answer, get good grades (3.8+) and have an interesting focus: I've seen everything from biochemical research to data science to Russian foreign policy.
You should only start networking around May 2028, after your sophomore year. Maybe target banking as I found the knowledge/recruiting skills were helpful anyways, and frankly going into college already aiming for consulting is somewhat unfortunate (I do it, but me and most people I know stumbled into it).
Until May 2028, please focus on becoming a genuinely interesting person, do not think about consulting and, as the youth say, better to focus on cracking.
Why May 2028? Isnt that a bit late or am i mistaken
Enjoy life first lol. No high schooler should be dead set on consulting before taking a step in college. You're likely making an extremely uninformed decision based on some TikToks or something. Figure out what you actually want out of life and your career first.
If you must know, get good grades, get some internships (name-brand, finance, and consulting help), and chill out a tiny bit.
A big peeve of mine throughout HS and college has been the sentence "dont worry about that yet" and since that's all you got here let me give you my two cents.
I think at this stage you are too inexperienced to get any utility from networking. I've been there myself and am now on the other side of calls where the networking isn't really productive because you cant ask any deep level questions/have enough insights to connect with the person or actually get some useful/competitive takeways.
What I would do is just research, using AI, Google, WSO, and all the countless of resources we have at our hands today to get a base under-standing of what is necessary for the job; deadlines, interiews, what types of consulting is out there, company structures, work cultures. Having this ground level understanding amongst different industries and jobs will allow you to ask better questions at your school networking events, think through what you want to do, and eventually help you with your prep for interviews.
Also a lot of people are gonna tell you not to worry and have fun. Definitely have fun, definitely don't rip your hair out for no reason, but keep cognisent that you're in college to develop as a person holistically; that includes getting better at making the huzz laugh and refining your professional skill sets.
Find something that allows you to combine both. I was never a school clubs guy but I joined a lot of start-ups and cool companies as a part-time worker and got to experience a lot of fun times as well as learning experiences through that.
Wish you the best on your journey
Really appreciate your response. Regarding networking, I was mainly thinking of starting with friends of friends who are in the industry and whom I’ve already been acquainted with. Would it be ok if I PM you some of the questions I was thinking of asking them on a call, just to see whether they’re insightful enough and worth their time?
I think you have two options here. The first is to be the exception at your school and land MBB. In this case, my advice: keep a high GPA, get involved in the most prestigious clubs, maybe try to found something (club or company). Try to be exceptional. Become student body president. I'm not kidding, consulting companies love that shit.
The second, slightly easier option IMO, is just to transfer. If you can nail a 3.8, 3.9 at your school, get your essays reviewed by an English prof, figure out a non-awkward way to ask for LORs, maybe join some startup, there are plenty of targets that are great. easier transfers that come to mind that also bat above average for recruiting: umich, cornell, uva, vandy. southern schools are also good bc they're less competetive mbb offices, so I'd look into the latter two. MBB not gauranteed at these schools, it's never guaranteed at any schools (my friend at harvard went 0/3 both years). I interned at mbb and in my class roughly 75% went to targets. way eaiser to be part of the 75 than fight tooth and nail to be part of the 25. of that 25% only 2 who were the only from their school - true non-targets.
agree, going to mbb and getting an interview as well as passing it are lowkey equally as hard; worst case scenario you are prepared for interviews but get no looks.
Also yeah its also not guaranteed at targets to get interivews, coming from one, decent amount of people who want it can get it, but also a lot of luck and gaming involved with it from choosing diff offices or whatever.
Above person listed good transfer targets. cornell might be a bit harder i think they are mainly a ny target but ive heard they only have good success with mck, and mck ny is probably bad odds. uva, mich, UT, GT, UCLA/Berk for state schools that punch well. Obviously if you can transfer to an ivy or stanford duke northwestern that would be nice too but idk how often they take non laterals aside from cornell and northwestern?
I’ve heard gt, ut, ucla, Berkeley don’t scale up for their size. Cornell also feeds into DC as well, also Boston. Places some nationally as well. Vandy goes to dc, Atlanta, tx offices (they do recruiting together). UVA goes to boston, ny, dc, Atlanta, some national. Umich goes to Chicago super heavily - huge office - and places nationally (oos kids, ny, sf). This is from my company for fwiw, but generally also applies to the others.
Not as familiar with others but gt is mostly Atlanta, UT is mostly texas offices, with some national. UCs (especially Berk) obv dominate west coast but also these schools are huge. But tbh ucla and usc a bit overrated as MBB feeders
That all makes sense, thanks for sharing. Regarding transferring, would you say the main issue with where I’m currently headed is the lack of OCR, fewer resources, or simply the school name not making it past the initial resume screen?
I could possibly leverage my athletics to transfer to a more target uni, but the earliest I could realistically transfer would be sophomore year (and potentially as late as junior year). My concern there is twofold. Would that negate the work I had already done at my original university -specifically the networking, connections, and efforts to secure internships through the school? And also would I simply be too late to the game? I understand that MBB and high-finance roles generally have very early recruiting windows, and my peers at the transfer school would've already had a jump start.
My school also offers a 3+2 dual-degree engineering program where you graduate with a BA from the home institution and a BS in engineering from an Ivy. Would having the Ivy’s name on my resume meaningfully improve my chances for MBB or high finance roles? Or is the incremental brand value not worth the extra year and lack of a graduate-level credential?
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