Breaking into Wall St. post-MBA with a recruiter background
Long time reader, first time poster.
I'm a fixed income S&T recruiter at a top 5, publicly-traded global retained executive search firm interested in exploring possible trajectories into a front office job on Wall St. Currently, I place mostly senior-level guys and teams in rates and credit. On occasion, my team will move an entire desk.
Lately, I've been toying around with the idea going back to school full-time at CUNY (did 1.5 years of UG, did horribly, then dropped out to work FT recruiting for a different industry) and finishing my bachelor's degree. I would take the GMATs and try to get into an NYC-area b-school with good banking & capital markets recruiting (i.e. Columbia, NYU Stern).
If there is a place for me on the Street, given my background and contacts, it would probably be on a FI sales desk. Maybe (big maybe) on the research (desk analyst) or trading side. That said, what I am most interested in doing is obtaining an IBD summer associate gig at a top BB or boutique in NYC. Beggars can't be choosers but preferably a US bulge bracket with a significant LatAm footprint.
What are some things I can do to maximize my chances at securing a front office i-banking job?
Thus far, my plan is to get a BBA in Finance from CUNY Baruch Zicklin School of Business at night and on the weekends, take the GMATs and do well, get into a top b-school and take it from there.
I would ask some of my S&T contacts now about this, but I don't want to draw attention to the fact that I don't have a college degree. I don't lie about it if asked, but I certainly don't volunteer that information to candidates and clients.
Any ideas or thoughts are sincerely appreciated.
"what I am most interested in is obtaining an IBD summer associate gig at a top BB or boutique in NYC."
I'm sorry, but without an undergraduate degree you're thinking way, way to far in advance on this one. You need to get an undergraduate degree immediately, so do that... and if it has to be at CUNY than so be it, but make sure you get good grades. Then you'll need to spend a year or two doing free internships on the street in whatever capacity you can.... if all goes well by the time you graduate from CUNY in a couple years you'll have internships and a good GPA... if you're very, very lucky you could get a job in finance of some kind that could be good experience for business school... maybe sales at a random bank or something.... do that for 3 years, then, assuming you're still like 32 or younger, apply for an MBA. IF you kill it on the GMAT, maybe you could get into NYU or something along those lines... at that point you could start worrying about summer associate postions in IBD at a top bank.
You need to worry about what's next. Get back in UG and get an internship anywhere you can workign for free in a front office role. Make sure you get good grades. Summer associate at BB is 5+ years away.
good luck
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