Networking with IB Analysts while in the BO

Here's my situation:

I've accepted a role as a summer analyst in the Compliance division at a BB and have no desire to move to FO. I want to be a lawyer and think that compliance fits in nicely with my plan and will be great WE before going to law school if I get a return offer. I do, however, want to be a transactional attorney so I would like to network with people in IBD as much as possible considering a lot of the top law firms have BB's as their clients and having working relationships with the guys I may be working with 5-10 years down the road could prove useful.

My question is this: How do I network with IBD guys and not come off like a naive gunner trying to move from the BO to the FO?

P.S I know my place in the firm hierarchy,(i.e IBD >> Compliance on the prestige factor) and am not insecure enough to make compliance sound like a bigger deal than it is.

13 Comments
 

Your best bet is to try and become friendly enough with one person, so that he/she brings you along when the ib analysts are going out for happy hour and other drinking shenanigans.

Just email them saying you're trying to get to know people (probably messaging someone in IB that is from your school will be the smartest approach), get their number after one lunch meet-up, and hopefully you can get included when the ib friend goes out. Do not get offended if you're not invited, as ib people might just stick with ib people over the course of the program to network and maximize their potential for a "ft role".

 

You are not supposed to email people you do not know. That is inappropriate use of the company's online directory for that purpose.

But since some did reply, I guess it's OK to keep a dialogue with them.

 

Its fine to network with FO people if you do it with the right way.

You should never e-mail anyone that you have not conducting business with (unless you have asked their permission in person and/or they have asked you to do so).

You should have instead e-mailed HR and told them your situation; usually they can give you an informational interview with some of the analyst or associates that are working there now.

Also, why are you e-mailing bakers? Are you hungry or something?

avireddy So, I had been emailing bakers explaining them my story
 

Sorry to revive this, but is that really frowned upon?

I usually just strike up conversation with the IB people I see, but not e-mail. I've also IM'd IBD SAs that I've met through intern events as well.

 
Best Response

Are bankers ever asked for their opinion as to which law firm to hire on a transaction? It's the client, not the bankers that hires a law firm. If a BB hires an external law firm for a proprietary transaction, it's again the business, not IBD that hires the law firm. You'd have much better luck networking with the bank's internal legal team.

 

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