What's the path to securing a credit analyst spot?
Hi everyone, I'm going to be a junior transfer to UCLA from CC next fall and am trying to position myself as best as I can to secure a credit analyst role out of college. Right now my only experience is as a compliance analyst at a boutique consultancy I've been working at for a year. I'm planning on grinding accounting/credit concepts and behaviorals this summer. What sort of internships should I be looking for junior summer and is there a recruiting timeline I need to be aware of? Is it prudent to network with people at credit unions/banks and try to get in that way? Thanks in advance.
I know a handful of school alumni who interned on the credit side at BBs so I would imagine that Junior year internship applications are live right now. The WSO App tracker had a bunch of credit positions listed last I checked if you want to start there.
I recently was able to land a FT offer as a credit analyst at a bank coming from B4 government advisory (lots of accounting and internal controls). With my background, if I wasn't networking, I doubt that I would have received an interview from cold-applies alone (granted, junior year internship may be less stringent on past experience than working through the process as an experienced hire). From my experience, these credit roles are still extremely competitive. Still think networking is the best bet in your case considering how many people are going to be applying with backgrounds more aligned with the job function.
Coming from a non-target background I found that my story/pitch (behaviorals) had to be bulletproof if I was going to have a shot with any of the roles I was interviewing for. One thing I found helpful on the technical side was really getting an understanding of how banks lend in the industry of the role that I was interviewing for. Spent some time learning about risk transfer (insurance), what banks will secure their loans on, etc.
Hope this helps somewhat. It's always tough coming from a non-target background but def more rewarding when it finally pays off.
This is super helpful. Were there any resources that you felt were instrumental in preparing for the role? When networking, should I mostly just reach out to members of the groups I'm applying to? I'm somewhat familiar with the IB networking process. Do I pretty much just follow the same blueprint?
School alumni in credit and target group bankers for sure.
Same blueprint in my case. I was also interviewing for M&A analyst role so it was only a matter of making minor edits to TMAY, Why IB to apply that prep to credit (a bit more focus on risk as well) I also had help from a WSO Mentor that was really helpful for me.
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