FT IB- will I be behind everyone else?
I landed an M&A FT role at a top MM bank for next year. I was a bit late to the game and didn't decide to go for IB until ~9 months ago. Because of that, I was in a P&A/analysis role this past summer (at a great BB, but still a long way off from IB). I knew going into the role that I was going to re-recruit, and spent the summer focused on networking and preparing to recruit. I finally landed the role, but I'm worried that I will behind the other 1st years when we start. I have time this year to prepare, so I would love some advise on what to focus on.
1. How far behind am I, with no experience on an IB desk? What can I do to prepare before I start so I don't lag behind the other 1st years?
2. Should I focus on preparing skills for this upcoming job, or should I instead focus on buyside interviewing (I would want to move in 2-3 yrs)?
3. Whats the deal with the SIE and series exams? I had no idea about these until a month ago. Will the bank provide resources to prepare, and should I take them before starting FT?
1) Minimally behind. Maybe even ahead. Your new shop will probably have a training program. Even in spite of past internships and study, your peers won't be too more advanced. Most first years will learn a lot on the job and be given progressively harder tasks once they've mastered the basics (which is much more about timeiness and accuracy in simple tasks rather than buiding complex technical models). You might somehow be ahead as you've had a taste of the "real world" and have epxerience of being on time and acting professionally for an extended period beyond a couple of summer months.
2) I mean I'd be hitting the bar and celebrating an impressive transition as a first priority. Beyond that, if you madly, truly, deeply want to move to the buyside, then I'd focus on that. Clearly preparing for IB is a good thing, but this is much more about just knowing your way around a basic DCF at the AN1 level. You have absolutely no reason to be staying up until 3am practising complex DCF models for your IB gig.
3) Apologies I tap out. I'm a Brit and, while my bank provides everything needed for AN1s to pass the King's regulator exams, I'm not sure how this is approached in the US (I'd guess it's similar)
Don’t prep for the job, it’s a waste and you’ll learn everything you need to know when you hit the desk.
Take the SIE to get that out of the way if you want but your bank will provide time to study / training material when you start
Would love to hear how you went about preparing for interviews
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