I Actively Discriminate Against Target Students

Judging by the title, you can most likely assume I had to break into banking. I still remember my first (and last) superday. I was sitting in a conference room with the other interviewees and they started saying things like "I hope they don't ask about LBO's, I don't know anything about them"(huge PE clients in group), "I've been grinding interviews until I get one without technical questions haha", etc. after I had spent 2 weeks straight perfecting behaviorals and technicals, including LBO's, paper LBO's, DDM's, Merger Models, etc. It turned out that the superday was entirely behavioral (3hrs+) and I ended up with one of those idiots in my summer analyst class. As you could most likely guess, the kid was an absolutely abysmal summer analyst. 

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For another quick anecdote, a friend of mine had a superday at a MM/wannabe BB bank (use some deductive reasoning). In this superday, he didn't get a single behavioral question, only walk me through a DDM, LBO, merger model math, etc. Unfortunately, he lost the offer to a target kid who got asked what he did for fun (no joke).

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The moral of the story is: just because a kid goes to a university with a better name doesn't mean they should be able to breeze through interviews. If you're unable to answer technical questions while going to a prestigious institution, ask yourself if you deserve to be in banking, or even deserve to attend a prestigious institution. A target school name shouldn't be one to hide behind, but one to strengthen a resume. I urge other groups to interview kids similarly, regardless of their institution.

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Like many others, I had no idea what I wanted to do in high school and that translated into a lack of motivation in schoolwork. Once I found an interest in IB, my grades shot up immediately, but I was at a great disadvantage attending a non-target. Thankfully, one MD decided to take a chance on me after a networking call and I got my SA position. I will forever be grateful.

9 Comments
 
Most Helpful

At the end of the day, banking is a relationship business. Nobody cares if you memorized the 400 questions guide once you get your foot in the door. Technicals are just a check in the box.

Every banks internship starts with training and then once you start full time you do weeks of training again before you hit the desk.

I went to a non target liberal arts school and my first bank had a different Q bank of interview questions for kids in business school vs liberal arts. I lateraled and it was probably 80% behavioral / 20% technical across the street and the technicals weren’t hard. I was asked “what I do for fun” every place I interviewed.

Have been top bucket every year. They teach you everything on the desk and being social and well known is far more important than being able to crank out a model at 3am - which you’re not touching the first 6 months and there’s probably a precedent you can heavily leverage.

 
Controversial

Lol fuck you. The target kids that you're describing sound like assholes sure, but majority of us come from low-income/middle-income backgrounds where we grinded our asses off for 4 years in high school, doing homework on the bus, playing two varsity sports, doing debate/other clubs, while you guys were slacking off and going to parties, skipping class, and overall just wasting your time.

"I was at a great disadvantage attending a non-target" Who the fuck put you in that position? Yourself!! Do you want a little cookie for finally figuring out what you want to do with your life at the age of 19? Buddy, by the time some kids at targets turn 19, they've already become independent from their parents and are paying for their own tuition at a target. 

Tl;Dr - Womp Womp

 

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