Has anyone followed an (semi) untraditional path to IB?
Hello WSO
I’m a rising junior at a US state school and am about to complete an ER internship for this summer. I really liked the work I was doing and based on research/speaking with people at the bank, it sounds like IB is where I should start. From what I can tell, I genuinely find IB work to be intriguing/interesting, but I feel like the way I’m going about this process (recruiting/careers) is atypical compared to others going into IB.
I know the point of internships is to figure out what you want to do, and the point of college is to learn what you want to learn, but it seems lots of people who want to go into IB have started the process a long time ago (even aside from early spring recruiting lol).
Can anyone who shared a similar sort of journey speak on how they navigated it? I’m kind of confused how to even start to catch up. If you’d like me to share more details I can PM.
Thanks
I’m in a similar boat (rising junior decided I wanted to go into IB when most apps were closed) I’ve connected with a lot of my school alumni and most have recommend to try to go to a boutique bank for IB preferably or PE for SA 2025 and then try to do FT recruitment!
Also been told the market should be good when FT recruitment rolls around so more openings than the past couple years!
Thanks for the insight. What made you want to go into IB?
I took a valuation and modeling class and really liked it, and a lot of my professors mentioned how I should try to go into IB. I also have done case comps and really like the aspect of market research and creating a pitch, and not to toot my own horn, but I’ve also won or placed really well in those case comps. So my professors mentioned IB to me and then connected me with alumni!
Maybe I’ll look into doing some case comps, I did a pitch this summer and really enjoyed it. Thanks!
I got my undergrad and masters in accounting, ended up at a B4 doing FDD work for a little over a year and then jumped to banking.
Never had banking internships, was not a part of any banking clubs and generally did not network for banking prior to cold applying during my full-time job.
Not a super untraditional path but certainly not your standard undergrad straight to banking path.
Happy to answer any specific questions you have.
Thanks for taking the time to respond. At what point did you realize you wanted to switch? Did you have any ‘imposter syndrome’ type of feelings during the process? I only ask because I myself feel that, not trying to insinuate you were underprepared or anything.
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