Hey fellow chimps. I am excited to say that I finally landed a full time analyst position with a boutique investment bank. I did not have the typical route to IB. I never even had a finance internship during my undergrad. During my senior year I discovered my passion for IB and started networking my way into phone calls and coffee chats. A few months go by and I totally messed up 2 super days a year ago. I ended up taking the WSO interview and modeling courses while I enrolled in a Masters of Finance degree after I couldn’t find a job during the peak of the pandemic last May. After networking vigorously from a non target and taking internships while going to school I was able to finally land a full time analyst position. A couple of items that made me stand out from other candidates despite coming from a non target school, and lacking IB internships included the following:
1. Always make a cover letter and try to find out who is interviewing you.
2. Know your technical flash cards well, and have a good understanding of the financial statements.
3. Consider a masters or an mba to help you stand out from other candidates.
4. Don’t be afraid to reach out to people via LinkedIn or send a cold email to a firm. Especially if you can get an alumni connection.
5. Don’t give up your search. It truly is a numbers game and it took me 4 super days to figure it out, and finally land the job on the 5th.
Best of luck to those of you that are still searching. It took me over a year and a half to break in, but it is worth it.
What a stud
Congratulations man! I hope you are proud of yourself and thank you for sharing your tips us who also come from non targets
Grats on the offer as a fellow non-target who broke in.
I gotta ask how did a cover letter help you? To me from both the perspective of being the guy sending them and the one evaluating them, they've held absolutely no value.
I can only speak from my experience, and yours may differ. However, I started to notice that firms where I just shot over my resume I would be rejected 9/10. When I added a job detailed cover letter catered to the firm, I noticed that I was significantly getting more calls back. The success rate would also go up if the email was to an alumni connection, or if you can find the name of the VP/Associate or whomever is interviewing you for round 1. This is just my experience and it may differ for everyone.