Is Full-Time/Lateral Recruiting really that hard?
Is it really that hard to land a decent firm (BB, EB, MM, whatever) for full-time/lateral recruiting, assuming you've had an IB internship? Wanted to hear your thoughts.
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Bump. Thing is most spots go to the SA class... so there are less spots, but less looking.
Speaking from experience, it's quite difficult. I had a BB internship last summer at a mid to upper tier BB in a good group, and was looking for a full-time role this past fall. In the US, you basically need to know someone on the team you want (that actually has an open position) so that way you can network your way in because a lot of firms will not actively post that they need a full-time analyst. If you don't go to a target school that has plenty of alumni in banking, that can be difficult. In other financial centers, like Europe, the full-time spots available are maybe 2 to 3 positions, and often times you will have many, many people going for the roles. If you don't go to a target and have a bulge bracket or EB internship under your belt, chances are slim of you getting the spot because you're going up against people that have both of those things. Of course, there are always firms that have more full-time spots (like HSBC and some middle-market firms).
I would say FT recruiting is more difficult if you don't get a return offer opposed to lateral hiring.
What if you had a return offer in hand and went for it? Or would lateral hiring be more preferable then?
I think lateral hiring is just more fluid and you have more leverage in interviews - you aren't a college student desperate for a FO role, you are "in" and know what it is and how to do it. Just have to spin the right way on why you want to lateral. That being said you have to wait until they come up.
I recruited FT with no banking internship. Ended up in IB at a top BB, good group. Tbh, super challenging to make happen. Need to leverage any and all connects, have a great reason for not doing traditional internship path, or, if you did an internship, why you didn’t get a return offer. As usual, good grades and/or target school also help. As another poster said, the key is having someone you know in a group that is actively looking to quietly hire another analyst or two. They need to go to bat for you. FT recruiting is also often more technical. Be ready to crush technicals, and be ready for a DCF/LBO modeling exercise.
What position should the contact be?
The more senior the better, but if the group is recruiting, someone at any level willing to push for you will make a big enough difference for you to have a shot. As someone else said, most FT/lateral roles aren't even posted. So they're looking for current group members to source candidates on the low. It can be as simple as a first year analyst friend saying they know the perfect person to add to the group and that you're worth interviewing. At that point, you're past the resume screen (arguably the hardest part if no internship/no return offer/lateraling). Then it's all down to how you perform on the phone screen(s) and superday. Ofc there are a few moving parts in the sense that the friend needs to be well-liked/high-performing, especially if they're an analyst, and they also need to trust that you're not going to screw up and make them look dumb for making the rec.
Any chance I can pm you? In a similar spot, received a full-time offer from a PE firm and turned downed IB spots. But now the firm is down-sizing (in my last semester at undergraduate) and don't have anything lined up.
Depends where you are and where you want to go in my experience
FT recruiting (post internship) is tough because there's like no slots and tons of students tryna get in.
Lateral recruiting once you have some experience isn't really that hard though, assuming it's IB to IB of a comparable nature.
I was a summer intern at a MM but was able to leverage that into a BB full-time offer. I'd say its possible but challenging. It's definitely easier if you have an offer to leverage but that also depends on the bank. Most of the full-time spots are given to summers and the open ones you have to compete with people who have offers. The only reason why the bank I went to had an opening was that one of the summer that accepted the offer wanted a different office. Networking is the most important part. Either keeping in touch with banks you talked to in the recruiting cycle and following-up on old email chains will have some familiarity for the bankers. Feel free to PM me if you have any other questions!
Went from a IB MM SA to FT BB, decent group. I networked my ass off at a lot of different places but in the end, a random resume drop is what landed me my current role.
As in networked because you were desperate or built up a network prior to then and leveraged those contacts
Built a decent network before I started, but ended up not being very useful.
This is oddly similar to my case as well... I ended up at a BB I barely networked despite casting a huge net over all the possible firms.
Thanks for your reply. Did you know anyone at the FT BB? Was the resume drop through your campus portal or the generic BB portal? Were the interviews more difficult? How did you explain the move?
Went from a lower MM no name shop to a lower BB via FT recruiting. It was pretty challenging. Lots of network and constant technical prep. Went into most interviews knowing 30-50% of the team I was applying into. Super challenging but definitely doable
What was the timeline for your networking, and were your emails straight foward about looking to lateral?
Pls advise
lmfao wells fargo isn't a lower bb it's a bumfuck balance sheet bank with no real deals it's almost cute how you want to be classified as a bb analyst so badly
Agreed. Having to go over materials all the time, not fun
Very difficult, as others have noted at most firms 80%+ (or more) spots are filled by SAs. For the 4-5 slots we do have, it seems like there is a tendency to use almost all of them to increase class diversity so regular guy at say Barclays lateraling to the EB is unlikely.
lateral recruiting is easy. after a year most people quit banking b/c its miserable. senior year ft is hell. 90+% of spots are intern conversions / interns from other banks.
I’m a senior and just finished FT recruiting. It’s the most painful recruiting experience you’ll ever have especially in a recession. Flying to SDs at regional offices just to get rejected two weeks later.
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