IB Interview Tactics

Hi folks,

First post here, so please be gentle.

Details

  • I'm a rising senior at a target school majoring in finance and accounting. I'm very interested in and passionate about finance, and I spend a great deal of personal time reading books, HF letters, commentary, etc.

  • I intend to pursue a career in IB post grad. I'm well aware of all the commitments involved and I'm willing to work hard, sleep little and do whatever it takes to get this experience.

  • I've had a number of finance internships over the last three years, and my GPA is 3.7.

Situation:

It's not my intent to whine, but I'd like your thoughts on my situation, which has grown difficult of late.

  • I went through the OCR process, applying for 70 positions and receiving two interviews, both at places where I had strong personal connections.

  • I learned late in the process that there had been a technical glitch with my recruiting account, where HR managers were unable to find me in the system to call me in for an interview.

  • This was disheartening, but thanks to personal connections I was able to land SOMETHING, albeit in capital markets at a MM bank instead of BB IB. When I signed my offer, I was promised (in writing) a spot on the Debt Capital Markets desk, since I felt these would allow me to transition to IB most easily.

  • Three days into training, I was told that I had been placed in electronic trading, specifically in a client facing role involving technology (akin to Ops). I petitioned the HR manager but was told that the assignment had been made on the basis of the bank's "business needs" and that it was permanent.

  • I've spent the majority of the summer working hard in my division, and spending nights/wknds conducting my own quantitative/qualitative analyses of companies, hoping to "teach myself" some skills relevant to IB.

Next Steps:

-I'm concerned about my ability to successfully recruit for an IB job given the non-market-facing experiences that I've had this summer.

-I'd be grateful for any thoughts and suggestions for how I might be able to land any full time IB (not necessarily BB) job this fall.

2 Comments
 

Sounds familiar, I am also interning in boring ops and doing DCF modeling for companies for my own portfolio during all my free time.

"One should recognize reality even when one doesn't like it, indeed, especially when one doesn't like it." - Charlie Munger
 
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