What's going on everybody, The WSO community has helped me out tremendously over the past few years, so I've decided that it's time to give back. Recently accepted an offer from a non-JPM/MS/GS BB in their ECM group in NYC as a lateral hire coming from the BO of a different BB in a non-NYC satellite office where I've been working since graduation. It was an extremely difficult journey out of the back office, and I know a decent amount of users on here are stuck in the same situation so I'm happy to help and show that there is hope. Graduated this year from a top 100 non-target on the same tier as Drexel, Rutgers, and Maryland, and passed CFA L1. I also didn't have any connections whatsoever in high finance, so I really had to create my own destiny. It feels extremely liberating to be out of BO, can't stress it enough. Happy to provide any help that I can with respect to the non-target/BO struggle, networking, CFA during school, or anything else you guys wanna know. Cheers
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Appreciate it man, I had a 3.5 cumulative GPA so nothing special, did BO work for a little less than six months it was awful. Having passed CFA1 before graduating definitely gave me credibility when reaching out to people and discarded the notion that I was just another BO knucklehead looking to get out. Also had a pretty compelling, well-structured story with regards to being in the BO due to a combination of being wrapped up with CFA senior year and the lack of FO OCR at my school. I'm very Markets-oriented and that really helped me to have casual conversations about the markets without much preparation which is important in ECM. Staying informed is critical for FO roles. You want to convince FO people that you don't belong in the BO, and people will understand that you simply needed a job after graduation. This allowed me to instill confidence in them forwarding my resume to the hiring managers, and I strategically reached out after seeing an opening online on the firm's career site. I never made any networking trip to NYC, only for the super day interview, and it was easy to take off of work for this. On a side note, the CFA is not relevant for anything IB-related, but for entry-level roles it is a differentiator, shows you have a solid foundation of financial knowledge, an ability to learn quickly and self study, and can prioritize your time effectively which are all important skills in investment banking. Let me know if you have any other questions!
It was an absolute struggle man, there were times where I admittedly was getting very discouraged. ~100 cold emails led to ~25 networking calls which led to 3 FO interviews which led to 1 offer. Running out to your car during lunch every day to speak to someone I cold emailed on the phone became the norm for me. You just have to be persistent and relentless while at the same time proving your financial competence. People will respect that kind of tenacity, and you'll never fail if you never give up. However staying sane definitely wasn't easy at some points, especially while doing mind-numbing BO work while trying to get the hell out of there. Luckily had a couple of buddies who were trying to do the same thing, so we were able to vent to each other and facilitate discussion about our progress, networking approaches,etc.
Yeah I mean as time went on I realized what worked and what didn't. People who I reached out to initially gave me some honest but brilliant constructive criticism on all aspects of what I was doing. I continuously refined my networking/job search approach (structure/length of cold emails, seniority of people I was reaching out to, resume tweaks, reaching out to groups after seeing a posting online, becoming more and more articulate on the phone, enhancing my story, etc.) The entire process with this BB all came to fruition pretty quickly, and it was definitely surreal seeing one thing lead to another all working out in my favor after months of grinding away. Each and every person I spoke to gave me additional, valuable insight that I kept in mind, even if they weren't hiring at all. For example, certain bankers I reached out to saw potential enhancements that could be made with regards to my resume, others saw problems with how I was phrasing certain things in my cold emails, others nitpicked at certain aspects of my elevator pitch, others scrutinized my answers to certain questions they asked me during the informational calls, the list goes on and on. All in all, this repetitive stream of feedback allowed me to ultimately build a networking/job search arsenal that was unmatched with respect to what I was working with during the summer. An important lesson learned is to be attentive and extract value out of every person you speak to, regardless of whether or not they forward your resume/get you an interview.
Great post. I never seen someone make BO to FO without internal mobility. Huge congrats.
Internal mobility is a load of BS from HR at some firms.
It depends on all the variables in your situation, however geographically being in NYC (if that's your goal) is something else that should carry weight in your job search. Having a BB brand name on my resume definitely helped out when reaching out to people as opposed to a no name boutique, but obviously FO experience is FO experience regardless of where it is. But if it's approaching March-April and all you have is a BB BO offer and you really need a job after graduation, then take it no questions asked. Networking aggressively is what will get you out.
Yeah took a couple of days off during this entire process, I really didn't use off days unless they were for interviewing. Luckily my office was only ~2 hours from NYC so it could've been much worse in that respect. I was in financial control - other than daily Powerpoint/Excel use, I don't really feel like there was any relatability from what I was doing to ECM. I wasn't doing anything on a regular basis that was very markets-oriented with no exposure to deals or client information. Once again, it was all about convincing them that I genuinely did not belong there, that I would be willing to work extremely hard for them, and that I knew my shit about the markets. I was even asked some questions about options/convertibles since they are covered under ECM as well so luckily I was heavily prepared. Coming from a non-target/BO background with only one lateral spot open it was critical that I knew technicals/about the markets like the back of my hand. Fortunately, I interviewed for this same BB a few months back for a lateral IBD coverage role, and my interviewers spoke very highly of me to the ECM group so that definitely played in my favor as well. Internal mobility wasn't really much of an option for me, I had to wait 12 months before even applying elsewhere within the firm and I was also technically in a 2 year program so that would've apparently caused an HR conflict from what I heard.