Are money making activites bad for recruiting

Hello,

So this sounds weird, I'm a sophomore interested in investment banking. I'm a CS major at U Wash (probably one of the best CS schools) with a double major in Finance. Been interested in IB for about half a year. 

I wanted to drop out of college because I was making ~300k per a year on social media. 

But I stayed just in case social media died. 

I'm wondering two things, is it possible to recruit junior year considering I'm pretty mediocre (3.6 GPA hard classes, pretty solid leadership activities) except I'm really really good at helping companies grow their social media. I was wondering if this would help me at all considering it's rare (I won't say hard) to find, though the expereince won't 100 percent align as well as someone with IB experience. 

Secondly, If im famous on social media (won't say my exact follower account but I have over a million subs on youtube and over 5 million on tiktok) would that be a bad thing? (I don't make anything super cringe or anything)

If anyone in IB knows I would appreciate a response. Thanks!

4 Comments
 
Most Helpful

1) If you make that kind of bank on the web - why bother going through the grind of any corporate job? I would also call this a real business, not "money making activities".

2) I have seen applicants before (even interviewed them) who had huge success on their social media accounts and they also had a marketing agency business running on the side to help other businesses grow online. No real advantage to hire that person in the corporate world, unless they'd be working in marketing/social media or would use their "fame" to get hired. This marketing skill set wouldn't offset lower grades or lower performance in the IB field, IMO.
The biggest risk in recruiting would be that the firm might believe your "other jobs" might be a huge distraction to your corporate gig. Just like any other business would be. If they ask for "exclusive employment", they might want you to sign a waiver / stop all other business activities and directorships.

3) Find your own exit. Social media businesses can invest and grow if done the right way.
I.e.
Real Estate - (Shelby/Monica Church)
eCommerce/tech - (Doug DeMuro)
NIL licensing/brand/partnerships - (Livvy Dunne)
Car rentals/tourism/hospitality/media - (Rob Ferretti)

..and so much more. You could do something like that?
 

The couple social media stars who did get hired on the IB path also had stellar records elsewhere. (see "Jess Greenberg")

I mean.. you have more followers than Breckie Hill on tiktok... maybe focus on monetizing this channel more and you'd potentially never have to work for someone else.

 

UW is hella non target for ib tho + recruiting is currently wrapping up for sophomores for junior summer internship. you will have to go through FT recruiting to get into banking which is tough without an IB SA. I would rather realistically go to amazon or msft like most of your peers do if you really want to work corporate

why go a long way to struggle when you can bank on social media business that you already worked super hard to build

 

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