First yr analyst from China.Not as hard as ppl make it seem to be. I broke in as an undergrad. The most important thing is FITTING IN. Banking is a predominantly white male world, no matter how ppl say about diversity program. And unfortunately I had to make some changes, mostly mindset, in order to “be part of them”. I joined a frat and became the typical “finance/frat bro.” it sucks that sometimes I feel this is not really who I am. But you gotta do what it takes if you really want it.

With HSW (especially if HS) you will 100% get a banking role 

This is almost certainly Wharton because there are only a couple dozen people at HBS who do IB and I can count on one hand the number at GSB. Regardless, you will be perfectly fine. I went to a school the next tier down (CBS/Booth/Sloan/Kellogg) and the only people who didn't land roles were the most awkward 2-3 or those who didn't put in an honest effort. From any of these schools, put in full effort, be normal, and you'll be successful.

Hi! I was an international student at a top 10 MBA program who recruited for banking and in my second year, helped other international students land roles on wall street. I can say that it is not difficult to land a role if you network hard and come across as personable, sincere, and a great person to work with. Try to improve small talk and don't come across as a weirdo. It is not enough to be good at just technical questions - they're like the GMAT it's just a check in the box. Last year 100% of international MBA students in my school got at least one offer (in normal years it was around 50-75%). Many of them have prior finance backgrounds though, so demonstrating that you're good at the 400 questions may be important. It may help for you to reach out to your finance club to check out the stats, I'm guessing they may be the same or better than my school. In terms of thriving in banking after getting that internship offer, I'd say it is heavily dependent on the bank/group that you're joining. There are some groups that tend to hire very few international students and some groups that tend to hire more and would be more tolerant of people from diverse backgrounds. All the best and I'll be happy to chat with you further if you need any help.

As a Chinese person myself would agree that Asian males are relatively underrepresented vs. Asian females in the industry. I've worked in both NYC and London, and the Asians I've met in "high finance" (IBD/PE/HF) were mostly females. However, I did still meet plenty of Asian males who did manage to break in, so I wouldn't make your race/gender a limiting factor here.  

If you come from HSW just network hard (can talk about common interests like the NBA etc.), do your homework (start prepping for IB interviews early) and getting an offer shouldn't be too hard. There's also less and less people wanting to go into IBD from MBA each year, so that means less competition within your school (hopefully). 

How Hard Is It For Asian Males To Break Into NY IB?

Have you ever played Dark Souls?

Hey man — based on what I’ve seen among peers from undergrad and a handful of superiors with similar backgrounds to yours, I think you can do it. You’re well-positioned at HSW, and you can probably make it happen if you network hard and do well in your interviews. I think the fact you’re from China vs. Chinese-American is a much bigger perceptual challenge than the fact that you’re Asian. At the end of the day, IB is a relationship-driven business, and past the baseline competency and pedigree criteria, hiring in all professions often boils down to “do I/we want to work with this person, and will they fit into the team?” Still work to do, but banks and bankers have made a ton of headway at realizing someone’s ethnicity shouldn’t play a part in answering that question, and I have several Asian friends and superiors that landed offers and are excelling in IB and PE. Granted, most of them grew up in the U.S and act just like their non-Asian colleagues (usually a little “fratty,” outgoing/charismatic, grind when needed, intellectual, often behind a relaxed veneer, astute, chill when appropriate, articulate, etc.). Unfortunately, as other posters have described, being international/from China adds complexity to the situation as people evaluate whether you might fit into that dynamic. There could be a perception that your language and social skills might not be up to par, that you don’t have a strong network and will struggle to develop one, etc, etc. I encourage you not to “change yourself” on some fundamental level, but I think your best bet to avoid that perception is to be introspective about whether those potential concerns are valid and work to dispel them from the get go. For example, I can’t think of better places to hone your social skills from a “how do bankers act” (in a casual context) perspective than with a bunch of former bankers at HSW. Work to fit in there — watch how people act and mimic them to the extent you can authentically — and you should fit in just fine in banking. If there are other perceptual challenges you think could come up, fix them too. Carry your learnings with you to networking chats and interviews, and you’ll crush it. Best of luck!

Ginco

Hi monkeys, need some advice here. I'm an incoming HSW MBA student from China and am interested in switching to banking for my post MBA career. However, after I talked to some banking friends, I heard that it is incredibly difficult for a Chinese male to break in and thrive in banking at New York. From what I learned, Most Chinese that do are females with finance background. Can someone verify this? Would also appreciate any advice that you come cross from your experience.BG: 28 yo Chinese male, incoming HSW MBA student with fellowship. Pre MBA in Tech as a strategy manager.

I attended the "H" of HSW for my MBA (ignore the title in my profile, I'm old). I just looked up my alumni directory, filtering by my class year -> location: NYC -> industry: investment banking & securities dealing -> which returned 31 results.

Only 2 people in these 31 were actually doing IB (both at JP Morgan). Both male - one White American guy and the other appeared to be from Eastern Europe.

You should anecdotally take this as a positive sign. IB is no longer the popular career path that it used to be. You will have much less competition (even as a Chinese international) to break in. Good luck.