Sophomore Pre-Law (Economics) Student at Ivy Target - IB Recruitment Help
As the title says, I'm currently a sophomore student at a target with pretty hefty pre-law working experience; 3.75 GPA, Economics and Data Science Majors. Hold an e-board position in a finance club on campus, albeit with a focus on macroeconomic "research" (with modeling) rather than applied sell-side practices. Have taken financial accounting and know my way around the three statements.
This past summer, I interned at a law startup that was automating the LPA (Limited Partnership Agreement) review process for alternatives, which got me interested in the general field of financial services in a more applied aspect. Did some market sizing, growth "modeling" for the company. Completed an Investment Banking course (won't let me type which one due to spam flagging but Matt Ting runs the company) which, to my understanding, doesn't seem like the industry standard, but was very comprehensive. I am pretty confident I now hold the fundamental and (most) nuances of IB technicals, given sufficient revision of my notes and interview prep. I plan on taking a financial modeling course on the side as well to have both the IB course and modeling certifications in my resume (given that I have no working experience in banking yet).
My question is: if I put my all in networking this semester for the 2026 cycle, will I have a fighting chance at landing an intern position at a BB or MM bank? Am I at a significant advantage relative to my peers in applied finance/IB/sell-side clubs? Given my school's prestige, I already know a decent amount of analysts at a handful of banks, and am in decent contact with some MDs. As someone who feels "behind" relative to my friends and peers pursing the same goal as me, supplemented by the fact that I'm not as knowledgable of the general financial services sphere, I'm just trying to gauge my chances with my non-traditional, non-finance background. Any guidance/help would be immensely appreciated.
Side Question: Do campus recruiting events have any tangible utility? E.g., knowing a firm's campus recruiter for my school, meeting/talking to firm representatives at these events, etc. May be a stupid question.
Your experience will be just fine. While not perfect, that is very easy to translate into what an actual IB grunt would be doing. The only thing that would stop you from getting an internship at a reputable investment bank (MM/EB/BB/etc) would be the effort you put in. So long as you put in the effort, you will be fine.
Thank you for the clarity. How do you think I should best position and sell myself when networking? As of now, I've been framing it as "I have a lot of past legal working experience, but the more tangible aspects of IB attract me to the role." Then discussing how I'm interested in the qualitative facets of deal-making and client side advisory combined with quantitative, empirical work in transactions to create an ideal nuance of both.
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