Networking Tips / Tricks

I’m a current sophomore recruiting for summer ‘27 roles in nyc. I’ve noticed that a lot of people post about their struggles with networking. I used to too until I started doing this:

Let’s say you really would like to speak with an MD (they have all the pull anyways) but they aren’t responding to cold emails.

What you can do is in your email to them, name drop a director or vp in their group and say that they recommended for you to reach out to them. So it should sound something like this: “Hi Steve, my name is Joe and I’m a sophomore at NYU studying business. I’m interested in the LBO team at your bank, and I spoke with Dan Smith who recommended I reach out to you. Would you have some time to chat this week?

This method is also great because you can do it with analysts and associates too. Just name drop an MD in their group. Make sure that when you get on the call with them you mention that you spoke with another member of the team and look on their LinkedIn so you know where they went to school. Then you can say something like “Yeah Bill told me a lot of great stories about UCLA!”. Works like a charm.

Hope this was helpful for some of the other guys going through recruiting right now. Let me know if anyone has any questions!