JD Student to IB?
Hi all,As my username and title suggests, I am a JD student with a year and a half left who made the wrong choice to pursue law school simply because I got a full ride and had no other options at the time. I really have had no interest in anything since I have been here, and am wanting to make my way into finance like I had intended on doing when covid happened. I have read a lot here and am aware that I am at a significant disadvantage since I am non target from both schools and have OK GPAs. (3.0 JD, 3.33 Cum Und. 3.87 BS in finance Major). The good news is that I have no student loans and have some entrepreneurship experience starting and selling two companies for OK (to me) money in the aero/defense sector while in undergrad and law school. I am just trying to figure out stepping stones from this point to IB. Additionally, I do not care at all about prestige, so I don't have to have a BB name on my business card nor do I have to work in a “tier 1” city. I am happy to answer any add'l questions if more info is needed. Moreover any advice (even if its you're stupid for wanting to do this, or you should be doing X instead of IB) is welcome.Thanks!!
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Bump. Is an MBA necessary/even a realistic option to land a gig? Any alternative avenues (more stepping stones) to getting into IB? My goal would be to have a chance at lateraling into PE after some years, but even if I got into an IB group with good WLB, it would be hard for me to leave. Again, I don't need a "prestigious" shop to be happy. I am a semi diverse? candidate since I have a disability (super rare lifelong genetic issue covered in the ADA, but doesn't effect my working ability) but it seems like some of the diversity programs don't care about disabilities since they don't explicitly mention disabilities in their job/program posting.
I have a somewhat similar path and can provide my experience at least. I realized I wanted to be in IB after law school and after being a lawyer for that matter. I left law to start a business and also sold it. After that I advised companies on a small scale. Finally realized IB would make sense and tried to lateral in with insane amounts of networking. I had many, many conversations with people at banks everywhere who were interested in my story. the law angle + the starting and selling a business angle will likely get people to respond to your blind email/linkedin requests.
It was a long process so as a backup plan, I applied to an MBA program. Ultimately, I wasn't able to lateral in so took the MBA route and just did my past summer in IB and will be returning. That was my path.
What I think is more helpful for you, since you have 1.5yrs left in law school; Banks will consider JD's for their Summer Associate programs. Reach out like hell because recruiting is going on right now - try to get a spot for this summer and then you're golden if you can. Your story will have to make sense and you will have to explain the sub 3.5gpa but those are easy to spin.
The other option is to go be an M&A lawyer for 8 months to a year and then lateral over to IB - theres actually a ton of lawyers who made the transition without having to go get an MBA
This is extremely helpful and encouraging. I will get on it. I am reformatting my resume for IB now. What networking methods did you use? Did you have to attend M7 to get your offer?
for networking it's straight linkedin messages and cold emails - tap into any connections you might have at banks and rekindle relationships. You mentioned you were a finance major - find someone from your school thats in IB, doesnt matter what year they graduated - just hit them up. I had no finance connections but I imagine you do, so that would be the easiest to tap into.
Not at an M7 but at a decent NY based school - if you're thinking MBA, it would be much more helpful going to a target. There was still a lot of leg work I had to do to get my offer since we had no on campus recruiting.
Mark Fucking Moran did it. #goat
Join an Aerospace/Defense coverage group or boutique in DC. Tons of guys from non traditional backgrounds in these groups whether ex Northrop Grumman/Raytheon or government/law and im sure they'd be sympathetic to ur background if u can spin a good story
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