Networking With People In Groups That Don’t Interest Me

A bunch of alumni are MDs/VPs at BBs in London, NY, SF in product groups (I.e ECM/DCM) or industry groups (I.e. Infrastructure, Energy). I want to reach out to them but I’m interested in M&A and TMT. I’m afraid I will sound like a dumbass speaking to them about their focus that I (1) know nothing about and (2) doesn’t interest me. And I’m afraid I’ll seem ignorant or careless about what they do.

Would you still reach out to network? if so, how would you approach this?

5 Comments
 

That wouldn’t come across as being rude? Also, would you avoid speaking about their industry focus during the call and focus more on their career path and etc?

 

I think it would be. Imagine spending your career in a certain group and going out of your way to give a kid time for a call and he tells you he’s not interested and asks to be connected to someone in a better group?

Like one of the comments below says, maybe banks have generalist apps so it won’t matter what group they’re in anyway, so at least pretend to be interested

 
Most Helpful

A lot of firms recruit group agnostic for SA spots (Barclays, JPM, WF, etc.) so speaking to alum will be beneficial even if you aren't interested in their specific group - just keep the conversation about recruiting and banking in general. At the end of the convo when you go for the ask, say you're also interested in learning about TMT/M&A and ask if they have anyone else you can talk to in their group OR in those other groups. You may not be interested in their group but you're going to have to play the numbers game to succeed, even if that doesn't sound like a great use of time.

 

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