Untraditional Route to IB

Hello I’m looking for some advice on how to break into investment banking without a sophomore summer internship. Im going to college in New Jersey, did two years at my local community college, and Im transferring to Rutgers this fall. I have a decent gpa (working on getting higher), but 0 internship experience. I would love to break into investment banking and due to my credentials I don’t care what kind of firm I work for at first. Obviously getting an internship this summer is critical for my success, but I need some advice on how to land one due to my lack of experience. I have the Bloomberg market concepts cert and WSP modeling cert done. What are some steps I should take, and or things that I must do to get an IB internship for summer 2024( junior summer)?

(Econ Major)

3 Comments
 

I came from a junior college as well. Really just have to pat your resume with semester internships. And delay your graduation.

For context I transferred the spring semester of 2022. I just cold out emailed every alumni who looked like they ran a biz or were in a position who could create a remote internship for me. Was able to get 2 internships that semester that led to 2 more internships that summer. With 4 internships I was now competitive for the recruiting of the lower MM and boutique Investment Banks that were still filling spots this summer. Luckily I was able to get an offer by late September to a lower end MM firm for this summer rn.

 
Most Helpful

Easiest thing to do at this point would be to go into a finance role like FP&A, Corp Dev, Real Estate investment/advisory, and then leverage finance/transaction background into either an MBA or IB role at that point. Showing a track record of financial literacy and competence with models will go a long way to either going into IB. IB is just long hours of doing basic financial modeling and deck preparation. If you can prove that you are competent at financial concepts then you'd be halfway there. You might not get in the BB IB but MM shops are always taking chances on people. 

 

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