Move to IB stifled by COVID, any suggestions?
Alright I'm going to do my best to keep this short so here goes: I graduated with a Masters in Finance and Banking in the EU, unfortunately during COVID. This was supposed to be my ticket into banking - I grew up dead poor in a South Asian country, went to a top uni and did 3 years in Audit at a Big 4, realised it wasn't ambitious enough or 'revenue generating' & exciting enough. COVID meant barely any positions post graduation, and almost none for immigrants. Really needed to make it here as I was still making it out of the slums and my pockets weren't deep enough to head back to my home country and repay my student debt. I settled for a Corporate Finance role at a growth SME that wanted to be acquired. I cleaned up their books, cap structure etc (40%) but mainly sourced and assisted a PE acquisition of the firm (60%). Unfortunately, it's taken about a couple years and I'm not sure about my prospects anymore. It's a rather peculiar situation I find myself in so any suggestions or pointers would be great. For context, my interests are either pure M&A or LevFin but I'm fully aware that I probably cannot be picky at this stage. Thanks guys.
Think your options are either
1. networking into a very small IB boutique (or PE)
2. MBA - in the US the M7/top 15 schools lead directly into IB associate roles at BB/EB firms. You would be competitive with your very relevant background. Not familiar with EU MBAs but I'm sure they have some programs with similar exits to IB
Unfortunately the IB hiring market has slowed down quite a bit so you may need to wait for the market to pick back up; most hires right now have IB experience, just not enough spots open to take a chance on people from other roles. The small company does not help a ton either, if you are killing time I would try to lateral to corp finance/corp dev at a large public company. Not sure when you were looking, but the banking hiring market really peaked in late 2020/all of 2021.
This is really helpful so thank you. I might have to go down the Boutique route as you've pointed out. Realistically only three (large-ish) banks where I am so the hiring market having slowed down is more intensely felt here. Thanks again.
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