Switching Banks from SA to FT
Can someone clearly explain or perhaps link another discussion that talks about:
- When should you start networking for FT given that you’ll intern at another bank for SA?
- How do you get interviews? Is it solely based on networking?
- What should be the message while networking (if you start 4 weeks into your internship)?
- Is recruiting group-specific?
- Are many of the spots taken quickly after SAs receive offere?
- What is the competition like? Do Top BBs only take SAs from other Top BBs? How about moving from MM to EB/BB
Any help is appreciated!
1. Start networking a few weeks into your internship (no earlier, otherwise you look ungrateful
2. It’s as possible to get an interview by doing a resume drop for FT as it is to get an interview for an SA via just resume drop. It’s possible, but muuuuuch more likely through networking.
3. Don’t say you’re interested in switching, email and say you’re interested in learning about their career/experiences at their bank
4. Depends on the bank, but most are group-specific
5. It happens EXTREMELY quickly. SAs get offers and they start doing FT interviews to fill their spots right away. Some banks kick off the recruiting before you even know if you have a return offer. They do this because, well, nobody would switch otherwise (they’d just accept their return offer ASAP).
6. I talked to someone in JPM HC a couple of months ago when they were running their FT process. They interviewed 40-50 people for what was 1 spot at the time (they had a few spots to hire for at first but this set of interviews was for their final one).
I think that’s pretty typical for FT recruiting at top banks. I imagine they get hundreds of resumes and they interview 20+ people per spot, almost all of which have full time offers for their EB/BB/well-known MM.
It’s still possible without an SA or a FT offer - I’ve met a few people who interned in ER or F500 corpfin then made the jump - but they were the exception rather than the rule