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October 31, 2026
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There are no full-time offers out there.
Summer internships often serve as the sole avenue for non-targets to be noticed by major firms, (BB, EB, and MM). These are often secured through extensive networking practices and off-time studying. If you are unlucky enough to not have secured any specific IB experience, the next best option is to find jobs or internships in corporate finance, asset management, wealth management etc. While I don't believe anything is impossible, it is highly improbable that you would be considered being from a non-target without any finance experience for any IB shop larger than a boutique by graduation.
On a separate note, continue networking as this will only help you in the future.
What's wrong with a boutique? Many MM boutiques pay street.
Nothing is wrong, I was just saying boutiques are more accepting of non traditiona backgrounds coming from a non target.
Continue to network and something will work out...
Don't give up yet, still plenty of time to make something happen. I was in the same situation and just kept sending out cold emails to boutiques. Eventually something stuck and I got an offer late April/early May.
At this point I don't think networking will help you very much, especially if you're still trying to target MMs or other larger banks. I think a better bet would be to get a list of cities you're interested in, google investment banks in that city, and then go down the list and shoot out emails to every place you think would be worth working at. It's too late now to try and be overly picky.
Obviously avoid anything that looks shady, but there are places where you can get great experience even if the shop only has 10 people. Check out the background of people there. If all the senior bankers were at BBs and the juniors come from reputable undergrads there's a good chance it's a decent first place to land at.
The most important thing is just to keep your head up and stay on it. You never know what random email or call will end up resulting in an offer.
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