How difficult to get first round at BB/EB/MM without networking?

For context, have 4.0 at low ivy (brown, Dartmouth, Cornell) in math Econ with a future IB internship. Is networking at all of these firms really that essential for me to get a first round, or would resume alone be enough?

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If I had to ballpark, feel like I've been through 10-15 processes where I've gotten actual interviews (not counting HireVues, OAs, screens), and I think for every single one I had a referral. Never recruited with an EB but I can definitely imagine it being the exact same story if not even harder.

 

Might be unpopular advice but try to limit your reach to alumni and people with things in common. I come from a school with a good amt of alumni but not an insane amount either to the point where you could find one at any bank so if there was a team I was targeting, I would opt to network w people that had same interests.

what i think really helped me as well was also just keeping it chill. there is a big hardo problem and most of the people i networked w appreciated it since i kept it short and kept convos very informal and chill. 

 
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Nobody can give you a precise percentage as for your odds.

Networking increases your odds demonstrably. I will add to the anecdotal evidence here and say that I had probably 4-5 total processes before landing my role, all but one of which were “warm” intros. I probably launched 10-15 applications, and got into only one process “cold.” I didn’t get past the first round despite making it much further in much more “prestigious” processes, and I suspect that’s because I lost out to people who did network.

Point is: it is important. Really important.

It’s also not that hard. My bank is literally begging analysts and associates right not to have as many coffee chats/calls as we can, and we have tons of alumni from all three of the schools you mention here.

How many reach-outs are you sending each day? And to how many banks?

 

I ran recruiting at EVR/MOE and I never once had someone get an interview without networking. It matters more if someone is willing to go to bat for you then the quantity of calls. i.e. one MD/VP who actually pushes for your is much better than having a 15 call with 6 analysts who never pass you along because they have their own cohort to help out. 

 

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