Please some advice on "how to communicate my situation & plan"
Fellow jungle warriors,
my plan for the 12 months between July 2014 and June 2015 is to complete several IB internships in Europe (it is possible in Europe since things are sometimes less structured than in the US).
I applied to many Boutiques and have now several interviews lined up in May and June (2014). My plan is to intern at each firm for 3-4 months before moving on to the next internship, basically.
Will firms get turned off when they know that I'm "jumping from firm to firm"?
Also, how should I best communicate my situation/plan when I'm asked about it, without turning people off?
Many thanks and looking forward to each comment!
PS: My medium-term plan is:
- do internships 2014/2015 like I said above;
- then do a MSFinance 2015/2016 (because my undergrad is too far away from prestige, yeah sounds redic.);
- and then (hopefully), to start as full-time analyst in Fall 2016 in IBD, preferably in London.
Well, WHY are you jumping from firm to firm? It's hard to explain a plan without understanding the underlying motivation. I would assume most people would have issue with you so quickly changing scenery because it either looks as though you're flaky or you're getting let go. Companies aren't interested in either of those things. So just make sure they really understand the reason why.
I don't really see an issue here. Just tell them that your current plan will do a gap year before you plan to do a Master. You're highly interested in finance and plan to do a couple of internships in the field - if a great opportunity comes up, you'd of course be open to seize it.
Hi gents, thanks for your replies.
@aassddff: Well the reason why I'm trying to do that is exactly what EuroLocust said, I want to take a year to gain some real IB industry experience, before going to a masters program. My issue is just I don't know how firms view on that (positive/negative/neutral). On the one hand, I thinks firms don't necessarily assume that every intern is gonna be a FT hire (at least in Europe, because banks take in interns all over the year); but on the other hand, if we're talking about Roth&Laz, they are essentially competitors, and I don't know how much they care when interns "jump" from one to another.
@EuroLocust: As I said that's exactly what I'm thinking and I'm glad to hear that you don't see an issue there.
Btw. the reason why I came up with this gap year plan in the first place, is because I've seen numerous Linkedin profiles with that sort of internship experience (2-4 different IB firms during university), and end up in MS or GS M&A. That's why I think the number of internships is actually beneficial for FT hiring.
I mean I could also not tell them anything when they ask me and just say: "well I don't know what to do next but now I'm glad to be at your firm" sort of thing... (although that's pretty lame)
Any other advice/thoughts would be strongly appreciated!
This plan sounds really silly. Just join 1 firm and stay there. Yes, people join MS/GS after 2-3 internships but it's 1 internship per summer and they upgrade internships each summer. Your situation is completely different.
On the competition thing, I interned at a firm and then networked with a guy from the competing firm. I thought it would be good small talk and make me valuable because I understand the industry a bit better than other interns, but it actually made it really awkward. He kept making weird comments about how I'm the enemy and kept asking "why on earth" I would work for "those guys".
It was so uncomfortable. He obviously wanted me to leave, and I'm usually very personable. I doubt that's the norm, though. He was pretty obviously aggressive.
@urchin24: well staying at one firm as an intern is not possible, since each internship lasts 3-4 months. And in terms of the linkedin profiles: I really meant people who interned at several IBs during ONE single year, leading up to a FT position at a BB. Obviously what you said is the norm (one internship every summer), but there are indeed people who has done it a different way. Since in my situation, the "norm" is not possible anymore, so I try to do it the different way.
@aassddff: yeah that sounds pretty aggressive... What did you do in that situation? I mean look, starting out at one bank and move to another as an associate happens all the time, and one could make the same argument to them as well, saying "they were working for competitors and enemies etc." But I don't think/hope that "normal" people care that much about it, I mean in the end of the day it comes down to "can you do the job or not" ?
Any other thoughts on my gab-year plan?
@SpaceMarine I tried to be as lighthearted as possible by laughing and changing the subject. There was zero way I was going to shit talk that firm-- I had a great experience there and definitely didn't want to burn any bridges for a total stranger. After a while of it obviously going nowhere, I just thanked him for his time and moved on. It was at a networking alumni reception for my university, so I spoke to another person.
I totally don't think that situation was normal. It was super weird. On the other hand, I made second round at another direct competitor who had no problem with my past experience (if anything it was a plus). I pulled myself out of the running, though, because I thought that doing two things in the same field would brand me, and I wasn't sure if that's what I wanted.
Thanks for your reply! Cool reaction of you, I would have done the same. Also good to hear that the competitor firm didn't react negatively to your prior experience. I think I'll stick to my plan and finish some boutique internships, before leveraging my experience to BB.
Best!
Depending on your location in Europe, maybe try to even get a BB internship at the end of the year. A lot of firms also take off-cycle interns all year around which can also turn into FT offers depending on the local situation,etc.
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