Hi everyone,
I'm a longtime lurker of this forum but I've never posted before. The information I got here over the past couple of years was hugely helpful when I was in school and looking for my job in banking, and still useful today. I wanted to give back by providing an opportunity for people who may be in the position I was in a couple of years ago to ask questions and get straightforward, frank answers.
Quick background on me:
- Second year top-bucket analyst in a top coverage group of a BB investment bank
- Target school background, consulting at a small place before banking, econ major with fairly poor grades (under 3.5)
- I got into banking due to sheer persistence and networking
I'm able and willing to answer any questions about recruiting, coming in as a lateral, life as a banking analyst and pay/exits. I have a good view into recruiting on-campus as well as I did this and got a few offers back in the day (not where I'm currently at). If you have specific questions about consulting vs. banking, making the jump from consulting to banking or otherwise "breaking in" I could really help. Let me know, I'm happy to help out a community that helped me so much.
Thanks!
Sorry I've been away for a few days. The holidays meant tons of last-minute work followed up by traveling this year.
Background: second-year analyst from a target school. I did some other stuff for a year before banking, PM me for details. Econ major with fairly poor grades (3.0-3.5), which mattered less due to my experience.
Networking: there's tons of good advice about this out there, most of which is good. People don't expect you to be totally smooth or natural when you network - they know you're networking, with the goal of getting your foot in, so demonstrating effort and diligence and coming off as sincere and dedicated is a good bet.
In my experience, cold-calling can help you as long as you're not totally terrible at it. Two examples. 1) A guy came with a reference from an ex-analyst who was pretty good. He had bad grades but you could tell he really wanted the job. He had the inside track among most of the analysts until one weekend where he made a bunch of really pathetic, transparently brown-nosing calls to various analysts at my desk just to "talk". Opinion turned on him, he had a harsh interview and no offer. 2) I met a guy at a recruiting event, took his resume and forgot about him. He sent me a follow-up email, which I also forgot about (been really busy, he didn't majorly stand out). Finally, he called me at my desk to very professionally follow up. I was impressed, mentioned it to some of the other bankers, and he got an interview. We'll see how it goes.
My advice on networking is to think about recruiting from the other side of the table. What do these guys want in new hires? Typically it's competance, composure, work ethic, and a desire to do banking rooted in a very realistic picture of what you're getting into. No one wants to hire an analyst who shows up, is shocked by what he/she finds, and quits soon thereafter. If you've got all of those nailed, then come off as natural and have a good conversation with whoever you'ver you're talking to. One last point: senior bankers typically don't engage in the recruiting process until way later, so in the early stages the analysts run the show. Get them to like you and you'll have a far better chance at interviewing because senior bankers will just ask them to handle the screening process.
CFA - not necessary and not a golden bullet, as you mention, but will definitely help. The other thing that really helps that no one really realizes is Big 4 accounting in the transactional services (M&A) group. Big 4 in a consulting group is useless. Tax also works if you've got great fundamentals.
Technology
Hope this helps and keep the questions coming, I'll try to make sure I'm more prompt this week.