rx md coffee chat fumble

not sure if its entirely my fault, recently had notion to pivot into Rx recruiting for 2026 and just had a coffee chat with an MD at EB from cold email. tried to ease with small talk but he quickly pivoted to ask about school and why restructuring, he would respond to questions with a brief sentence. he did ask if i had a deal i was interested in and i didnt want to lie so i told him nothing through entirety (heard Rx bankers want you to walk through basically the whole thing if asked) and at the end i opened it up and said do you have any advice for someone in my shoes and hes like know a deal. 

zoom was scheduled for 30 minutes and i ended it at like 18minutes. do i give up.

23 Comments
 

if you're interested in restructuring you need to know atleast one deal that the firm worked on, it just shows you are actually interested in this stuff. Some blogs/newsletter even talk about some notable deals like JCrew, Serta, which imo are important to know. Don't give up, this is a good learning lesson.

 

Yeah, this one's probably gone, but it happens. You should obviously still apply (because why not), but your odds aren't good.

Unfortunately, the process of applying for banking can be a bit idiosyncratic. People won't always understand what level of preparedness you should be at, so you need to be over-prepared. While I generally don't think you need to know your technicals cold for those types of chats, you probably should be able to demonstrate interest in RX specifically.

 

Similar type of thing happened to me last recruiting cycle. Had coffee chat with an Rx banker, was asked to walk through a deal I was interested in, and I had nothing. That was a dumb mistake and I learned from it; always be able to talk about the real life happenings related to a banker’s job.

 
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Current non-target junior here, I had a similar epiphany last year during recruitment season that I wanted to pivot to Rx. After pivoting to Rx in about mid-January, I did a lot of prep in a short amount of time, had a few Rx interviews, but did not end up receiving any offers (got non-Rx offer later).

I also know a few others from my non-target who I would view as being objectively stronger candidates than me, that did not get offers. These candidates had been prepping Rx since the start of sophomore year, but the fact of the matter is that Rx is incredibly competitive. You can't just be a great candidate, you also have to be fully prepped.

I still feel that Rx is the best seat in IB, but this is strongly outweighed by competitiveness - especially at EBs. The one exception I would draw is if you attend a HYPSM and can therefore justify having a lighter technical and Rx background at this time.

 

Non-target who landed top eb rx for next summer. Honestly pretty bad look ngl mostly got my offer because I had one of these MD calls where I walked him through a deal he was working on and asked really good detailed questions that showed I really new my stuff. Led to him referring for an interview and I got the offer. Would recommend having a doc where you piece together a time line of the deal you are following using resources like petition and the brink by Bloomberg.

 

Bro deadass you just sucked and it is your fault. How do you not know a single deal or talk about a single deal yet say you want to be competitive for the best job within ib and all of this during recruiting season. You honestly don't deserve rx right now and if you aren't willing to learn then you should give up. YOU threw away this coffee chat, go learn about a deal or two instead of asking a question you know the answer to.

 
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