What do I do now?
Hi everyone,
I am a final-year BSc Accounting and Finance student at a top business school in London, predicted to graduate with a First. I have no relevant experience in finance. I have two years of volunteering experience abroad, a finance officer position within a university society (not finance-related), and some M&A-related extracurriculars. Last year, I applied to numerous placement schemes without success. This year, I have completed over 60 applications to graduate schemes, summer internships, and off-cycles, and I still haven’t even reached an assessment centre.
My goal was to apply for off-cycle and summer internships at BBs and elite boutiques, as well as graduate schemes at other companies. Currently, I haven’t heard back from any BB applications, but since it is already December, I will assume that the ACs have already been held and roles have been filled. The furthest I got this year was a team interview for a back office graduate position at a hedge fund. Right now, I am lost. There is no point in doing a master’s degree without relevant experience, which means I absolutely have to find work. My dream is to get into investment banking/M&A advisory, but I know that I have to work my way up. I am open to anything finance-related at this point just to get my foot in the door. What would you recommend? Where should I focus my applications from now on? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!
Yeah I mean you were really shooting from half court with your applications strategy given your current profile. Basically you're a target student with good grades. There's a thousands of those. And then to only target BBs and EBs. Yeah, I'm not even slightly surprised at the outcome.
Berating you aside, your next best option is either 1) start networking with small M&A boutiques, try get an internship 2) start applying to big 4 (probably audit, might have a chance at something on advisory side but I'm sceptical), tier 2 accounting firms in advisory divs, 3) random shit like credit rating agencies, 4) Middle office roles at banks. Any bank.
In the meantime, get into a freaking finance society, that's the lowest hanging fruit here. Do some case competitions. Basically figure out a way to show some actual tangible interest in finance.
Yeah, to be honest, I knew applying to BBs and EBs was a stretch. I only did a couple of those; it must be like 10-15 of the 60. The rest of them were for various other roles at smaller firms. I even applied to, and got rejected from a tax position at a Big4.
I have tried getting some activity with the finance societies at uni and I am in one currently, but I have not been able to get involved as an analyst yet. I will keep bugging them for any work though :)
Thank you very much for the input! Any advice as to how to find and network with boutique M&A firms to get an internship?
Plenty of resources on networking around but don't overthink it. I assume you're at least somewhat smart and have the capacity to act professionally. Apart from that, there's not that much you can do wrong. Best is to just start talking to people. Anyone who will take the time.
Probably also worth getting your CV and other parts of your application checked. If you have no finance experience, that means this was your first time doing many things and honestly, most people suck in their first application cycle.
This comes up a lot and I give the same sort of response, so apologise to anyone if this is repetitive. But a few thoughts:
(1) As you say, you need to find a role of some kind. Graduating unemployed is not a good situation to be in regardless of your financial background.
(2) IB is unlikely at this point and I think you recognise that. You should continue to apply and hustle for smaller places and hope for the best, but absolutely plan and set your expectations for the worst.
(3) My recommendation for you especially given your degree is Audit in Big 4. This is a versatile career and having an accounting qualification is extremely useful. It will suck for 3 years, and you need to live with that. Alternatively, try looking for roles in large corporates. 60 applications is a lot, but not that much compared to some others.
(5) A plan could see you pivot from Big 4 to one of their FDD / TS teams (or those of the respected other advisors such as A&M). From there a lot of MM PEs / IBs recruit. My wife did exactly this, as did one of my best friends. Both are freaking smart. You sound like you are as well, but just highlighting that this isn't easy.
(6) Another plan could be to go back to study either an MBA or MSc. I don't love the idea and you've (rightly I think) discounted it, as most people need money when they graduate and there's no certainty at all of a positive outcome.
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