Ok so I just got into a MM from a non target and helped my friend do the same. Wanted to pass along the formula that worked for me. This is going be a long one so here goes.
The first thing to know about banking is that it’s meant to be an exclusive club with barriers to entry ranging from schools and recruiting, all the way down to jargon which includes fancy words and acronyms just to confuse people. It’s a close knit club that they only allow similar members into. It’s a hard door to push open unless your uncle got you in, you tip off the bouncer, or you push really hard and get lucky.
That last spot is where most non target kids are—pushing as hard as they can and praying for dear life that one of their 200 applications gets them a HR screen—so that hopefully they get an interview—so that hopefully they make it to Superday—so hopefully they get a SA offer—so that hopefully they get a FT offer and make it into the club.
So if you’re not at a target you’re at a serious disadvantage in getting in the door. BUT….YOU CAN USE THAT TO YOUR ADVANTAGE. FOLLOW THIS FORMULA:
START EARLY
By the time you decide that banking is everything you want in this world and you have absolute conviction, you’re already on the clock and probably too late. Deciding and starting early is key because you have a lot of ground to make up as you’ll see. Start the process by mid sophomore year and you’ll be fine. Some people get lucky and do it in less, but I wouldn’t risk it.
BE PROACTIVE
Nobody and no job is coming to you in banking, BEFORE you even type a networking email, you have to show commitment by doing EVERYTHING POSSIBLE in your situation
HIRE A PROFESSIONAL TO MAKE YOUR RESUME
This is the packaging that gets you in the door. It’s the single most important piece of paper you’ll ever have so don’t be cheap and spend the money to have someone who knows what they’re doing make it. The banking world is rigid from key words to formatting, and no—you’re school career counselor doesn’t know what she’s talking about so just stop right there
HAVE A 3.8 OR HIGHER
(no it’s not a 3.5, you’re not a Harvard) best way to do this is load on the easy classes earlier on and spend a bunch of time creating your class schedule to ensure you get an A. I would spend a week on ratemyprofessor crafting my class schedule to make sure I had the easiest teachers. One bad teacher who “doesn’t give A’s” and your GPA is trash early on. No thank you.
JOIN The SCHOOL FINANCE CLUB
It’s free, easy, and gives you a great network and education.
HAVE SOME WORK EXPERIENCE
Doesn’t matter what it is just have it. For a freshman year internship that means a waiter or data entry and sophomore year that means (at least ) a family friends’ somewhat legit company doing something you can relate to analyst stuff. (the more finance related the better)
GET ON THE WSO GRIND
Take WSO excel, PowerPoint, and Financial statement modeling courses and know the behavioral and technical guides cold. WSO is your bible for the recruiting process and you should treat it like another class, YES, that means spend two hours every day learning this stuff and practicing it (and then networking later on). Read the forums, get to know the jargon and the expectations. Live in this world.
TAKE THE SIE & 63
These are easy exams and you don’t need to be sponsored to take them. Looks great on your resume and will save you a headache later on so you don’t have to take them while working
Towards the end of sophomore year you should be firing off applications for any bank in the cosmos. At least 200 should go out ranging from Goldman Sachs New York to Corn Valley M&A in Oklahoma. People don’t understand that this is a pure statistics game. You’re up against THOUSANDS of candidates and many of them have the schools and code words that your resume doesn’t. So you can’t even get past the automated screening. Applying online is a black hole. So why do it? Great question. That leads me to the next step
BE SCRAPPY, BE RESOURCEFUL
Once you have an internship or two and you resume looks tight, it’s time to LinkedIn your brains out. You’ll be on LinkedIn 3x the amount of time teenage girls are on tiktok so build yours up and start reaching out ASAP
-every alumnus that you can find who works in any of the places you applied to should be LinkedIn messaged or cold emailed or both. Assuming they have some sort of finance job in the bank and they went to your school, you figure out how to get them on the phone or in person. More senior the better. (Senior associate and up can actually push a resume, not an analyst)
I can’t stress this enough— IF NOBODY PUSHES YOUR RESUME YOU WILL NOT GET THIS JOB,
The statistics are stacked against you. And the 20 spots for 5,000 applicants are usually given to an MD’s friends son who has a 3.9 at Harvard on the rowing team (yes, think the Winklevos twins in the social network)
So be scrappy and find their email (figure out the email format online or something) and cold email. Keep it short and sweet, no one has time for your sob stories. MDs and analysts have a trillion things going on, so reading a long email from a sophomore at Baruch is already annoying. (see cold email and networking posts for more on this)
During the call or meet, be interesting and exude humble confidence. (Check all the other posts about networking calls or chats about how to get it done and make the ask)
You can also use this tactic on non alumni. Try and find some personal connection snd you may get lucky.
If you follow this formula you should have a decent shot. It’s worked 100% so far!
Go get em!
Congrats dude, welcome to the club! Wonder who the friend is.....
Modeling courses and taking the SIE & 63 is definitely overkill, if I saw that on your resume it would only make me want to grill you harder.
Everything else is solid advice.
fellow non-target here, got a BB offer for next summer. I also took the SIE and was told by at least a dozen analysts that they only responded to my email bc they saw it on my resume. think it's a good idea and an opportunity to digest a bunch of relevant info and conversation pieces. shows you're serious about IB if nothing else
Last sentence of the resume paragraph has “you’re” instead of “your”. Pls fix.
A lot of this is super unnecessary in my opinion. People should focus first on a good GPA and then on both developing a good foundation (read finance books, news, m&i 400qs) and making good connections.
I networked with a lot of people that went to different schools than me. You don't need to focus on people that have some personal connection with you (school, location etc) but instead just email some people that have experience in exactly what you are interested in.Breaking in is like 25% gettting a referral to the first round, and 75% being personable and knowledgeable to win the offer at the superday. Nontarget shouldnt play a huge role in either of those if u follow this simple advice.Dont take those exams before a banking interview lol i think people would laugh
Same position - non-target, to multiple BB's - the key, I always felt, was 1) working hard to learn the basics and follow the markets, 2) doing your homework (what the group/bank is known for), 3) being generally knowledgeable about the markets/finance that aren't in the guides and 4) being genuinely likeable and normal.
Once you get an interview, that's only the beginning. If the person you're across from used to work in CLO's and you know what those are and how they work, even though it wasn't in your DCF guide - that goes a LONG way. If you're interviewing for IB, but you understand how FX can be important in transactions, and tie that into that day's front cover of the WSJ - that's what separates a freshman from an analyst.
Every time I got an offer (internships or FT), it was by answering the classic questions well, but being able to tie in previous experiences or general knowledge to what the interviewer did at a previous job/firm. That shows you're more than just a kid who is doing what he was told he has to do, and is someone who will be able to think like a real person, have normal conversations about things other than "walk me through a DCF, bro" and add value down the line.
But solid advice from OP.
1/2 the jobs will go to 5% of the students (targets). That leaves you to rise to the top of the 95% for the remaining 1/2 of the spots.
What separates you from the other 94% of non-targets, is real understanding, not just memorization of facts. Understanding is what makes phone conversations with you less annoying for networking and what makes you stand out in an interview. Being normal and likable is what allows them to say "so what the kid from Penn knew all the answers, the kid from Fordham did too, and I actually liked talking to them, let's give them the offer." It's what allows you to ask genuine questions about what they do on-the-fly, no just "tell me about the culture". If you understand your stuff, and are well-read, you can ask "oh you mentioned you used to work in the healthcare group, did you work at on that big deal last year?" "you used to work on the trading floor - was that supporting new issuance, or secondary trading, or both?" - that's real conversation, that's what separates you from an annoying applicant to 'hey maybe they're not so bad after all'.
Don't get me wrong, knowing technicals is a must.
Read the whole WSJ - but choose 2/3 markets articles and understand them 100% through, every term and phrase, google everything.
If you have family members in accounting, consulting, corporate law - speak to them about what they're view is like, what they think about companies and the market and their space, it gives you something more to discuss and talk about.
At the end of the day, I got offers from 2 BB's, first round interviews at a few more (turned down, timeline issue) and didn't even get 1st rounds at others, that's the way it'll be as a non-target. You're not going to get 12 offers from Arizona St. ever.
But if you network, understand what the person across from you wants to hear on a social and technical level, and are able to convey humility and confidence at the same time, you'll have a lot of success converting the opportunities that come your way.