Hi everyone. Hope everyone has been doing well and staying healthy during this time. A little background about myself. I went to Baruch College for undergraduate, majored in Finance, and did an internship at a boutique PE firm. Post graduation I spent 2 years in corporate finance at J.P. Morgan working on operating model strategy. After working on operating model and getting exposures to management consulting via consultants whom I have worked with, I decided to shift my career toward management consulting or corporate strategy. I then spent 1 year at an asset management firm working on FP&A and Strategic Finance. The role filled in the quantitative skillset gap that I didn't get much from my role at J.P. Morgan. Currently I am a Corporate Strategy Analyst at a retail company working across brands to drive strategy development and structure initiatives around supply. In the near future I am planning to either go back to school for a MBA or start something on my own.
Feel free to ask me any questions and I will try my best to answer!
Thank you all.
WSO Mentor
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What was your networking strategy back then?
I have tried different networking strategies and each has it’s pros and cons.
Cold call/ email: I have found a high successful rate through cold email. All of time I make sure that there is an open position that I am interested before reaching out. It is highly effective to get in touch with the hiring manager or the associated recruiting manager. Without doing any homework and just reaching out mindlessly is pretty much a waste of time.
From my experience I find that it is best to do your research first on who or which team is hiring for the specific position that you want. Then present yourself and ask how you could best position yourself for an interview. Many companies have internal recruiting systems that show who the hiring manager is for a specific job post. You could probably get those information from your network. However, be mindful to not present yourself as annoying when you cold call/ email. He or she is doing you a big favor and show your appreciation for their time.
Alumni: I have reached out to alumni who I knew work on teams that were recruiting. They were very open to share their experience with the company and the team and also passed my resume along to the hiring manager. Alumni is a highly effective networking resource for both recruiting and learning about a job.
Career fair (NABA, ALPFA, ASCEND, and etc.): these career conferences could be a great place to land a BO, MO, accounting or other entry level positions. The positions could be much less “prestige” compare to IBD, PE, AM and etc. However, there are networks that could be valuable to you after the conference. For example, I had the pleasure to connect with the CFO of a BB during a career conference. After the career conference he connected me with the head of derivatives. Even though I didn’t have the skill set that qualifies for a position on his team, it was a tremendous networking experience.
LinkedIn: I always utilize LinkedIn network for interview preparations and learning about a company/ position. I find a lot of people are welcome to share what they do or their experience with a company. Usually I ask if they would have 30 mins to share their experience via a phone call.
Tbh there isn’t a specific networking strategy that I go with. They are all effective and rewarding in different ways. Just be mindful that not present yourself as annoying. I sometimes ask my network if there is anything that I could help or network that I could share in return. Most of the time their answer were “no”, but the question itself shows that you are a considerate person (it’s all about good impression).
That is one thing that I thought of when looking back at my career path. However, I am not concerned at all. Statistically and traditionally business schools recruit a considerable amount of students with investment banking and management consulting backgrounds. But in recent decades many schools emphasize more in background diversities, they now leave more openings to people with a non-traditional background. I personally see myself falling in that category.
I have always wanted to work in strategy, but its not easy to break in. Knowing that I was not going directly into IB or MC right out of collage, I intentionally looked for jobs that would strategically build my credential. Each job contributed the skillset or project experience that I needed to get me to where I am today. I sure took a detour there, haha.
Also business school is an option rather than a destination. I have ran a small business for two years during undergraduate. Building something on my own has alway been in the back of my mind. Entrepreneurial experience is highly valued in business school. I have met several entrepreneurs who later went back to top business schools after founding their businesses. In the end of the day business school is all about networking value, and they welcome those who can present such intrinsic value.
I will further evaluation my options and decide when the time comes.