Need advice to develop a foolproof plan...

Hello Everyone - new to this great forum. I'm going into the SA recruiting season and want to leave no stones unturned but have a few questions on how I can do so.

Stats:
Nontarget (top 20 school, think Vandy/JHU/Emory)
GPA 3.6/4.0
Previous Internships: SA in S&T program at BB, Fall intern at boutique bank (very small)

Looking for SA BB/Elite Boutique IBD in NY (or Chicago)

Progress made thus far:
1. I've reached out to hundreds of contacts last fall and have had conversations with about 20-30 of them from different banks.
2. I've applied online to all the banks.

Unfortunately my OCR does not offer enough opportunities for me to not reach out on my own. I feel pretty well prepared but my challenge right now is getting as many superdays as possible to guarantee offer.

My plan:
1. Email 10-20 contacts daily until I get a superday invitation from the bank
2. continue to try to get my previous contacts to drop my resume
3. apply all OCR possible
4. Expand to also look at Equity Research at BB's

By the way, I don't go nuts...if I make a couple of efforts to reach someone and they don't reply, I move on to someone else.

Anyone has any advice on my plan? Not aggressive enough or too aggressive? What else can I do to help my chance?

Thanks a bunch in advance :-)

 
Best Response

1.) No plan is foolproof. 2.) Best to use the system, first. 3.) It's sometimes easier to get into the front office via the not-quite-as-front-office than it is directly. I started in what's now an IT group, but now I work in trading. 4.) Try not to cold-email or cold-call people. People sometimes like to give advice, but help is a very precious commodity, especially in a hirer's market when there's 20 kids competing against you and one of them was an old buddy from a club at school. 5.) It's a tough economy. In finance, it will probably stay a tough economy for another 10 years. You sure you don't want to go into a nice program at an F500 company? Energy, utes, and perhaps manufacturing will probably have a great next decade.

Seriously. If you go work for a really smart manager at GE or Kimberly Clark, I think your odds of becoming a CEO in twenty years are about double what they'd be if you went to work at a top tier investment bank. Less competition means more opportunities to grow and develop.

 

Thanks for the advice IlliniProgrammer - it's well received but I don't think it's fair to give up my hopes so early. This is really a question of how can I try my absolute very best....

"Try not to cold-email or cold-call people." - that goes against everything I've learned about internship recruiting so far.

 

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