Rising Senior...Would highly appreciate some insight on developing a strategy to land a FT offer

Hello All,

I am a currently a rising senior studying finance at a top 50 US undergraduate business school. Next week, I start my summer analyst position in NYC. Although I a grateful to have landed an internship in a tough job market, and will make the most of it, the internship is within the operations division of a bulge bracket bank.

On multiple occasions, I had come very close to working in a front office roles, but never got an offer from those super days, so here I am. But I am hungry. So, the question is: how do I land FT role in the front office/investment related position?

Do I....

Go to other departments in the bank I'm working at, and express interest in wanted to work with them full time, post-graduation?

Do I, get coffees/lunches/beers with my contacts who I have a good relationship with?

When I do meet my contacts outside of the bank I'm working at, how do I go about getting their help? Should I just make the ask for an interview?

Any other methods/ideas/strategies?

Thank you for any responses.

6 Comments
 

Crush your internship and get an offer. Then try to figure out if there are ways to move around within your existing bank.

Update your resume by the first or second week in July, and start blasting everyone you previously reached out to for potential FT opportunities.

Banks will likely make decisions on FT offers to interns by the end of July and look to fill any open spots in early August. Get out in front of them.

-- sm
 
Most Helpful

Focus on your SA role for now and do the best you can. 1, you might find ops actually something you enjoy. 2, odds are someone in ops is going to have connections to Front Office, and you want them to be able to vouch for you in the case that you end up internally recruiting.

You need to think about the front office superdays you had and be self critical. Think about what went wrong, what went right, and what you need to change. Are you making the same mistake? Is it a different one each time? Until you correct that issue, it doesn't matter what your recruiting strategy is. Brush up on technicals and stay sharp. Don't fall out of the recruiting mindset while you're in your internship.

My recommendation is to keep in touch with your network, and maintain a spreadsheet that tracks your contacts with people, as well as deadlines for apps and followups. Be proactive about FT recruiting, but it's an unstructured shitshow. Positions pop up all the time, but the majority of BB/MM recruit between Aug-Oct. Also, keep boutiques in mind. Not sure about your other internship experience, but if you don't have any IB experience, it's going to be tough to get interviews without strong connections. Cast a wide net, and don't be afraid to get into a boutique, even if it's just your first stop.

 

Thank you very much for taking the time! Great advice. Yes, I am absolutely open to boutiques as I'm in it for the long run. Meaning my priority is learning rather than prestige/max salary.

I'm worried to seem like I am being arrogant towards the back office by trying to internally recruit. For example, if I reach out to an MD in S&T, and ask for a coffee, then wouldn't my shot of at the very least getting a FT offer in operations get shot if that gets back to my manager/operations?

 

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