Non-BB IB opportunities

Hey guys,

I searched the forum and couldn't really find an answer on this, so I figured I'd make a new topic.

The conventional wisdom is that if you don't get a FT offer from a BB in October/November, you're not going to be an investment banker so go do something else. I find it a bit hard to believe, especially since there's a big list of boutiques stickied. So let's talk about how to land a gig at a boutique after the BBs do their hiring.

What's different between BB IB and boutiques? More specialization?
How should you target your networking?
What do you need for your interviews? Is it the same stuff basically (modeling, balance sheet questions, etc?)
When do boutiques do their hiring? How competitive is trying to land a job there now?
What kind of advancement is possible at boutiques? What's the typical career path for an analyst at such a place?
Is it different?

I can't find the answers to those questions anywhere but I think they are important. IB is competitive and there's plenty of smart kids who apply during OCR and don't get an offer, it's a bit disturbing that 80% of the time they are told to forget about IB even if they've spent hours researching and preparing for interviews or (holy shit no way!) are interested in the material, as menial as the grunt work may be.

Maybe this has already been discussed to death, if so please just link me to a topic.

Thanks