FORMERLY HOMELESS, do I still have a shot at banking??? Please give advice!
I have been financially independent since I was a teenager. Had to leave my home at a young age due to some egregious circumstances. Thus, as you can imagine affording school has been incredibly difficult. For years I have struggled with housing and food insecurities (I was homeless when I was a teenager).
Now, I have gathered my life up as best as I can. Got a GED, currently enrolled at NYU sps 3.8 GPA. The downside? I’m 25 years old female with one more semester remaining until graduation. I work FT to afford school and pay for school with my own money so it has taken me a long time to graduate. I just want honesty, is IB not in my cards? I really want to become an investment banker, even if it means going to grad school (have been looking to apply to Columbia MBA) . I am willing to do anything I can but I just feel like I’m so old and behind . Would appreciate any advice on next steps, I don’t have anyone to give me advice. Any advice, thoughts, comments , similar experiences, anything is so appreciated!
I would find a comment by APAE from a post on someone who graduated Penn with a 3.9 in history but no job.
You are not screwed. Tell your story in a compelling manner, view your circumstances as assets, and you can go anywhere.
Thank you so much! This is so helpful! I greatly appreciate your time and response. I will certainly look into this!
Thank you!!!
This is ranked as the best response for good reason. Regard your circumstances as assets, the best thing you can do.
I'd be flattered if you were not an engagement bot..
You may feel behind but look at it another way: You've traveled 2x the distance of your peers to get to the same place. Like the guy above me said, your journey and the culmination of experiences along the way are an asset.
When telling your story you can focus on all the accomplishments you've made to get here and how that has shaped you into the person you are today.
Your age is only an impediment if you let it. So get out there and start networking.
Thank you SO much!!!! This is so helpful and I greatly appreciate you taking the time to give such an encouraging response. I am beyond grateful for this! Thank you!
This is a bunch of cope. Nobody cares about the journey. It's only the end goal that matters.
Models and bottles baby, on my G800 private jet.
Sounds like you're the one smoking copium.
You will have a more compelling story & resume than the 99% of applicants who are box ticking path followers
Thank you so much for taking the time to give some advice. I really appreciate this!
Wishing you the best of luck with your career!
You are 25 you'll be evaluated the same as any other entry level candidate. Your grades are within a normal range and you are at a good school.
I don't see the remainder factoring for or against you.
I really appreciate this response! This is so helpful! Thank you so much for your time and thoughts! Wishing you the best of luck with your career!!
I'm not sure you understand, you'll be evaluated the same as every other entry level candidate, that means you still need to do the work successful candidates do. Your age isn't a factor but you will have to find some IB adjacent experience to have any shot at all.
Are you insane? You don’t think her story puts her far beyond her competition? You’re certainly not going to make it to any management positions with that lack of perception or inability to read the room.
This is so kind of you to say. Appreciate your advocacy here! Thank you and to all the commenters who’ve been so uplifting!
I'm a quite old WSO member and my job title isn't current, so I'll address this as a teachable moment instead of ms.
I'm a multiple cancer survivor, I know firsthand adversity doesn't place anyone ahead or behind other people. Adversity doesn't make one more qualified either. Having a rough background doesn't make anyone better just as it does not make anyone deficient or impaired.
Certainly it can demonstrate disposition or determination but those are worthless if you don't know how use them. You still have to be able to do the work.
thrse replies are insane
you have a very very low shot at getting an IB job. its nothing against you personally its just how the industry operates
why is this in the HF forum?
I appreciate the honesty, this is helpful. I put this in the HF forum and the IB forum because it’s my absolute dream to go from IB to HF. I had read on WSO that apparently there’s a descent number of people who go from IB to HF? Was curious if there was anyone who might have some insights here. Likewise, I just am really not interconnected with anyone in finance so I was hoping for any advice or commentary that is realistic in regards to my current standing. Again, willing to try anything to get my foot in the door so open to any advice.
Thanks again for the honesty and taking the time to give a response. Wishing you the best in your career!
Username, insecurity, sympathy fishing, complete lack of "dream" industry knowledge = engagement bait bot. WSO get sold or something?
If not, and are at nyu sbs go RE IB. Best chance if you're hot/charismatic/best performer of the DEI group they're forced to hire. Also, join the NYU ib club. If you're not hot, get hot.
Also, re-eval your life plan. Goal is HF from IB? Off one comment on WSB and an ep of Billions? I'd rather shoot tranq homeless riding up and down rockaway xpress than go IB.
Homeless > IB dei hire > HF punter is a "brave" netflix fantasy. 100% rotten tomatoes.
So do you think I should absolutely not go for IB? Is there any other possible options in different sectors of finance that I could possibly switch to IB from later down the line? Thank you again !
Please don't listen to that guy. If you're recruiting out of undergrad, you'll likely be treated just like every other candidate from your college.
Just go for it. Listen to the comment below from Associate 3 in CorpDev.
This is completely wrong. Yes there are pretentious shit bags like you, especially in finance. But plenty of not.
People in the comments section are idiots. IB is absolutely feasible. You are not trying to go GS --> HBS --- KKR, you are trying to break in an industry that takes billy bob with his 3.3 from Iowa State.
Look, I started at community college, one of my best friends did too. He went to a semi after, I went to a complete non-target. We both landed banking offers.
Start small. Target firms LMM / MM like Stifel, Mesirow or Lincoln, and even smaller, down to the 20 employee shops. You should land offers. 1-2 years at these shops and suddenly you can lateral to much stronger shops.
Your age wont inhibit you. I graduated at 25. Yes your age can hurt you (shoutout Key Banc, the only firm to outright end my interview after the first round after prying into my past and directly asking me when I graduated high school so they could back into my age).
It will be challenging, but tell your story and watch how people go to bat for you.
I had a community college kid who had a very similar background to yours reach out to me. I helped him land full time offers in IB, Consulting, and several other fields.
You have made it against all odds. Why would you let some pimple faced 23 year olds on the internet determine what you can or cannot accomplish?
So beyond grateful for this wonderful response! This is so wonderful to hear and such a great example of others who also were in a similar situations but still made it! Likewise, the details you provided are just so beyond helpful. It’s so lovely to chat with people in finance as I’m just not well interconnected. I’m Always open to any suggestions and willing to try anything so if you ever think of additional Insights do let me know. Thank you and best of luck to you! I hope you have a wonderful year full of happiness, health, and sucess!
Happy to help. If you need additional guidance or direction, let me know.
Happy to help. If you would like additional feedback / guidance, respond to this thread and Ill send you a DM.
Love to hear these atypical background stories, as I'm in something of a similar situation. You (and OP) have my respect
You are so kind!!! Thank you so much! Thank you for contributing to this discussion, this is all so appreciated!
I second this. I came out of community college super late into recruiting and just landed a BB Investing role. Telling your story is super important, and I landed this offer 6 months after graduating this past summer, so it's never too late.
Oh wow!!!! HUGE congratulations to you !!! What an achievement! Thank you for sharing this incredible sucess story. I certainly have increased hopes now that you’ve shared this. So happy for you and wishing you the best of luck with your career!
She absolutely can go from GS to HBS to KKR. You’re such a pretentious piece of entitled shit that this seems logical for you to say. It’s wrong.
Omg you’re so kind! Thank you! I’m dying at all your comeback comments🤣
Good for you. You have put in much more work and are probably much smarter than most of the apes in banking.
You can always work for a smaller firm that is more entrepreneurially geared.
Thank you so much for taking the time to respond! Likewise, I really appreciate your advice, and I will start looking into maybe some smaller firms that might be more accommodating. Wishing you all the best and thank you so much for your suggestion!
I am beyond flattered! Thank you so much. Likewise, just thank you for taking the time to respond to this post. These comments are just so insightful and so appreciated!
I see you posted you want to go IB to HF. I did that, and there are lot of us that did that. It's been a while since I left IBD, but your odds are okay to slightly bad if you are just going into full time analyst recruiting without a summer internship. Are you getting any looks for full time interviews? If you're not getting any interview looks than your odds are pretty bad. For the banks I worked at, I can say for fulltime (new grad) and summer internship recruiting, we NOTICE age but it isn't a factor unless you're over 32 and not ex-military. It's more like, "oh hey this kid is older than the others I wonder why?" It would be something discussed during the first interview.
Actually saw a similar case except male, and he was 26 when I gave him an offer for a summer internship (MM IBD coverage) for his junior summer (took time off from undergrad to pursue professional sports apparently). Kid did okay during internship, got a full time offer, he took the offer and joined upon graduating.
Not going to coddle you and say you did a great job and have a lot of perseverance and that's what you need in the industry to make it. You had challenges, you worked through it; make your case in an interview well, but not in a way that looks like you're looking for sympathy and it should all be plus points for the final decision.
More importantly, are you getting any interview looks? what did you study? Do you interview well on behavioral and technicals? Did you make an effort to be ready for the interview? Are you hardworking (clearly you are, so make it known) and willing to work hard? Are you LIKEABLE? Are you WEIRD? The last questions are actually more important than you think. Everyone likes a good comeback story but no one wants to hire someone who isn't likeable or is super weird when they have to spend 90-100+ hours with them 7 days a week.
If you scored just as well as a 21 year old male and a 21 year old female during the interview process, I think you'd have an edge over at least the 21 year old male to get an offer. My preference was to always give an offer to a female candidate, and we had a "quota" of sort to give as many final offers to females as we did to male candidates.
… I’ve read this so many times. I just can’t thank you enough for taking your time to write this. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts, advice, and similar experiences. I’m so grateful for this.
To touch on a few things, I’m good at technicals and that’s my strength. Everything else is a bit of a blur. I can’t seem to get past two things 1. My degree sucks. It’s business management and international business double major. I know it is stupid but it was the best sps offered. I got a larger scholarship so I took it and I have go to a school that offers online classes so I can work FT which is why I did SPS. 2. I don’t tell interviewers or literally anyone I know why I haven’t graduated yet. It’s embarrassing and it comes off as if I’m asking for sympathy. just never in my life thought of hinting at my circumstances in an interview until now that I’m reading these comments saying to leverage it. I usually make up an excuse like “oh I took some time off to figure out my life plans” or some other bs. So yes, I get interview bites, I have gotten coffee chats at citadel, to summer internship interviews at GS, but never do I get the offer . To be fair, I only moved to Manhattan and started NYU last spring (came from a community college). So I’ve only had about two semesters of NYU’s networking and career center opportunities (which is where the interview and coffee chat requests came from). But I’m discouraged last spring I didn’t get offers and this fall is the same.
Anyways, just wanted to give some more detail and follow up on some of your questions. Thank you so much for this. wishing you the best of luck with your career!
I went to NYU and I think if you had some more semesters, this would be alot more feasible. Assuming you didn't get anything going for FT recruitment ( did you have an internship this summer? ) and so you've missed that last structured window to get into banking. sure random postings do pop up throughout the spring until june 26, but if you dont have any relevant experience it's going to be very hard. You may not get into IB out of college but that doesnt mean you cant lateral into it down the line. if you do have that relevant experience, my advice is to network very hard w/ anyone in finance from the non stern schools as well as girls in general. alot of stern alumni are real fucking snobby about coffee chatting non stern
you mentioned CBS, are you applying to the deferred MBA programs? you should look at the stern one as well as i have seen some classmates do those programs from other schools @ NYU and have a pretty smooth process. you would need 2-3 yoe to be competitive for MBA asso positions but that's not a bad age to be an associate.
If you’re ultimately trying to get into HF, IB -> PE -> HF is a common route, but so is ER. I would also target ER if I were you, since you can’t afford to be picky
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I’ve never considered this route before! I will certainly look into this further.
Thank you so much for taking the time to share your advice. This is so helpful!
If you ever have any additonal suggestions or thoughts from your personal experience please share! Thank you and best of luck with your career!
Thinking from a European perspective would be really helpful here given your circumstances. The majority of continental europeans complete a bachelors, then a full masters degree (which often involves a year of internships, e.g. at HEC) that can span 6 years total. Add in a gap year and you see the average European intern in London is around 24-26 years old.
Age will not be an inhibiting factor for job performance (at least in your 20s); I understand in the US there will be a perception factor re. being 25 and just graduating from undergrad. As others have said above, make your experiences/journey your strength and not a hinderance.
Also, as someone on the publics side, I always enjoy working with those who have an unconventional background, as they are often the types who have grit, survive, and see angles that others miss. P&L kills your soul at times, and that's when true character building happens. Many HYPSM -> BB/EB -> PE -> HF kids have never tasted failure, and crumble quickly under a draw down. Perhaps recruitment is a bit of a pain for you currently, but view your experiences with pride, as they will be monumentally more important for you further down your career path.
Godspeed.
I really cherish this post. This is so kind of you. Thank you for taking the time to write this as well as being so encouraging! I will be holding on to your words as I continue to try to break into banking. This really means a lot! Thank you again and I hope you have an incredible new year filled with happiness and success!
I have interviewed a lot of Analyst candidates and will tell you this.
There are so many stories I forget. Working through "adversity" of trying to handle 3 finance clubs and a slate of classes is one thing, but your story is one I would not forget.
Intellect and a good GPA gets you through the door in IB, but what I look for is signs of grit for candidates who will last. Based on what you're saying in this post, you have more grit than any 4.0 UMich puke I've ever met.
Yes you have a chance, IB is not out of your future. As other posters have mentioned, tell your story and network.
All the best!
Oh this is just the most uplifting thing I’ve ever heard. Thank you so much for encouraging me to leverage my story in a positive way. I have never ever felt comfortable sharing my situation but these comments have made me feel far less embarassed of my story. I can’t thank you enough for taking the time to write this.
I hope you have an incredible year. Wishing you sucess and happiness!
Thank you!!!
You absolutely can. Never come across as a victim (because you’re not and you’ve proven YOU have controlled your destiny) and you have an AMAZING story of grit, drive, and determination. You’re not going to get every job you apply for but you will definitely end up in a fantastic place because you must have the finance technical chops with that GPA.
You’ve overcome incredible odds and you can confidently say to interviewers “despite what Ive unfortunately gone through, I have high aspirations and I am determined to be in IB. Few if any of the other people looking for this spot can say they’ve had as difficult of a journey and still ended up in front of you. I don’t intend on giving up when I’ve come this far.”
Thank you so much for taking the time to write this! This is so appreciated and so kind of you! Going to private message you now- thanks again!
What a story, if you can continue to hustle like you have been there is an IB job for you out there. If I was interviewing you and you were just a slight tick lower on technicals but had this story, you're getting the offer.
You’ve been so kind thank you for being so defensive of my situation in the chat! Appreciate you!
DM me. Not sure what I can do but happy to try to help.
Absolutely! It’s also such a joy meeting people in different sectors of finance! I really appreciate you sharing your knowledge !
Ngl, if you told your story in an interview with me, I'd 100% vouch for you. It's that type of grit that will get you far and also shows that you'd be a hard worker at the job. You got this!
This is so kind of you to say. Thank you for sharing this, it’s so appreciated. I’m really surprised at the volume of comments who have also said the same thing?! I’ve never thought of leveraging this before as it’s always been a topic I avoid so I appreciate these comments so much it’s really opened my perspective to how I can talk about my academic journey and why there are so gaps along the way.
Thank you for sharing this. I hope you have a fantastic new years and wishing you all the best!
Depends what you look like..
But in all seriousness if you're smart enough, have enough drive, and put in the hours, you'd be surprised what one can accomplish in a semester. I'd probably take the "SPS" out of your resume and not bring it up unless they ask. Lastly, this is the best piece of advice you're gonna hear: I know that replying to and reading these comments feel productive and probably boost the dopamine levels, but close the fucking tab and go chase your dream.
— Some lazy kid who decided to lock in during his last semester
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