Very hard for many athletes to break into IB/PE/HF when they are unable to intern during the summers, most have to dedicate time to train (to keep scholarship) get better.
Any advice for the college athlete wanting to go into IB?
Any stories of athletes who ended up in IB?
Does it even help an application as an athlete?
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College athletes have a lot of the soft skills deemed attractive by bankers: great teamwork skills, grit/dedication to their craft, confident, usually leadership experience as well. If they major in something like Econ or poli sci, it doesn’t take rocket science to learn the basic financial knowledge needed. At my school many American football players end up in banking post grad if they don’t go pro because there’s a strong football alumni pipeline at one of the BBs. You’d be surprised how many bankers are ex-athletes of some sort— thats always a great connection to use for networking.
In my experience at an Ivy, most of my team wasnt really trying to go pro, and the school in general was very pre-profession, so we couldn't just ignore our post grad career. Probably depends on the sport/school, but it seemed like most of us knew we were in college mainly for a good future and job
Agreed 100%. Most athletes know whether or not they have any shot at going pro. Also, many of them honestly just use sports to get into schools that they otherwise would not have been able to get in at (I know this applies to myself and many of my teammates and I think it's safe to assume that this is applicable to other high academic schools).
for many athletes, they know they’re not going to go pro. That still doesn’t change the fact that they need to train in off seasons.
At my target, athletes definitely have the best placement (better than investment groups, frats, etc) and they generally have lower GPAs too.
The biggest thing is networking. Alumni from the football team at a school will forever feel connected to current players on that team, and I've found this bond is even tighter than other comparable groups/frats/etc. My roommate at my ivy was a football player and he had a 100% hit rate on networking emails sent to former football players from my school.
They also have a better connection to other athletes from the school (a hockey player from my school would probably rather hire a football player than some random kid from the school), and to athletes in the same sport from other schools (a former Dartmouth football player would probably feel more connected to a Cornell football player vs a random kid at Dartmouth). My roommate also had an incredibly high hit rate just reaching out to football player from any random school.
As for training, some athletes didn't have internships due to training pressure, but most were able to do an internship and stay in shape over the summer (but again I go to an ivy, so not exactly like we are sending a lot of kids pro). That being said, I do know athletes that didn't work their freshman/sophomore summer so they could train and were still able to land top finance jobs for junior internships without any work experience. Given how many athletes are on Wall Street, I think firms are understanding that an athlete not having previous work experience is justifiable, as it means they likely just had to train.
As a non-athlete, watching athletes at my school recruit really made me wish I spent more time playing sports as a kid...
As a college-athlete, my hit rate cold emailing other college athletes (different school and usually different sport) has been around the same as cold emailing my alumni at a semi-target.
Student-Athlete here currently interning at a BB. Usually if you are playing D1, you are forced to balance a 30-40 hour per week practice/traveling/competing schedule while doing school. So if you can get decent grades (3.5+) while playing your sport, chances are you are not dumb and is able to grind out hours at a BB. Also as mentioned above networking is much more easier due to the shared 'student-athlete bond'. Also on average, Student Athletes are more personable and sociable when compared to the average college student.
I did a D1 Sport to get into the school I wanted + scholarship. Now at a top 3 BB and looking to land a fulltime spot and turn my sport into a hobby in the future.
Also, you have to make a decision during late sophomore year if you want to go pro or not. If not, you can focus on networking for IB and cruise through junior/senior year and ride the bench or put less effort in your sport. Chances are, if you're at a semi-target/ivy league, you probably won't be looking to go pro, but ymmv.
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