Hi all,
I am a recent grad from a non-target school with a degree in finance. I am 28 years old Asian living in NYC. I have interned in financial services right after graduation. I already know that I am late for any investment banking internship, but I believe there is always hope. My gpa is below 3.5 and I know it is hard to get interviews with a low gpa and lack of experience. However, I am determined to break into IB.
My cousin is an intern at a large investment bank. I know he is just an intern, but he is very outgoing and he passed my resume to the hiring manager. He actually found the guy from the job listing and told him about me saying that I am hard working and I am really interested in this position. He gave him a hard copy of my resume. He said he will do everything for me to get in.
So, my questions to you are:
What if he does not call me for an interview?
Do you think my cousin approached this hiring manager in a right way?
What should he do to get me into this IB? (in the future, in case I fail this interview)
What is the best advice you can give me?
Thanks a lot everyone.
It's a lot of bank on for just one family reference. Hopefully you land it but you have to weigh other options. Consider different routes such as gaining experience as an analyst or maybe studying to get a MSF or MBA
what have you spent the past 7-9 years of your life doing? that is much more important than anything else in this thread
what @"prospie" said is harsh but true...it's not just your GPA from undergrad, but also what have you been doing with your life the last 7 years? I'd think so far out of school, your professional experience will be weighted much heavier than your ugrad gpa...
What if he does not call me for an interview? Then follow up and see if your cousin is willing to check in one more time.
Do you think my cousin approached this hiring manager in a right way? Yes, sounds like he did. You owe your cousin at least a few beers either way :-)
What should he do to get me into this IB? (in the future, in case I fail this interview) He can't keep annoying the recruiter, but when a position opens up, maybe every 6 months he can remind the recruiter that you are still very interested and instead of trying to land you the job in 1 mention, just have him argue to give you a chance in an interview. Then it's on you to impress them with your knowledge....since by that point, you will have prepared with all the WSO resources (hopefully) and crush it / impress them...
but again, all of this is kind of secondary to what you've been doing...
Great advice! As for my response to prospie, how do you think I should present my past in the future, or at least should I?
@"prospie" Great question. I was an international student when I came here (6 years ago) with literally no English language skills. I went to college in my country for 2 years, and my family fell apart for some reason to another. I felt like I need to go away, so I came to the US. I came here with $50, doing all the BS jobs, butcher, waiter, tour guide, and etc in the city, lol. I decided to learn English when I was a butcher. Then, I wanted to get into a college. Then, I had to take Toefl which I scored highly. I eventually got into a business school that is well known in NYC. I had to pay full tution and also support myself and my family abroad. I was not able to focus on school like the other kids. I had too many family problems, still have. All I wanted was to graduate from college. I finally graduated a few months ago. So, that is pretty much what I did. Good or bad, I strongly believe I did my best, the best I am capable of. Now, there is a future ahead of me, good or bad, I do not know.
So what do you think @"prospie" ?
@"RealMeal" I do not have money for an MBA.
Yours was not an easy path and I believe you still have a tough road ahead. I'd honestly forget about investment banking for now because of your age, low GPA and lack of relevant internship experience. You need to get the ball rolling so get any kind of finance job or internship, nothing is really beneath you at this point. Target big 4, Fortune 500 and maybe private wealth managment roles. Once you get one of those and get 1-2 years experience under your belt you can start to think about IB or any other "high" finance roles. Good luck.
@"Vagabond85" I see your point. I was thinking to get some internship experience in IB (even unpaid) and network like crazy. Don`t you think it is a good approach? I do not think I will forget about IB, because it seems impossible. Do you recommend any other paths I can take? Really appreciated.
Why do you want to do IB?
Yeah, considering your lack of actual experience, I seriously question your motives for wanting to break in to IB so badly. Finance is a big world my friend and there are a lot of other rewarding endeavors in it.
@"Vagabond85" I have an interest in Leveraged Finance during my college years. I also have an internship experience in leveraged finance from a well known financial services firm. I also have all the time in the world to dedicate 100+ hours every week. I have no attachments whatsoever. I do not have a family here, I do not have a girlfriend either. So, I am fit to the culture. Besides that, I am highly interested in seeing investment banking side of leveraged finance, because the firm I interned for was working with IBs in the city. I can present many more reasons like this. Did I answer your question?
I guess I was going to try and come up with alternative paths to reach your goal. If you like the credit/debt portion of leveraged finance, you may also want to look at the ratings agencies, credit risk roles, and corporate lending as they have similarities, but are less selective. I'm not saying give up on IB, just have a plan B and don't waste time searching for the one perfect IB internship. Good luck.
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