No Exits
(bit of a rant)
I fucked up. I'm a junior at a non-target who worked my ass off last spring to get superdays at several IBs. I ended up, however, signing with a big 4 firm in valuations. I had been seriously injured in February and a good bit of time in the hospital. Even after, for months I would wake up in the middle of night in intense pain. Signed with the shop because of the lower hours and closer to my doctors. Looking at where the alumni of the firm have gone on it... it's shit (MM investment banking are the best non-mba exits)
Ended up reaching out to all the alumni I could about possibly lateralling for FT, but there has been a massive tone shift. When I was a sophomore asking about on-cycle SA recruitment, they would love to speak; now, those same people tell me that they can't really help or provide any info.
I am terrified that now I am stuck at a shop with no exits.
Clearly this is not the end of the world. It just means that I have to re-learn technicals and get my cold-emailing number up, and connecting demonstrating interest to everyone at an IB in my network. It sucks that FT recruitment is even hard - and with fewer spots - than SA recruitment.
TL:DR I had a bad choice because I was down bad health wise. Now that my health has fully recovered, I'm stuck at a shop with no exits.
Don’t know how you can call MM IB shit when you can’t exit out of big 4 valuation
MM IB covers a lot of firms. If people stayed 3 years and led for Houlihan or Piper then by all means that's a good exit. If they stay 5 years, then move to a 4 person firm in Ohio... Shit exit.
And technically I haven't failed to exit big 4, since I'm just interning there. It's just going to hella hard to exit from there.
I’d have to disagree. If your goal is IB without doing an MBA then any IB with deal flow is a non-shit exit.
+SB, Fair point, I didn't think about deal flow at small shops, but you are total right
Is something like BB or EB impossible out of Big 4 valuation internship? No of course not. Is it the most likely thing? Also no. I’d just try to cast a wide net. If you network, know your technicals, and have your story put together I’d be surprised if you didn’t land something in IB. If you have those things, worst case scenario you land at some boutique and can transfer to a MM in a year or two.
Enough of the rant. Quit with the negative mindset and stop with the self-pity. Work your ass off, learn a ton and go lateral after a year
That's the plan. But it's cathartic to dump out a quick rant
Totally OK to rant, and I generally agree with your plan but would tweak it: first you need to kill your internship this summer and get an offer. That is priority 1. Gonna be very difficult to get a FT IB offer if you can't convert this internship. Second I would wait a bit to reach out to people, assuming we are moving forward with the plan that IB SA isn't happening (I mean there is an outside shot, but I really mean outside). Better to reach out this summer and frame it as you're learning a lot about the job and it's reinvigorated your interest in FT IB... I'm also bringing up timing because of this part of your post:
"Ended up reaching out to all the alumni I could about possibly lateralling for FT, but there has been a massive tone shift. When I was a sophomore asking about on-cycle SA recruitment, they would love to speak; now, those same people tell me that they can't really help or provide any info."
There has been a tone shift in large part because there isn't anything they can do at this point. SA recruiting is done. They may also view it as they spent some time with you and for whatever reason (from their POV), you weren't able to get an offer, so they may question the value of continuing the dialogue (which is why you need to wait until FT recruiting is a few months/weeks away before recontacting).
Good luck and hope things work out.
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