Looking for thoughts/opinions on experience needed to join IB as an associate, without getting an MBA and without direct IB experience. Are there certain IB adjacent fields like consulting that with good experience make this a reasonable possibility? (I.e. transactions/deals that can be spoken to, real modeling experience, working with a client management team, etc.)
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I have only seen people lateral to IB as an analyst from Corp Dev, Big 4 TAS or a solid FLDP program. Idk if it’s possible to break in as an associate without an MBA or previous banking experience.
I know several folks who spent 2-3+ years in big 4 TAS and had to start at an analyst at MMs - granted they did get an accelerated A2A.
I guess maybe if you’re at an MBB , went to a target and networked hard it is possible, but I personally have never seen it happen.
Don’t believe this is a realistic path and have never seen it or heard of it. Anything in the universe is possible, but I would say the realistic paths to IB associate that are worth planning out are:
The first option is still accessible to anybody who laterals into an IB analyst position from an external role (consulting, CD, etc).
I had 5+ years of corporate experience (corp. dev.) when I came in as an analyst for ~6 months and was then promoted to Associate. It is unlikely anyone will hire you straight into an Associate role without at least proving yourself for a short period of time. If you have a decent amount of work experience and find a good shop that values talent you won't need to do the full analyst stint to make it to the Associate level.
MBA is really the path. If you find anyone else it's an anomaly, and you're just wasting time getting into a different job to *maybe* have a chance? You can probably find some people who slipped in during 2021 when they were hiring anyone who had a pulse, but for the most part ASO roles do not hire without experience.
FWIW consulting has close to zero modeling experience (at least within the scope of IB modeling)
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