I'm about to do a NY Trip so I can do coffee chats to be in a stronger position for recruiting this Fall. Would it better to meet with bankers I have already talked to over the phone or try to reach out to new people? So strengthing a single relationship at a bank or having 2-3 contacts at a bank?

With just two days, try to maximize your utility by meeting with people who... a. Are able to make the difference alone (VP and above) b. People at firms where you might be on the cusp of having a good enough network to get an interview; i.e., you have a strong connection with an analyst or two, so try to meet with one of their groupmates to have a few people in that group who know your name. Two days may not seem like a lot — and I admit that it'll be difficult since you don't have much room for flexibility — but with careful planning, you can easily fit in 5 or 6 meetings a day.

Every time that I've gone has been for 4 or 5 days, all during the workweek. Depending of what specific firms you want to target, you can plan the days accordingly... For example, I would try to plan to spend 2/5 days downtown, and 3/5 days in Midtown. Obviously, my personal schedule is inconsequential compared to the bankers', so I would often have to be flexible last minute (e.g., scrambling from Midtown downtown because someone's schedule opened up last minute). Most of my meetings were at coffee shops in or around their offices, except occasionally when they invited me up the building.

I would say the SAFEST bet is to schedule them 1.5 hours apart (based on start time, e.g. one at 3pm, one at 4:30pm). 1 hour apart (3pm and 4pm) is the absolute closest. It's usually fine, but you never know if someone is going to get delayed, show up 15 minutes late; next thing you know, you've been having such a good conversation for 40 minutes and you only have 5 minutes to go 3 streets and 2 avenues to your next meeting (source: experience, lol). If you haven't done this before, and don't know the city quite well, I would suggest just doing 1.5 hours apart.

Doing a NY trip, do I meet with new bankers or existing relationships?

Jamoldo

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Start a week or two before going. Cold email. Keep it short, snappy and to the point. They won't typically respond. So after 3-5 days or so, send a chaser. Most will not respond. Then you call them and make a case for a 5-10 minute coffee (on you) where it is convenient for them. If they reject you over email and its more than a sentence long, it usually means they will meet, you just have to call and convince them (the indication is that they spent more than 3 seconds saying "no" which means there is a "maybe" possibly).

Sometimes it doesn't work, but the track record is better than one thinks.

Echo to the emphasis to focus on VP and above if possible and to chase both cold leads as well as people you have met before.

I've said this before in other threads. Banking at its core (and so much of finance) is sales. Doing stuff like this shows initiative, desire and traits for sales.

For others out there who are new to the industry or are thinking about entering it: Close your eyes for a second and think. What do MDs often do? Fly around, meet clients etc. Why? They are pitching their services/bank/themselves in a brutally competitive industry to clients, that, frankly have a lot of choices. What you are doing above (cold email, call, flying in to meet them and pitch them) is not very different, at its core.

Good Luck

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I used to do Asia-Pacific PE (kind of like FoF). Now I do something else but happy to try and answer questions on that stuff.

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Doing a NY trip, do I meet with new bankers or existing relationships?

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