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Thanks! Do you think networking over summer will be useful? Ive networked with a lot of my alumni and dont know how beneficial it will be to reach back out to them

 

I recruited from august to april this year (did S&T my junior year, so slightly weaker background) and had a million ad hoc processes. This included a lot of really good middle market firms, some known boutiques, and some lesser known boutiques. But my process consisted of networking a little and then getting an interview at a lot of places. There was always a new firm popping up on Indeed every couple weeks or so

 
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It's going to be really really tough to join FT without an SA experience. Are you a sophomore or a junior. If you're a sophomore, most BBs are still recruiting and won't finish until August so you have time to start grinding out a network and getting in.

If you're a junior, it'll be tough. You don't even have time for an off-cycle at a boutique or anything. I've met people who struck out SA recruiting at major banks, and found some no-name regional boutique for the summer, and recruited full time at BBs and got it. But to have nothing - for BBs and EBs you'll be competing against people at lower BBs, MMs, and regional boutiques all with more experience than you. Then you'll be competing against people who did an accounting or TAS internship looking to switch into banking. Your best bet is probably trying to find an off-cycle at a small boutique for a semester during your senior year. Hopefully they'll give you a FT offer, but regardless you can use that experience to see if there are any late openings at larger banks for FT.

 

Yeah i know it will be a lot tougher. I am a junior (going to be senior) and am working at wells fargo as a financial analyst dealing with like commercial credit for businesses and I do go to business school at WashU and have taken a mergers and acquisitions class along with other finance classes. I just hope that that will be enough to get me in when i recruit for full time. I know ill be competing with people with IB experience etc like u said. Do you think I have a shot?

 

When people on this forum bring up business school, they mean graduate programs offering MBAs, not undergrad business schools or MSF programs. That aside, there are a ton of undergrad business programs with relevant course work to IB, but at the end of the day it isn't IB. I think you have a shot, but I wouldn't put all of your eggs in one basket (BB/EB/MM), you should be looking at regional boutiques as well and spend just as much time networking there as you do with other firms, if not more.

 

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