Q&A: Extreme Non Target to IBD

NOTE: Made this post a while back but didn't have enough bananas to post the story into the main body. Starting college as a pre med student, I attended a college highly regarded in the biological research field but a complete fucking joke in anything else. And by a complete joke I mean we had ONE Wall Street alum and that's it. He died early (ski accident). Anyhow, typical non-core school qualms. I held a quantitative analyst position at a large biotech firm undergoing a merger so I got decent exposure to finance and after countless applications and networking emails, was able to score a corp dev summer analyst position at a highly acquisitive company the following year. The internship was found with quite a high level of difficulty and wasn't at the most "prestigious" or "top level" or whatever it is some people come up with company. But what it did provide me with was awesome deal exposure and I genuinely enjoyed my time there. Prior to starting the corp dev internship I did my diligence and began networking with any and all investment banks for an SA gig. I really messed up to begin with though since I didn't have a strategy nor did I have my own story straight. This led to the first person I spoke with asking me about "why banking" and I probably couldn't have fucked up more if I wanted to. I rambled on about some bullshit concerning my love for working long hours and making friends... Yeah I really did say that. Needless to say, the guy dumped the contents of his asshole all over me and never spoke with me again (despite my efforts to follow up and stay in contact with him). It's important to note that he was a "middle office" role (credit risk) and not an M&A God or whatever it is everyone worships. Despite his irrelevant role to me, I headed his advice and REMAINED HUMBLE. Take the advice you get with a pinch of salt, doesn't matter who it's from. The point is, they're working at a bank and you're not. Remember that. Anyway, when my corp dev internship started, I began routinely emailing bankers at a rate of 25/day. But as I was doing so, I was able to score the biggest asset of my search for the IB position: A MENTOR. Someone at my company who had years of bulge bracket tech/healthcare banking experience. I approached him with my well crafted story and he took me under his wing, promising to reach out to friends in very high places if I performed well during my internship. And I did- I worked relentlessly, stopping at nothing to assure I delivered perfect work product. Halfway through a lot of my managers (all from target schools at one point) were puzzled as to how I wasn't a student at some top ten business school (aim for this level of performance). My mentor followed up on his performance and before I knew it, I had interviews with everything from EB firms to BB to MM firms. I flew out to New York received an exploding offer from my top choice which I quickly accepted (2 MD's, analyst and associate interviewed me in case it comes up). I definitely want to do anything and everything I can to help others trying to break into the industy. I just won't divulge anything to do with the bank.