COVID-19 Networking Success! [A Must Read]

Hey there, all you cool cats and kittens, it's NetworkingNinja here, and it's story time.

Background: East coast non-target. Third-year analyst at a west coast LMM PE shop. Below market pay, demanding hours, all-around toxic culture.

Needless to say, I'm looking for new opportunities, especially given the increased flexibility in my schedule while working from home. I've cast a wide net of PE and IB positions (yes I would consider IB given the potential to join as an associate and take a significant bump in pay).

While I have strong experience and 5+ deals closed, I still haven't gained much traction after applying to over 100 jobs in the last two months and speaking with headhunters on the side. After a surprisingly slow week at work (which led to aggressive job searching/applications), I opened a bottle of wine at 4:00 pm on Friday to reflect and drink my sorrows away.

Coming from a non-target, the only "banks" that recruit on campus are commercial banks. I've activated LinkedIn Premium and messaged all alumni at respectable investment banks for "career guidance." I received a quick response from a senior banker at a lower-tier BB, and he provided me his email.

I sent him a concise email thanking him for the quick response and suggested several windows for us to speak. On Tuesday, he replied with one ten-minute window for Wednesday afternoon, so I replied that it worked for me and asked for the best number to reach him. Although he immediately accepted the calendar invite, he did not provide his phone number. An hour before the call, I sent a reminder email that I looked forward to speaking and asked him again for his phone number. He responded, "on a call that may go long." I responded, "not a problem, is there a time that works better?" He responds "give me your number, and I'll call you during that ten-minute window if my call ends by then." 20 minutes before our scheduled call, I get a calendar invite from my MD for a MEETING IN SEVEN MINUTES that would overlap with the ten-minute window. I immediately emailed the Alumni (senior banker) that I was sorry but I received a last-minute calendar invite for a meeting, and provided several alternative times to connect. He immediately declined the calendar invite that he previously accepted, sent the decline to me with no message, and absolute radio silence since then.

Stay thirsty my friends. And, if anyone can help with my search, that would be greatly appreciated. Just don't be a dick and ghost me, please. That's what Tinder is for.