Graduating Early as a STEM Major Pivoting to IB — Seeking Advice on Next Steps

Hey everyone,

I'm in a bit of a bind and could really use some advice from the community here. Here's my situation:

I’m graduating a semester early with a STEM degree and a mix of both finance research experience with professors and STEM lab research experience. I’ve been involved in various research projects and have held leadership positions (e.g., President of a student club). I also have some finance experience, specifically working with a nonprofit where I handled financial data/operations.

I only started transitioning into finance earlier this year because i realized this was a field i was interested in and seeing myself grow. I know I'm late to the game. Unfortunately, this means I don’t have a traditional IB internship under my belt. However, I’ve been actively networking—reaching out to managing directors and other finance professionals —but so far, nothing has really clicked. I will say from one year ago , i do have a lot more contacts than I have ever had (i started with 0). 

My efforts have been cold emailing many boutique banks and from that effort I did have one promising equity research interview with a boutique bank, where they even asked me to submit an ER report after our initial interview. I put in a lot of effort, but after submitting it, they ghosted me. It’s been discouraging, especially since I thought I had made some progress there.

Right now, I’m focusing on studying for the SIE exam and plan to take at the end of this year. My main goal is to break into investment banking or something similar, but I’m feeling stuck and unsure of what to do next to maximize my chances.

One thing to note—I’m not currently considering going for an MBA or a master’s degree, as it’s a big financial commitment and I’d prefer to gain work experience first before committing to more schooling.