FORMERLY HOMELESS am i screwed??- please comment advice !

I have been financially independent since I was 15 years old. Thus, as you can imagine an affording school incredibly difficult. For years I have struggled with housing and food insecurities, I was homeless when I was a teenager.

Now, I have gathered my life up as best as I can. Got a GED, currently enrolled at NYU sps 3.8 GPA. The downside? I’m 25 years old female with one more semester remaining until graduation. I work FT to afford school and pay for school with my own money so it has taken me a long time to graduate.

I just want honesty, is IB not in my cards? I really want to become an investment banker, even if it means going to grad school (have been looking to apply to Columbia MBA) . I just feel like I’m so old and behind . Would appreciate any advice on next steps, I don’t have anyone to give me advice.

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Can’t comment on US market but why are you beating yourself over this? Can’t imagine being homeless as a teenager and still end up at NY with 3.8 GPA. Props to you 

Have you considered London? 25 is about the average age of the graduating European masters student that starts as an analyst here. You are not old at all and recruiting happens at all times of the year with no set timelines. If you join a big bank it’s gonna be relatively easy for you to move back after a couple years given you have a US passport 

 

NYU* 

Also I am sure there’s plenty of boutiques where you can start out? I think what you students don’t see from the outside is how much the competition in IB falls after a couple years. Everybody leaves. I think the best chances to optimise for a career in IB might actually be to not get burned out immediately at one of the usual suspects. I worked at one of the EBs and it was so hard to find good associates, most lateral hires come from smaller banks (eg you can imagine that few associates working at GS will decide to join Moelis)

 

I’m just beyond thankful for your support, kindness, and incredible recommendations! Thank you so much for this response. I will certainly look into these opportunities you listed. Forever grateful for this! Best of luck to you!

 

how can you get an offer in europe as an american? is it easy, does anyone know what the process is like?

 

It's not easy but it's not impossible either (unlike a UK applicant trying to get a role in NYC). Sponsorship in UK is not like in the US, virtually any bank sponsors candidates visas and there's no weird lottery systems (most Europeans are on visas nowadays). There's 3 main recruiting channels: summer internships (only BB sponsor visas most of the time), off-cycles (same as summer), FT recruiting  (most banks sponsor, mainly micro 3 people boutiques don't but you don't want to work there).

Most reasonable path is probably to keep an eye on websites for openings - networking plays a smaller role here and processes are quite structured. You can always just send cold emails, people still look at those (incl myself) and will plug people into recruiting processes with HR if there's openings

 

NYU SPS is not going to get you the same look as actual NYU, not to mention Stern. In fact I would say I’m not sure it really qualifies as a bachelor’s degree from a recruiting perspective.

Not to dissuade you but wanted to be honest here.

 

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