When Should College Students Start Networking and Technical Prep for IB?
Hey everyone,
I’m a freshman interested in investment banking and trying to get a better sense of when it makes sense to start taking networking and technical prep seriously. I know it’s still early, but recruiting seems to move up every year, and I want to use freshman year productively without overdoing it.
A few questions I’ve been thinking about:
- When did you start doing coffee chats seriously, and what did those early conversations look like?
- Is freshman year too early to start reaching out to analysts, or is it better to focus on talking with older students first?
- How did you make early chats meaningful when you didn’t have much experience or knowledge yet?
- For technical prep, what’s actually worth doing this early on? Should I just focus on understanding accounting and valuation basics, or wait until closer to sophomore year to dive deeper?
- Looking back, what do you wish you had done differently your freshman year in terms of networking and prep?
Appreciate any advice from people who’ve gone through the process.
First, go read some books. Expand your mind. Get some hobbies.
Sophomore year, when I knew generally where I wanted to be. Generally, I just tried to ask questions and be curious as to the other person. It's not crazy stuff, just make sure you leave a good impression on them. Also, I've seen that actual coffee chats aren't really common as geography limits things. Phone chats are def more common.
Not too early, but I would focus on just making as many friends in finance clubs and such as possible. You're on equal footing with most people at your school, and having good peers to discuss stuff with is important.
By being generally good socially. All networking is is making friends. Just be a generally likable person. People like to work with people they like.
Can't hurt to learn somethings, but you're getting a bit ahead of yourself there. I'd prefer a candidate to interview with who knows what's going on in the news and has some interesting hobbies/projects instead of someone who knows everything about a 3 statement model. You'll learn that stuff eventually. Focus more on expanding your horizons and becoming a more complete individual.
Nothing, because freshman year is your discovery period, and if I had done things differently then I wouldn't have discovered my path.
Thank you.
Are there any books you recommend them reading?
Tons to recommend, but it depends a lot on your specific area of interest. I personally liked the domino effect, this time it's different, oil 101, etc. but I'm in trading, so my specific areas of interest relate heavily to macro stuff around trading. Predictably irrational and devil take the hindmost are good. Salt was one I wasn't expecting to like, but I think the ideas of human behavior can be extracted from it to apply to broader ideas and markets.
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