I've been reading a lot of stories of non target kids getting into elite boutiques, MM banks and also lesser thought of international banks like RBC or RBS. However, I've heard that the last few recruiting cycles for elite BB banks like JPM/MS/GS has been brutal on non targets and that even lights out networking, internships and good GPA/SAT kids are being turned down due to the dang economy.
Even still many of the "Non targets" who break in are from elite liberal arts colleges with a strong alum base and are generally pretty wealthy to begin with.
I was wondering whether it is still possible to break into a BB for iBD as a non technical non target major student (i.e. econ or finance major as opposed to math or comp science types)
That's a good example, I guess it really is a crapshoot and so you at least need contingency plans if things don't go your way
It better be - that's what I'm trying to do!
Didn't GS hire people from like 600 different colleges last year? Read that somewhere...
It's definitely unlikely, but it's always been unlikely. I think it's easier from state school non targets because there alumni network is bigger. Look at the brightside, since there's few alumni on the street from your school, when you do contact these people they would probably help you out a lot more than just a regular ivy leaguer emailing somebody from harvard.
600 different colleges for back office/middle office functions bro. And there aren't any alum at non elite state schools (the "acceptable" state schools being berkeley, ucla, virginia, michigan, wisconsin, texas, umd and maybe Indiana or ohio state)
that's false to an extent. some state schools aren't elite but they may have alumni up on the street because they're just so big. My school has plenty honestly. And the more I reach out to alumni, the more confident I grow in my chances of getting interviews down the road.
Of course very few of these alumni are in classic CorpFin IBD; regardless, there's still a way to get your foot in the door. I mean, there's a reason they're not in FO though - a lot of these alumni were not your traditional IBD make or break after graduation job seekers. A lot of them are lateral hires and come from accounting/research/operations type backgrounds anyway. I'm sure they weren't gunning for IBD.
There are a few at GS IBD this summer. Penn State and Indiana U. are probably the best represented of the non-targets, but overall it's dominated by U Penn followed by Harvard. Schools like Columbia, Stanford, Yale, and Princeton actually aren't all that well represented.
How do schools like Delaware/Uconn/Pitt/UVM do?
Not in terms of representation, but in terms of how their perceived by bulge brackets in contrast to the more well known state schools
It's true man, the competition is fierce for non-targets and targets alike, you can do everything right and not break in to the position you want. Hell it happened to me, and I consider myself to be competitive without beating my drum too loudly. But you've got to remember that you can always do what you want, break in if you want. It's just about what you're willing to do to make it happen.
I realized though, that you can get knocked down 1, 2, 3 and 4 times and be okay. You can get 'hurt' and keep moving. Sure I could say "it's not fair" until I'm blue in the face, but it won't get me what I want. I know where I want to be and I know how to get there that attitude coupled with a willingness to do what it takes is the foundation for non-target or even target breaking in. You can look around and see what everyone else has achieved or was 'gifted', but you're not them so don't spend too much time in that place.
Keep the promises you make to yourself.
my alma mater is a complete non-target for finance. a few of my friends who were officers in our finance club made it to front-office BB positions either directly after graduating or a few months after. two went to New York, working at UBS and Goldman Sachs. one ended up at Barclay's in Asia. this was during the heart of the financial crisis, and all of them were Economics majors.
through networking and sheer dumb luck i landed a superday at Citi while i was unemployed soon after graduation, but kind of screwed up the technical portion and was dinged (in my defense, i found out about the interview only the day before, and had to drive up from Los Angeles to Palo Alto).
in summary: work your ass off and get the technicals down, and make the right friends.
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