Laz Alonso - Investment Banking

Laz Alonso is an actor ( http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0022306/ ) who graduated from Howard University with a BBA in Marketing and was an investment banker for Merril Lynch.

I don't know much about investment banking but from what I've read, you have to go to an "elite" school, make good grades, and do a lot of networking. Now I'm not saying Howard University is a bad school, but how the hell did he land a spot at Merril Lynch? Can networking really make that big of a difference? Or did he graduate with a really good GPA?

6 Comments
 

There are programs at all large Wall St firms targeted at under-represented minorities that recruit from traditionally black schools, like Howard. It is possible that he got in through one of these programs (still would have had to have great grades, extra curriculars, etc.), or it's possible that he just networked his way in/had family connections. Either way, Howard is a pretty solid school and people from non-elite schools break-in all of the time. There are literally 100s of threads on this site about this very topic.

 

Well I'm a minority attending the University of Georgia in the fall, would that be a place they go to recruit? Or should I try and transfer to a good HCBU school next year, assuming I still want to pursue investment banking.

 

It's HBCU bro, and you're probably better off staying at UGA I'm sure your network will be better albeit at the HBCU level, there seems to be a brotherhood amongst them (know few friends from HBCU's who have networked with other HBCU grads in finance to land positions). But overall I think UGA will serve you better in the future and beside, I'm not sure if you went to a diverse HS or not, but if you want a diverse school I'm sure you know an HBCU is not where to find it.

 

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