How do college athletes break into investment banking?

Question

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?

liquidiot · Accepted Answer

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.

robert139 · Answer

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.

Hedging My Bets · Answer

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).

InstantNut · Answer

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.

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How do college athletes break into investment banking?

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