Hey guys, just had a question about the lateral recruiting process for candidates like myself already in IB. I work at a boutique firm and am trying to make the move up to a MM/BB/EB if possible, but so far am 0/6 in final rounds thus far.
I have some more interviews in the pipeline coming up, but am wondering why I'm getting to a bunch of final rounds but not able to convert? Does coming from a boutique with 1 year of experience but only 1 closed deal (5+ others in mid stages) hurt me? Or perhaps maybe I'm not able to talk about my deal experience well?
I also guess the last question, is maybe you just have to get lucky to one of these spots? Even if you ace the interviews (which I felt I did on 2 of them and ultimately did not get).
Thanks for your help guys, I really appreciate it.
Could be any number of reasons. I'd try reaching back out to your interviewers for feedback. You might not get candid answers from everyone, but it can't hurt.
To be extremely blunt, you probably suck at interviewing. The good news is that it's the easiest thing to improve. I would first start off my look at the WSO investment banking resume template (Google it) to make sure your resume is in order. Then, spend some time going through the interview guides. You need to sound passionate and tie everything back to your experiences. For example, if an interviewer asks why you want to work at his/her bank, give your standard answers, but finish with that you also have a skillset to bring to the table and how that can benefit the bank.
I hope that makes sense. Happy to answer any more questions. Google "Sil lateraling guide" and read that if you have not already.
Have you been able to land interviews at EBs coming from a local boutique?
Yes I have been, though it's more a regional boutique (like SunTrust) rather than a local boutique.
@Sil thanks for the advice, and I've tailored my resume through the template provided. I guess then the most important thing is to always tie your behavioral answers to your experiences and use that as the differentiation?
Hey dude I know you kinda posted the question here but I wanted to ask how has your experience been when asked to highlight deal experience? Do you just like walk through what you did on the deal and the process etc? How specific should it be? I am seriously thinking of lateraling from MM LevFin into IB around fall of next year and really wanna get all my ducks in a row before I take the plunge. At my firm we run a lot of deals but they are seem relatively short compared to standard IB deals, so I feel like I will have a lot to talk about and won't at the same time.
When I made the change from Corp Dev to IB, most of the questions i got was based around past deals and deal experience. They even had most of my technical around my past deals, going through how I had modeled this, or what would change if this ( pretty much standard technical questions, but most based on the deals I was talking about.) It may be different from LevFin but yes, most of the questions I got was heavily based in my prior deals.
Thanks a ton for the insight. Much appreciated. The good thing is I can't really start trying to make this jump for another six to nine months, so I'll have plenty of time to iron this out and give talking points.
Hey guys also as a quick question to this process. Sil mentioned how some banks take a while during lateraling to extend an offer; one of the firms I'm in dialogue with rejected me for a third year Analyst role but asked if I wanted to be considered for the interview process for second/first year Analyst role. They also didn't make me re-interview. Is that a good sign?
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