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Interested to hear an update. Good Luck
Thanks, I hope to provide a good one.
Why would you post your story on an internet forum and ask for advice if you've already made up your mind?
It sounds to me like you're bent on coming to NYC to prove something to yourself, your parents, or somebody. This is not the way to go - you're about to spend thousands of dollars to move to the one city on the globe that has the most competitive candidates of all. There are people here coming from top undergrad programs and who have had IBD internships every summer since their senior year of high school. NYU and Columbia grads litter the streets of Manhattan, and they've all been here longer, know more people, and have more experience than you do.
The appropriate move in your case is NOT to make a risky decision that has a 99% chance of failing. STOP looking for the easy way out and simply come to terms with the fact that you need to rethink your game plan. If getting a job in banking is truly what you want to do, then take a step back and approach it like someone in banking would: when you know you have a good shot at success.
That you simply lobbed in ER with IBD and corporate finance is a clear indicator that you don't know what those fields entail. I, too, thought I knew what I was doing, until I decided to take the CFA, go balls to the wall with an ER internship, and begin writing analyst reports and learning how to build f/s models. Only after all that did I realize that I really wouldn't like to work in ER - at least not on the sell-side.
You can come to NYC, and if you do enough scavenging you can probably find an unpaid internship. But it will not be worth your time. You will find it on Craigslist, you will go in and be "accepted" only because you're "motivated" and "want to learn." Your work will consist either of bull shit such as filing stuff away and coming up with "research," which will really just be printing analyst reports from TD Ameritrade, or you'll find yourself with a stack of index cards with people's names and phone numbers on them which you're expected to call and find out how much money they have to give the senior broker in your office. This will not help you, and you'll probably just come off as the guy without a clue that people who do have a clue (read: the 83 billion Asians at Columbia and NYU who just haven't found work sponsorship even though they have PhDs, MS degrees and 4 years' experience from their home country) completely step over.
My advice to you, which I am much more certain will work, and with which you will agree if you are serious about banking: consider not graduating a year early or consider doing a MS program at a good school. This will allow you to get a real internship that either pays or will teach you something, as most places don't want the graduating senior with zero experience, but a junior or MS candidate can pass.
Second, get a good internship this summer. If you can't lock it down before coming, don't come to NYC. You will instead spend the money on the following:
If possible, do an internship in your home town. If not, find a productive way to spend the summer until you either go back for your actual senior year or submit yourself to the MS program you will have gotten into.
You will then find an internship for the fall and another for spring 2014. You will then come out with a resume, experience, an education, and actual skills that an employer would want.
If school is not an option for you, simply do not waste your money living in this city until you have a bona fide internship locked down and ready to go.
To answer your question, there are few "regular jobs" that you can get with zero experience that would be beneficial for banking. The experience most people want college kids to have is that of having a high GPA and a few summer internships where they learned how to use Excel.
EDIT: And one last note about your connections at BBs and other firms - may I ask what exactly you plan to leverage? Unless your friends have been working at these companies for years (Ie, they have significant influence), there's now way in hell that they can recommend someone with no background at all for a position. I'm not saying that this definitely won't work, but I'm saying that you should definitely not count on it. Perhaps at all.
However, something tells me you're going to come anyway. Hit me up for drinks when you do arrive. I love commiserating with people.
I like your drive, but networking over the course of 2 months does not equal a job, even if you are just asking for a BO or MO (which would be awkward to ask a FO guy).
Also, NY is extremely expensive no matter how you spin it. I really think you would have better luck at another, cheaper hub, like ATL, Chi, etc. I'm just not sure I put as much faith as you do in your ability to get on a bike in NYC and get a job.
I would apply for summer internships for every single company imaginable and just play it like you aren't going to be graduating a year early. It's late in the process but I really think that's your best bet at this point. Get creative with companies/sectors/cities/etc, cast as wide of a net as possible. Getting a summer offer is going to be hard enough with 0 internship experience but a FT offer is magnitudes harder.
I've heard this before but it's too late in the process.
Please take my advice: don't do this. New York City is not the place.
Quite frankly, I find your lack of internship experience alarming. I managed to get a corp finance job out of college but ONLY because I worked in a related capacity full time while putting myself through school. If you haven't done that then internships are a must. Also, no one gets an IBD job in 2 months. Certainly none of my own friends in the industry.
You're better off signing up with a staffing agency beforehand that places in finance roles, if you're only looking at a 2 month window. You'll prob end up as some staff accountant, analyst or A/R rep in some back office somewhere but if you prove yourself that could lead to better placements down the line w/ the agency and show some good progression on your CV. You will also be considered an "experienced hire" on any subsequent interviews.
If you move to Brooklyn, you could potentially find a basement apartment in the 600-750 range without additional fees. But no way will you get that in the city once you count first and last months rent and security.
I don't get the impression that you've already started networking yet. I hope that's not the case.
It's highly risky what you're considering but you're young. I'd weasel out a guarantee from my parents that I could come home w/ a loan forbearance if things don't work out before going. But you know your risk profile and level of fortitude better than anyone.
Grind,
This is the best advice I've received so far. Do you know how I could work with staffing agencies? Which ones to work with? I'm not looking to get an IBD job in 2 months, but at least some kind of footing somewhere to just sustain myself as I network longer.
There seems to be a misconception that I am trying to do everything in two months. I'm just trying to find something sustainable that can pay my rent at minimum and that might look good in an interview. I'll look in Brooklyn -- thanks for the suggestion! I'm sure I can find SOMETHING, as menial as it might be, to pay rent - so I wouldn't have to move back.
[/quote] Grind,
This is the best advice I've received so far. Do you know how I could work with staffing agencies? Which ones to work with? I'm not looking to get an IBD job in 2 months, but at least some kind of footing somewhere to just sustain myself as I network longer.
[/quote]
NYC has a ton of them. In fact, when you go on job sites such as monster.com, you'll notice that most of the available jobs on there are being run through staffing agencies. The beauty of going through them is that you can use their employer partnerships as your own "network" when starting out in a new city. I'd do a google search for agencies that place in finance and send them out your resume. you come in, interview, possibly take a computer skills exam (nothing too tough), etc. quite a few of the companies they place in are either working on tight hiring deadlines or just looking for temporary help. they're more amenable to giving someone green a shot.
why not move to Chicago, Houston, Charlotte, etc.? Cheaper cost of living while you look for work.
I don't have any connections or friends there and am pretty unfamiliar with the cities in general or else I would consider it. Since this case, I figure NYC is the best option for me.
1) I have a friend that did this, except he was hoping to land randomly a summer internship rather than a full-time job. He ended up not getting one, and blowing a few thousand dollars in the process. That's not to say you wouldn't get what you're going after, but it's not as rosy of a time as you might think now.
2) If you really want to do this, you might want to consider moving instead to New Jersey, which is cheaper to live in and still has train access to NYC. You can still do all the networking/interviewing you want, and then when you actually land a job, you can schedule a move to Manhattan or Brooklyn or wherever else.
Thanks, I'll look into Jersey City.
The only way I would suggest doing this is, is if you have an internship (unpaid or paid) locked down. Don't move to the City without any type of opportunity available to you.
You can budget all you want, but when you actually live there, you realize its much more expensive than you planned.
You have two months left in school. Any way you can work at a finance-related firm near school for free in the meantime to put at least SOMETHING on your resume for when you go on your grand, job-seeking plan?
Well Sephyre, if you're dead set on doing this, definitely come to one of the NYC meetups we do. You won't leave sober.
As well, I may have some advice on toughing it out (and even a place you coud probably do an internship, albeit a not-so-awesome one), since I've been in your shoes before at some point.
And on the bike situation: save your money. An unlimited train pass is $100 per month, and since you'll be here for 2 months, it's well worth the money.
EDIT: Forgot about the jobs.
It depends what your resume looks like and what skills you have. Like I said, you probably won't find anything pertinent to finance, but there are a multitude of odd-jobs you can do that will yield some cash. Right now I'm a typist in addition to holding down my internship, and way back when I started this whole finance venture, I used my computer skills to work on networks for small businesses. So again, it's all about what skills you have and what you're willing to do.
And though it may not be a great source for finance gigs, do leverage Craigslist for everything else. I don't know what I'd do without it.
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