Networking with Other BB's Prior to End of SA

Hi everyone,

What is the etiquette with regards to networking with people from other BB"s (and potentially inquiring about accelerated interviews) BEFORE one finishes the SA program?

The concern is that IBD being a tiny community... someone might email someone at your BB letting them know the candidate is shopping around.

(markets are crashing really getting destroyed, and it looks like the product groups are gonna be a tough ride this summer)

12 Comments
 

I think it's perfectly fine if you work from your base of existing contacts.

You will have a chance to make friends with a lot of summer interns from your bank this summer. Don't pass that chance up by getting too obsessed with "networking". This is one of your last chances to make some pretty genuine friends in banking that will really work out well for you and your friend over the next 20 years; try not to pass it up.

Once you get one year into your career, friendships within your industry start to get a lot more shallow.

 

^True that.

Make friends now. Odds are the 'friends' you make in the coming years heed Sun Tzu's almighty adage: "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer."

I seriously doubt anyone would email your superiors. But, I'm risk averse, and if I were you, I would wait until my summer stint was over with.

Still, I'm certain you'd get away with it.

 
Best Response
MagicKarp^True that.

Make friends now. Odds are the 'friends' you make in the coming years heed Sun Tzu's almighty adage: "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer."

I seriously doubt anyone would email your superiors. But, I'm risk averse, and if I were you, I would wait until my summer stint was over with.

Still, I'm certain you'd get away with it.

I don't think they would make a huge deal of it, although I would avoid using your employment at that firm as a selling point.

I think your immediate manager would understand that you do need to shop the market a bit going into your Senior year. They certainly understood when I "needed a few months to think about it" when I was extended a full-time offer a few years ago. He may not appreciate it if he gets a call out of the blue asking if you are a summer intern there, though. (That happened to one kid who wound up getting caught calling in "sick" when he was supposed to give a huge presentation so he could interview at another firm as a result of that phone call.)

 

Not sure what you should do in this situation, but I am kind of in the same boat except I am a non-target went through a lot of interviews without any offers and will end up this summer at a MM IB in NYC (not a large one and without formal SA recruiting). After talking with my MD they basically said they will not know if there is the potential for a FT offer at the end of the summer it all depends what their needs are. They only have 1 analyst in there group. So I reached out to all my old contacts and let them know what my plans for the summer are and that I will be interested in FT recruiting. Almost everyone was very receptive and congratulated me on my internship. I just told them that I will send them an updated resume at the end of the summer and we can go from there.

If I was you I would do something along those lines, if the boutique gets word just say you are spreading you net wide in case you don't get a return offer and obviously you are interned in staying on FT with them if you receive any offer.

Just my 2 cents

 

Analysts probably won't be much of help to you considering most either won't have a say in getting you interviews or leaving after their analyst stint.

Keep in touch with the associates & up you networked with... let them know you found a great opportunity to learn this summer but ultimately want to work at their bank. Toward the end of your internship, reconnect with these guys, tell them what you learned, you love banking, but you think you'd learn much more, gain broader experience at their bank and directly ask to see if they have any spots open.

 

Thanks for the responses. It seems like it would be a good idea to reach out to my old contacts and let them know what I'm doing this summer. I just wasn't sure how upfront to be about FT recruiting.

Does anyone have thoughts on whether it is a good idea to reach out to contacts again in the middle of the summer? Or wait until you have an offer in hand?

 

I'm debating the same thing myself, but I would not wait until you have an offer in hand. I am pretty sure that if you do get an FT offer you only have 2 or 3 weeks to respond to it. So waiting until you get the offer really leaves you no time to get an offer from anywhere else. (I guess that is the point of only giving you a few weeks)

I don't know this for sure, but from reading posts on here that seems to be the case with FT offers.

 

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