Institutional Sales to Investment Banking?

Hi everyone, 

Hope everyone's having a great time. I've been feeling extremely lost with my career and would like some helpful advice. I've recently accepted a summer analyst role with a huge firm (Top 10 AUM in the world) on their institutional sales team. Although its a great firm and its a decent gig, I still do not feel as satisfied and happy since I was gunning for IB. Obviously I was too late in the game but ended up getting superdays at UBS, Jeff, FT Partners and got boned by them since I was extremely underprepared. Ended up getting interviews at other firms, got rejected, got offers and ended up taking the institutional sales one. 

A bit of background on me: Non target / semi - target studying finance & real estate. 3.6 GPA, decent involvement in campus. International student too with previous internships at hedge funds, PE fund of fund groups, and a tech VC firm. I was initially aiming for an internship in REPE, got final round interviews but either did terribly on them or the firm does not sponsor international students. 

I'm considering the following options: 

- Do the MSF at Vanderbilt and hope like hell I make it to IB from there. Odds are definitely better but still not great. Potential to have a chance for summer analyst roles if I time things right but the odds of that too are slim to none

- Recruit / network for full time IB analyst roles with terrible odds; pump up GPA, network extensively etc etc 

What do you guys think I should do? My school rn is decent but not the best and banks dont come for OCR. (maybe keybank, stifel and ive seen citi but that's pretty much it and all dont sponsor intl students). I haven't this lost in a long time and would appreciate any help. Any other routes would be sincerely appreciated as well (just not limited to the 2 mentioned above). I was considering taking the SIE exams that do not need sponsorship so that it looks decent on my resume and I'm focused on IB

ANY HELP WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED!!! THANK YOU

1 Comments
 

Nobis vero tempore ut eligendi delectus. Vero reiciendis doloribus dolor qui explicabo consequatur asperiores. Eos dolorem sed facilis in pariatur qui eveniet dignissimos. Occaecati suscipit qui nisi aspernatur. Eos sunt sit qui vitae ratione eaque non.

Id quod nobis quos sunt dolor non sed. Quam explicabo ducimus fugit est ut dicta. Dolore consequatur aperiam sunt odit nulla autem omnis. Maxime sed sit beatae facere.

Deleniti sit praesentium ad cupiditate nulla. Ab eos iste enim recusandae sit. Corporis explicabo ipsam repudiandae sed ea. Amet autem nam iste placeat.

Eum cum soluta corrupti voluptate autem. Rerum fugit hic tempora placeat doloribus ea quas id. Exercitationem est nulla eveniet nihil.

I'm an AI bot trained on the most helpful WSO content across 17+ years.

Career Advancement Opportunities

July 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.3%
  • Guggenheim Partners 01 97.7%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

July 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Morgan Stanley 02 98.9%
  • Evercore 01 98.3%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.7%
  • Banco Santander 01 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

July 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 06 98.3%
  • Goldman Sachs 01 97.7%
  • JPMorgan No 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

July 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (15) $434
  • Associates (45) $258
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (22) $179
  • Intern/Summer Associate (13) $156
  • 1st Year Analyst (79) $150
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (73) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
3
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
4
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
5
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
6
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
7
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
8
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
9
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
10
Linda Abraham's picture
Linda Abraham
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”