Delaying Graduation to get an IB internship

Background info: Basically I am a junior at a semi target with a 3.7 GPA and I have had 2 Commercial Banking internships and 1 internship in Merchant Banking. However, I am still yet to break into IB.

What are your thoughts on delaying my graduation for a year if I can't manage to acquire a SA for my summer after Senior Year? I will most likely be offered a FT position at the Commercial Bank that I have worked at but probably won't take it because I want to try IB

Thanks in Advance!

12 Comments
 

Don't do it. Take whatever you have this year, and hit it hard for FT recruiting. You can still break in later. In fact, you can probably lateral in to IB from commercial banking at some small shops after a year or 2.

"Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there" - Will Rogers
 

All depends on the reasons you weren't able to break in. If you gave it your all this past year, unless you figured out the one thing holding you back, I wouldn't expect the future to be different.

 
Best Response

There have been people who got interested in IB late, and said on their resume that they were graduating in December instead of May/June and made themselves eligible that way. The issue is that if you do land a SA IB gig, HR might have questions if you graduated when you were supposed to instead of what you wrote on your resume, so there's risk involved because you'd essentially be lying. Usually the only people who do post-graduation IB SA internships are those going back for a 1-year masters.

In addition, there's the chance that you'll have to wait 13-14 months after graduation for your full-time gig to start -- if you graduate in May 2017, do the internship from June-August 2017 and then need to wait until June/July 2018 to start. So you'd have to find work to support yourself in the meantime and lengthens out the timeline. It means you would probably be turning 24 during your first year as an analyst. BB's generally let you start in either January or March for winter graduates but they'll still expect you to say for the full two years (until summer 2020), or 2.5 years, which sucks.

Also, if possible, you just drop down to three classes or pick up an extra minor. State schools tend to be okay with this, but many targets tend to emphasize the "4 and out" pattern and are only okay with delays if there was a leave of absence.

 

Why not get a masters in finance? Or MiM from Duke or MiCommerce from UVA? Seems like a better use of time and money than to essentially extend your undergraduate degree.

I have a tender spot in my heart for cripples, bastards, and broken things
 

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