Q&A: BB Sophomore Recruiting (Investment Banking)

Finished up my IB sophomore summer at a BB (GS/MS/JPM). Went through sophomore year recruiting and got offers from other BBs as well (DB/BAML/WF/Citi/CS). Happy to answer any questions about sophomore recruiting.

Region
 

Wow thanks for doing this. 1. How many sophomores were in your group, and how many were chosen for your selected program (assuming its a diversity program)?

  1. Around what time did you start having first rounds and superdays and when did you receive your offer?

  2. What kind of experience did you have on your CV when you applied & how technical were your interviews?

Also if you haven't yet mentioned: Target or Non Target Thanks brah

 
  1. My group was 80% juniors and 20% sophomores. I think there were ~25 sophomores across IBD.
  2. I started interviewing in September (but recruiting is pushed up this year) and I received offers throughout the fall. I didn't sign until December.
  3. I worked at a F500 my freshman summer, doing mostly BS work (making copies, scheduling meetings, etc.)
  4. Target
 

My GPA was 3.91 during recruiting. Has gone down a bit since. Started networking like 2 months before I started interviewing so freshman summer. Not really much networking for sophomore programs since most of the HR picks the resumes to start with before first rounds.

 

Junior year recruiting is completely different from sophomore year recruiting. Sophomore year is more chill since people don't expect a lot from you in terms of technicals For junior year, I'd recommend networking with everyone you can possibly can since resume drops are different if you are from a target. Study up on the technicals because you never know when you will get an interview.

 

No, I applied for sophomore specific programs. Most of the tasks I got were infrastructure stuff (i.e. distribution lists and profiles). There was definitely a distinction between the work juniors got staffed on and what sophomores got staffed on in my group. The juniors got more live deal exposure and more technical staffing

 

Some junior SAs are open to sophomores, like GS/JPM. There are a few SO programs that don't specifically say diversity or isn't strictly diversity, like BAML. Curious to learn about other options though, would like more inputs from others.

 

What internship did you have freshmen summer? Did you apply thru the normal junior year app? What "level" of target school did you go thru? Did you have connections pulling you?

 

I don't know everyone in the sophomores programs but I would say there is definitely a good percentage that were from non-targets. Coming from a non-target won't stop you from getting a IB gig. At least 30% of the full time analysts in my group went to non-targets.

 

I'm at a target (HYP) with a 3.7 and basically no freshman internship. This summer, I just dicked around, drank with friends, and did some travelling over the summer. I had a sort of BS internship over the school year with a tech start up working as a business development intern. Do I have any chance to land a BB soph internship? Like did most the other sophs you know have solid work experience?

 

You'll see the usual like walk through a DCF, why won't you use a DCF for a certain companies, etc. A good place would be the guides that you can find online. I mostly used the WSO and BIWS guides.

 

You mention that one should expect standard technical questions such as Walk me through a DCF & when to use a DCF and that the Wells interview had considerably more technicals. In terms of knowledge/content asked, how far did the Wells interview go?

Congrats on receiving the return offer. Do you have a general estimate of the % of return offers received by the sophomore class?

At this point, this question may be a bit hard to answer but - Having done the sophomore stint, how prepared do you feel for your junior summer, where you will probably be given more responsibility?

 
Best Response

The Wells interview covered a lot of the advanced valuations and DCF material you can find from BIWS. It was harder because it was 30 min interview of straight technicals. It was just question, answer, and next question with no break or small talk. After I said “hello, pleasure to be here, thanks for taking the time", my interviewer start bombarding me with technicals.

I dont know everyone in the sophomore class but I would say close to 100% of them got the return. The standards for sophomore was ridiculously low at times (i.e. one of my analysts didnt expect me to know what DCF stood for).

In some ways, I feel underprepared especially since the standards will be higher next summer. Like I mentioned above, I was given less technical work than the juniors and there was less expected of me so I didnt get the opportunity to learn certain things/staffed on certain deals. But I do feel like I have a good understanding of the group dynamic and how everything works which will help next summer. It wont be as daunting if anything.

 

You said that there was no OCR for sophomore programs - but if the junior SA and sophomore SA applications are the same like at GS and JPM, did you also submit those applications through OCR since all the juniors would have?

 

What was your timeline for recruiting? I've applied to lots of places but have only heard back from one BB for WM, and it was just an informational interview. All of my status updates right now are "application received." I'm assuming they'll go through recruiting with juniors first and then sophomores after?

 

Did you bother applying for boutiques or regional banks? I'm a rising sophomore form a non target who's a little late to the party and concerned I don't have any connections or 'eye catchers' on my resume, and it'll hinder me from getting to the short stack.

 

I mostly did networking my freshman summer. A lot of cold emailing and some with alumni. Personally I doubt how far networking can get you when you are applying online and when resumes are screen by HR but it never hurts.

 

Hi dude,

I just got off the waitlist for a BB sophomore internship, and I was wondering if you have any tips when it comes to being placed in the group that you want, finding a cheap place to stay, and being prepared for the internship?

Lastly do you have anything you would have wish you've known before the internship?

 

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