Hi all:
I am about to graduate with a 3.95 GPA, Summa Cum Laude B.A. in Economics but I am finding myself being locked out of IB opportunities because I have no banking experience and am not from a target school. I have previously worked as a paralegal and held a position underwriting subprime business loans but neither seem to get me anywhere. I feel like all my effort in school was essentially wasted aside from the classes that prepared me for the CFA which I intend to take in December. Any suggestions on securing a job and getting on the IB track by summer would be greatly appreciated. I am also open to other opportunities like wealth management, honestly anything besides compliance and internal audit. Thank you in advance.
You have practically no shot at BB/EB or MM firm at this point. Your best bet would be to cold-call boutiques and hope for the best. After a year, you should be able to lateral to a bigger firm.
Another option is to apply to MFIN programs at target schools. The program has to be long enough so that you can do a summer internship in between. Right now it's practically impossible to work in IB without having an internship first.
With that kind of GPA, a MFIN/MFE/etc might be a great way to get some more relevant education and give you more time to lock down some relevant internships. At this point, reaching out to tiny boutiques and offering to work for free is pretty much your only option. If you can't, swallow your pride and take the compliance/internal audit (do you have offers?).
Bolster your resume with finance related extracurricular activities and projects. Get your level I CFA and work on your financial modeling/concepts. For the time being focus on other opportunities outside of IB. I'd suggest targeting an analyst position.
Do you already have a job lined up? If not, then that should be your first goal. Then you can start making moves after 6 months to a year to IB (or stuff closer to IB). For example, I could see something like Big 4 audit + CFA -> IB being a path that makes sense. Sometimes there's a midway stop along the way, like corp/commercial banking.
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