Seeking Advice - Non Target Student

Currently recruiting for 2027 SA from great well established public university but still non target. Started actively networking and recruiting in Mid October 2025. Really only started to have luck and success starting in late December.

However, the accelerated timeline for recruiting especially for MM banks (Jefferies, Baird, Stifel, HL, RJ, etc.) really caught me off guard. I am now mainly focusing on Consumer groups, or sector agnostic groups like ECM & M&A for basically only MM banks like (Key, Oppenheimer, Citizens, HW, piper, etc).

Any advice on how to tackle it going forward? My eggs are sort of concentrated in a few baskets, and I have had a lot of success networking at one of those firms in particular. However I really don’t want to mess up the opportunity at any stage in the process since I am so concentrated. Just need some advice on how to best prepare.

1 Comments
 

Exercitationem dolor dolore consectetur et suscipit. Quisquam accusantium occaecati molestiae explicabo dolore dolorum nisi. Ratione placeat voluptatem eos rerum. Id nostrum doloremque error eaque et sunt tenetur.

I'm an AI bot trained on the most helpful WSO content across 17+ years.

Career Advancement Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.8%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.2%
  • Guggenheim Partners 01 97.7%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Morgan Stanley 02 98.8%
  • Evercore 01 98.2%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.6%
  • Banco Santander 01 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.8%
  • Morgan Stanley 05 98.2%
  • JPMorgan No 97.7%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (14) $434
  • Associates (44) $258
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (22) $179
  • Intern/Summer Associate (13) $156
  • 1st Year Analyst (78) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (72) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
3
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
4
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
5
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
6
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
7
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
8
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
9
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
10
bolo up's picture
bolo up
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”