UCLA 3.6 - Interested in BB IB and S&T
Hi, I'm currently a sophomore interested in investment banking and sales and trading. However, other "top" organizations on-campus have often rejected me, saying that my GPA is too low and it's very difficult for me to even get an interview at a BB. How should I approach the recruiting process with no involvement in other campus "exclusive" finance groups? I keep getting put down by other students in these orgs, so I feel like it's been letting me down big time.
dennial, have you checked out these or run a search:
You're welcome.
From my experience, banks interviewing really don't care if you were involved in some finance organization or whatever. You do need to demonstrate some interest in finance to get the pulls, but it seems like your internships have covered those bases, and work experience gets asked on infinitely more if you have a couple of internships under your belt. The fact that you're in a consulting group might add some dimension to a pile of resumes from kids all in investment groups/business frats/finance groups. Your GPA isn't horrible -- yes, it is on the lower side, but I know people who have recruited into decent groups with a 3.6-3.7. I would network aggressively to ensure you get resume pulls (reach out to alumni, etc.) and from there demonstrate excellence in your interviews. And given that some banks might move next semester, use this semester to try to bring up your GPA -- if you're taking sufficient units and walk out with straight As you can easily bump it up 0.5.
At the end of the day interviews really just come down to two things: (1) whether or not you know your technicals and (2) likability.
Your disadvantage of not being in these finance groups is that it's harder for you to get access to IB prep, people to administer mock interviews to you, and intel on bank timelines + maybe the odd intro to a recent alum of the org who's now a first-year analyst at some bank. You can easily get any of this by being proactive on your own; being on WSO is a good start. PM me if you have any questions
The problem with semi-target recruiting is that many of these schools require you to be in the "investment banking" club to actually place well. UCLA has the UBS IB club and these kids pretty much get the EB/BB spots. It is very hard if you're not in UBS to get a good banking gig, simply because you cannot resume drop at semi-targets for the most part, and you need to network with alums (who were UBS members). I'm not saying it's impossible, but I've heard maybe only a handful outside get decent IB jobs.
Also UBS = Undergraduate Business Society.
Everyone at UCLA can join UBS. It's not competitive. The IB workshop is competitive and Sharpe Fellows is competitive.
You don't need to do either of those to get into IB. Just going to info sessions hosted by the career center and the info sessions by UBS is enough. As with any school, you should also be doing some networking on top of that.
UCLA alumn here who was not part of any of the workshops or Sharpe Fellows.
Yeah I meant the IB workshop haha... This is just anecdotal evidence, and it was the definitely the case at my semi-target (ended up transferring out).
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I know someone with a 3.2 non-target who got into EB, anything is possible with the right technical knowledge and attitude. No one cares about clubs either, just be you.
I interned this past summer with a UCLA student at a BB in S&T.
Look on LinkedIn for students a year or two older than you. Ask them for insights and any strong alumni contacts they have that you can reach out to.
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