Is it too late if you don't have any connection?
Hi monkeys, I'm an international student who recently returned to campus after serving in the army (of my country) for two years. I'm a rising junior and currently very ill-prepared without solid foundation in financial knowledge or networking, and found out this year's recruiting cycles for major banks have been moved up. Some have finished their recruiting already, and a few remaining banks leave me with just a month or two before the applications close for 2019 SA internship. I want to ask if there's any decent chance of breaking in without any connection?
I go to a target school and have a STEM major with a GPA of 3.8+. I plan to dedicate most of my time in the following month in acquiring financial knowledge and preparing for interviews. My only hook is being proficient in 3 East Asian languages which I was informed IBs don't care.
I'll have to do my best and give it a try regardless, but I'd very appreciate any advice for me or objective assessment of the chance and situation I'm in.
I am guessing you are Korean. Which school are you attending exactly? Ultra target as in top ivy? What's your resume looking like? Any namebrand internships in USA? (Asian internships aren't taken seriously due to the fact that 99.99% internships in Asia are obtained through connections and are simply coffee runs) I would seriously consider delaying your graduation if you feel like you can make it for Summer 2020.
(Part-time tuition does not cost that much if you can afford it)
.
Studying will get you nowhere if you can't even land yourself first round interviews. So where do you attend? Amherst? NYU? OSU? Williams? Claremont? Emory? Duke? UChicago?
For the technicals, I'd recommend the WSO resources and any corporate finance notes you have from school to learn the knowledge. Then use a service like dailyibdprep to build familiarity and keep the knowledge fresh so you can recall it quickly in interviews.
start networking now better late than never
If you go to Columbia, I'm sure there are a ton of alumni in NYC who you could network with. Banks are still holding at least some positions for the fall recruiting cycle.
Keep hustling. You never know when something might pop up. I know a guy who got an FT position with an EB just a week ago.
Thank you for your input! There aren't many networking events in the summer, would you recommend me cold-mailing a sizable number of alumni in banking after searching for alumni contacts?
Fuck a sizable number, email EVERYBODY.
Like SirGrayWalrus said, there's no point in studying if you can't get first round interviews, and that's what networking is for.
See if there are veteran networking organizations or resources out there you can take advantage of. If all else fails, MBA programs love military guys.
You've got this. To give some perspective, I'm at a semi-target with an ok GPA (3.5 ish) and I didn't network or have any connections at all. I landed a MM SA bank offer (with no networking or connections, just applying and doing well in interviews) at the last minute for this Summer (April) and just signed my SA offer at an EB (Evercore/Centerview) for next Summer. I never networked or had any internal connections and got through with raw interviewing both times. Also I was the only one given an offer for both super days and every person at my boutique super day went to a better school/program. You can definitely make the Colombia name work for you.
PM me if you need any interview help or resume review. Don't listen to anyone on here that tells you it's too late, I would recommend also looking into the ECM DCM side of things. Interviews are a lot easier since there's less material overall than M&A, RX and almost everything can be found online. It's never too late to break in. I decided I wanted to break in this year March and still managed to find an IB job by the beginning of Summer.
when you say look into ECM/DCM do you mean the capital markets roles instead of traditional IB?
Yeah, I interviewed for both Capital Markets roles and traditional IB. Almost always, the Capital Markets interviews required less prep/were easier (for good firms at least). The pay is around the same, and capital markets has generally less hours.
Did you apply via diversity programs? If you managed all this through normal recruiting, you must've had a killer resume or incredible interviewing skills.
I'm definitely not a diversity candidate lol. Going into my sophomore MM Offer, I had silicon valley firm experience, and consulting experience with a F100 company. I was able to leverage that for the MM and then I used my current MM job as leverage for the EB
Thanks for your encouragement! It's very heartening! I'll PM you tmr as soon as I can
It is never too late to start networking you never know what will happen if you end up talking to other people.
Omnis laudantium provident ullam sint tempora sint animi. Odio aut adipisci nulla deserunt eum. Nemo occaecati aut voluptas aperiam. Nesciunt quo id mollitia odit aut et omnis autem.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...