Need some finer direction, (destroy me if you have to)
A little context of me. I am from Canada. I did my undergrad in econ 3.8 gpa target school. Then I did MA in Econ at another target school 3.25 gpa and just graduated this June, (I lost motivation because I wasn't interested in Ph.D)
When I was in school, my parents financially "forced me" to do doctor, lawyer, academia or work for government for stability because everything else is just "too risky". I hated that, I always liked business, so econ was a subject my parents sort of agreed with. Then obviously I had 0 finance related internships, and every summer was just academia related work; TA and I spent one summer studying for LSAT. It wasn't until the end of my undergrad before my master I heard out about investment banking since I was "brainwashed" and my career focus was off. Then I took all the financial economics courses in my master and I loved them.
So now, I have graduated for 2.5 months with no full time experience and zero finance experience. I started networking 2 weeks ago, no meaningful result as of now. My longer term goal is to go deep in investment banking. But as of now, I am really hoping just to get any type of internship from even the smallest boutique. Is this the right direction to go given my background?
My execution is to cold call immediately, I have about ~90 firms including the big ones here in my city. But 90 is still a pretty small number, if I call 10 a day, I will run out in a week and half. I will definitely continue to network, but I can't depend on it for immediate result even months.
At this point, I willing to hear any kind of criticism and advice. Your PM's are welcome!
I think you made the right decision to pursue investment banking. Next time it comes up, tell your parents that doctor's pay is about to become laughable for the shit they have to do, and the job market for lawyers is nonexistent. Long story short, they both require more education + harder work for less pay.
Listen to your parents.
definitely get a job in the mean time - there is nothing worse in a resume than unexplained gaps
I definitely thought about another job. But there are two problems for me
1)Even for some other random job it won't be instant. It may still take a couple months to find another job since I have no real work experience. Also from M&I and WSO, IB don't seem to care about other work experiences if they are not IB, PE, HF, experiences. I could be wrong on this point
2)By taking another job, I won't have as much time to network and cold call. By the time I found another job in a few months and if instead I used those few months to purely break into IB, I may have found myself an internship of some sort. (even just an on-call unpaid internship)
There is definitely a trade-off, I do run the risk of not finding anything in a few months and creating a bigger gap of unemployment. I guess I will just be honest when comes to ib interviews (if I get any) that I didn't give up and kept on trying to show them persistence.
I am very concerned about my scenario but like other people said, in the end all I need is just one.
I don't agree with either of these points. 1) I held a communications/IT FT job during college and every place I interviewed with was impressed with the fact I worked FT while in school. A job will be looked upon more favorably than no job regardless of the circumstances. (Unless of course you work part time at McDonalds or something reserved for 16-17 year olds.) 2) You'll still have time to cold call/email/etc, even if you work 8 hours a day, and sleep 8 hours a day, that still leaves a few hours to research and make phone calls 5 days a week if you want to. Again, job > no job.
Ultimately, getting a job and making some money in the meantime will be beneficial. You'll have less of a gap in your resume, and even if the firm doesn't care about what you did, at least it shows you were doing SOMETHING while trying to break in.
One in hand is better than two in the bush. Get a job and do well there. Prepare for IB or other jobs like transaction services, economic consulting, economist at the Fed/ IMF etc..
Don't get into this IB or bust mindset i'm sensing from you right now. You might hate IB just as much as econ since you've never worked a real job your entire life...
If I'm an interviewer and I ask what's your story? Why have you been in finance for such a long time? What will you give to me OP?
Hey everyone, thanks for the comments and suggestion.
You guys are right that job>no job. I think about this issue deeply. Another thing is that (just me personally), if I did find another regular job, I feel I probably will fall back to the normal routine. By putting myself in a situation like this, I am forcing myself to give all I have. But the risk is longer employment gap if nothing turns out.
So regarding the story, let say another 4 months later I finally found a intern and the interviewer asks me. I will just be flat out with what I have done. Sending 5-10 cold emails everyday/follow up with people who are receptive/informational interview/cold calling (multiple times at the same firm, I have to space it out). I don't know if they will see this as being sincere about breaking in or they won't really care what I have done but the fact I have a resume gap.
I thought if my resume gap was a result of watching TV and playing video games for 6 months then employer will view it unfavorably.
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