Advice For Incoming Freshman at a Non-Target

I was in your position exactly a year ago. A few things I would recommend: -Reach our to a few people at banks that are small boutiques. Get a feel for informational interviews and get the nerves out of the way. -Get a high GPA and look to transfer. If needed retake the SAT possibly -You don’t need to study technicals. Read up on the industry, make sure it’s something you want to do not just for the money. Be able to articulate the different types of IB, understand what you do as an analyst and what a successful non-target candidate looks like. -When you get to campus make friends with everyone. Upper class men? Yes. Finance professors? Definitely. I showed up to the office of the professor who runs our investment fund the second week of school. -Attend every networking/info event. Be nice to the people, get cards and send thank you’s. Ask for calls if you have questions. -Try and land an internship. I was lucky enough to have one the summer before college. The first one is the hardest. Ask upperclassmen what is easiest to land and network your way in.

Hope this helps!

gain a leveraged finance / loan capital markets & syndicate skillset. I can walk you through a gameplan if you want, send you docs and stuff to read or exercises to do, after reading the initial loan primer and qualitative. im actually creating an online course in this arena but unfortunately idk when it’ll be finished. hopefully by Mid August end of summer - so I’m happy to talk offline and send u stuff to learn on your own. read through some of my comments in threads on the topic of you want - to get a sense of the value. message me and we’ll trade emails if you are interested

also interested

I am at a non-target anf going through recruiting right now.

Like others have mentioned, Alumni are your best bet.

Also, companies will look for an excuse to reject you so make sure you have a high GPA (3.7+), internships (connected to finance is very useful), as well as ECs that show that you have the skills needed to succeed. Make sure you are near the top of the class in your batch in the business school. I am probably in the top 5 out of 700 students.

You should also have an excellent relationship with the head of your career center. For me, this has been the difference-maker between the opportunities I have had and peers from my schools. If there's one alum who's an MD from your school, the school can't push all the candidates, right? This is where this relationship will be useful.

Also, since you have 2 years before recruiting starts for you (second sem of sophomore year), COVID should be done by then. So, you should definitely make trips before the recruiting starts and maybe during it so that you can meet in person for coffee chats. 30 mins face-to-face is much, much better than 2 hours of phone time.

One advantage of being from a non-target: you can be the big fish in a small pond.

P'M me if interested, would love to chat. Also a non-target student who managed to "break in"

keep networking man, that is the key to go. Find out people from your school, other non targets and get your foot through the door. Have a 3.5+ GPA no matter what and aim for 3.7+ GPA. Be involved with 3 clubs at least: one finance, one social and the 3rd one can be of your choice. Do 1-2 finance internships and be a god in technicals. I went through the same process, I know the grind.

P.S., I will be joining an EB in July.

I was able to grab an IB BB internship for the summer from a non-target, and while its definitely difficult, breaking in is doable no matter what school you go to. The key I found was to leverage the advantages of a nontarget and differentiate yourself from the rest of the nontarget pack.

Advantages:

- Nontargets typically have few alumni in banking, but those alumni are also much more willing to mentor you and support you through recruitment. Reach out to these alumni early and get to know them. The few alumni from my school were a wealth of knowledge and taught me much about the industry. They are also now lifelong contacts.

- The concern about nontarget schools is that they are not as challenging as some targets and don't graduate as smart or hardworking professionals. Show them this isn't the case by killing your classes, mastering technicals, and joining/starting as many extracurriculars as you can deeply participate in. I absolutely packed my resume will as much meaningful experience I could get.

- Differentiate yourself. Top banks don't want just another fin bro from a nontarget. If they are taking a chance on you, they are doing it because they see something unique about you that increases your upside potential. I started college in biology experience publishing research became a major talking point in nearly all my interviews.

- Network early, always, anywhere, and everywhere. Start early on linkedin shooting out messages and emails to analysts at any bank you can. You are gonna need to nail your networking calls so getting practice early is important. Also, use any connection possible. I reached out to family friends, friends of family friends, even people who just liked the same sports teams. It was a alum from my highschool (did not know him prior) who helped me prep for interviews and get my offer. I'll be interning in his group this summer.

Hope this helps and best of luck!