Obviously probably a low hit rate but would y’all take a call from a prospect that you have nothing blatantly in common with? A few firms I want to at least give a shot at for recruiting that have 0 alum from my school. Fwiw my school is well represented at BBs
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I always try to make myself available for any student/prospect (time willing) regardless of background so long as they reach out respectfully and don’t seem blatantly off. Whats the harm in taking a spare 20 mins to talk to someone looking for guidance?
That being said I am always more interested in talking to kids from my alma mater - came from a non target and I feel a chip on my shoulder to help those kids out like many fellow alum once helped me.
I am US based (I know you tagged Italy) but I would typically jump on the phone with just about anyone as long as they A. Spelled my name right, B. Made the message at least somewhat unique (e.g., didnt just explicitly state they wanted to work for my firm / in XYZ industry, C. most importantly, reached out when I wasnt slammed. In the event that I was slammed, I tried to at least respond and request they follow up in a few weeks. Any time someone followed up I made sure to respond to them and schedule a call. The only times I would disregard messages intentionally was when I was about to leave my current company or didnt like my role and didnt want to recommend it / the company I was at.
When I was in your shoes, I had a much higher response rate when targeting other cities.
Lastly, if you are a non-target I highly recommend reaching out to other non-targets, they are likely to be more responsive.
new AN1 here. would take any outreach I get until it gets overwhelming. Then might start favoring people with similar backgrounds. If you don't have any alum at the firm, I'd begin by reaching out to analysts that also came from non-targets because they understand the pain.
My perspective from just recruiting - I go to a t15 that’s not well represented in IB. I networked with everyone I could from my school but could tell that wouldn’t have been nearly enough, so probably ended up sending ~700-800 cold emails to people not from my school.
Biggest thing is START EARLY. January and early February, got a very good conversion rate, below alumni response rate by 10-20% but still good. In mid-March, I remember sending about 200 emails to analysts at top 20 firms over the course of a few days and got almost no responses, changing nothing nothing about my strategy. I figure by that point they must be so inundated with networking emails from kids from the school they graduated from they likely prioritize those first (in most cases).
However, since you need to start early, make sure cultivate the relationship over time, because it’s hard to think back on one 30 minute call in Jan from a random kid when interviews roll around.
Lastly, try to target people in the same group (esp one you’re interested in). Always ask if the person has anyone else you can talk to. The BBs are big firms, if you talk to a dozen people but only a max of 2 in each group you’re less likely to be remembered.
Just my perspective from my personal experience. Got more interviews at EBs than BBs and signed in April.
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