International Students breaking into banking - ask and I'll try to help

Hi all,

I've enjoyed reading the posts on WSO and have personally been helped by numerous forummers, including one that went the bat for me and wrote a lengthy email to his HR because I was dinged the first round of my on campus interview. He never even met me and helped me unconditionally, it touched me deeply and here I am, doing my best to give back.

I'm an international student in a US college, going to graduate in May this year. Did internships in PWM (freshman summer), boutique IB (sophomore fall), boutique PE (sophomore summer), MM IB (junior summer). I have an offer with a product group at a BB and am due to start in Fall.

I'm not your typical top IB candidate. I don't have outstanding grades, nor excellent internship experience. I'm on a F-1 Visa, and the only banks that would hire me are ironically the most competitive ones. I had ZERO on campus interviews for my junior summer stint, and had to cold call/cold email numerous banks before I landed a job at a reputable MM. Did the same for FT recruiting and finally the perseverance paid off.

I'm glad to answer questions on intl students breaking into banking to the best of my knowledge. There may be some questions that I might not provide a good answer to, so if my peers with F1 visas know better, please feel free to contribute.

Best of luck

P.S.: Long belated thanks to WSO for helping me get my offer last fall!