Chances of breaking into Banking?
**A little background on myself: ** Graduated with a bachelors in Finance in December of 2017. Had no banking internships throughout my undergrad years as my school wasn't a target IB school (Even though I had a 3.86 GPA). After graduating I managed to land myself a spring internship at a boutique bank through networking efforts, however, that only lasted from January 2018-May 2018. I went on so many Banking interviews during my time there and after, however, I did not secure any offers. Most of the feedback I received was that the other candidates were a bit more candid and had more experience than I did, given that I was at the boutique for some months. So after failing time and time again, I decided to accept a Valuations role at a middle market firm in NYC to gain more experience with financial modeling and valuation.
I need advice on how to approach networking in NYC and what types of people/banks to reach out to. It seems that I get the runaround from everyone I reach out to, and I am tired of it. Any advice would be helpful because I still want to pursue my passion, which is Banking. Thanks for the help!
I would say you still have a good chance, albeit you are not as prepared as other people. Essentially, this means you just have to slog it out, keep grinding and keep networking. Did you get any feedback from your last internship as to why they did not offer you a follow up offer?
How should I approach the networking, though? Cold emailing and asking to meet in person and then shooting for lateral Analyst roles? My last internship mentioned they weren't looking to hire at the Analyst level because their deal flow was light and they already had two FT Analysts. Makes sense why they didn't hire, but I don't know how much banks will value that experience combined with Valuation work.
Ok well let me put it to you another way, I know a lot of people with a lot worse experience than yourself who have broken into banking.
I regards to networking start with your alumni, reach out to them and try develop a relationship. If you have no alumni then reach out to analysts. Maybe even ask people at your last firm if they can help to connect you with people.
Anyway the goal is to develop real relationships and not just try to use people as it will come across a lot more genuine and everyone knows what you want anyway. Ultimately, you need someone to have enough confidence / faith in you to not make them look bad if they put you in contact with someone more senior / in a position to help you get a job.
Once you have a relationship established by which I don't mean 2 months of texting it could even be after one coffee if it went really well. That is when you ask if they know of any opportunities or if they could help put you in contact with anyone who can help progress your career.
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Does this valuation group reside within or next to an investment bank?
Unfortunately, it doesn't. It is a consulting firm so they have transaction advisory, but no pure Investment Bankers.
If direct networking isn't working, perhaps try moving to TAS after a year or so. I think BBs and EBs will be very difficult, but you can present a decent proposition for a MM bank with valuation experience (make sure you learn and understanding modeling and work on creating as much original content as you can for the reports) and TAS experience (diligence and transactional experience).
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