Anyone from the SEC? /D1 Athlete/ Am I fucked?

I am a sophomore at Auburn playing football and I know at this point that football won't last forever due to injuries and various other factors in my career. I always had an interest in investment banking and focused in on it these last two years and applied to Auburns IB club that helps kids get placed. and got rejected twice. Felt like I had a solid relationship with the president and answered all technicals and behavioral questions pretty well, but forever reason, got rejected both times. Maybe I'm not good enough, maybe they don't like athletes , maybe I answered those questions far worse than I believed, or maybe I just suck. Who knows, but I'm not about to make excuses, it is what it is. With that being said, are there any athletes from the SEC or d1 who made it into IB, especially without the help of a club? If so, PLEASE reach out with advice, help, or anything at all. Feeling stuck right now and no clue what to do next. Any thoughts or advice are welcome. Thank you for making it through this essay lol

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Playing SEC football is a crazy hook. Forget the IB club, they don't make or break your experience... start networking with alums and casually mention you play on the team. Your conversion will be higher than most. Had a couple D1 football players come through our resume stacks and everyone always wanted to interview them

Do you have a decent GPA? Any chance you can figure out some internship for this summer so you have something on your resume?

 

My gpa right now is a 3.81 so I’d say it’s decent. The problem with a summer internship for sophomore-junior summer is that we are expected to be here for football. Coaches understand that some guys need to have one junior-senior summer and allow them to leave then come back in the fall, but one this year just isn’t realistic. Any advice/thoughts?

 

100% reach out to any and every Auburn alum in IB/PE/real estate investing/etc. You know the culture around SEC football, most of us would be more than happy to not only help an alum but also an athlete.


Thanks for Cam btw, Arch will make sure he takes care of him!


Somewhat related to your OP, our center is coming back for his 5th year but was very close to hanging it up. Good kid and a hard worker but didn’t want to go the UDFA route at best after college so was thinking about calling it quits and going pro in real estate. He’s well-connected in Austin and in turn throughout the state given his background but a little NIL now has him coming back for one last hurrah. Point being, he used his position/background to network and it’s worked out quite well - you should do the same.

 

You play D1 ball man, far better resume booster than finance clubs. Outside of access to interview materials, application updates, resume tips, mock interviews.. you won't really get much else from clubs. Seems like you've already had access to all of that, though - keep networking hard.

Played college ball as well before I decided to gun for IB.. just know bankers like hearing more about that more than a finance club.

Happy to help, feel free to send a PM.

 

I played Big10 football and had like a 90% hit rate on cold emails to D1, Ivy League, and D3 football players in IB and PE. Also had a 50%+ hit rate with athletes from other sports. The network is small, guys are willing to help each other and everyone understands the time demands. Just reach out, mention you play in the SEC, and ask if they’d be willing to chat about their recruiting journey. Learn what others did to handle the internship issue. Taking a 5th year is super common. William Blair (I don’t work there) is known to take a lot of D1 athletes and either accommodate their workout schedule or just takes them full time without legit IB internships. Just reach out and start talking to people and you will figure out what to do

 

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