Hi, I know there has been tons of posts similar to this in the past, but I would really appreciate any advice to my specific situation. I'm a second year university student in Canada (3.6 GPA, tier 2 school) with 0 finance experience, besides self education (reading books, reading forums, etc.) and being on the schools investment council, which has tremendously helped me. Anyways I haven't received any interviews from the big banks. I know recruitment is over for IB, but I applied to "easier" positions, such as WM/risk management/S&T/rotational programs. Canada also has a slower process from what I hear. Regardless, I have accepted the fact that I will not receive an interview from a top bank, but I have started looking into ANY boutique firm.
My question basically is where should I be focusing my attention? So far I have looked into extremely small WM/AM firm, and even some mid sized, just in-case they have a spot open. I have been attacking this by cold emailing alumni that work at companies I'm interested in. Should I look into ER type firms... or even very small PE or IB? I'm really looking to get any experience that relates to finance, any advice would be greatly appreciated. (End goal, post graduation would be IB/PE, but for now I'm interested in anything that puts me on the right path).
TLDR; For a student, late in the recruiting process, what area of finance do I have the best shot of entering, and what advice do you have?
