Will I ever get a job in IB? - Am I Screwed?
I have an internship offer from an EB (think Moelis, Lazard, PWP) for next Summer. However, when I was 16, I was charged with felony theft (as an adult), which got reduced to a misdemeanor assault charge that is now dismissed and sealed. In my state, sealed documents can still be accessed by banks and other governing agencies.
I’m very worried that I will never be able to secure a full-time position in IB due to the Stringent background checks by banks and Finra.
Should even take the internship offer at this point? Should I change career paths?
Any insight/advice would be appreciated.
If I were you I’d say absolutely nothing to HR, and if they bring it up claim you thought it was removed from your record by now.
Would be tough if they hold it over your head but doubt they will. You should be fine.
BTW - assault…how’s the other guy look?
Thanks for your reply. Not too worried about HR since they seem very nice, but super worried about FINRA not allowing me to get a license if I join FT. Do you think FINRA will be that strict?
Bump
Are you sure they have access to something that has been expunged and sealed? I can only speak to my state but I know for a fact banks have no access to that sort of information. If you are absolutely certain, look out of state? How did this not impact your EB internship?
If they run FBI background checks, the bank will see it. FINRA will 100% see the felony arrest as well as the sealed, dismissed case.
my bank hasn’t done background checks yet for interns and I’m praying my offer won’t be rescinded.
FBI background checks? Dude I have worked for plenty of organizations that run extremely thorough background checks, never once has a FBI background check been run. In all fairness, I have never worked at say, a BB. I have worked for similar companies of size though with multi-week to month long background checks.
If you ask me, you are worrying about nothing. No shot a MM / LMM bank would run an FBI background check, so if still concerned, apply to those firms
Thank you for the insight! Do you think it’d be hard for me to get security licensing from FINRA? I’m more worried about FINRA than the companies themselves.
This is outside my depth of knowledge, unfortunately. I wouldn't sweat it now and would operate under the assumption that FINRA is mostly concerned about financial crimes. Secure that FT slot and worry about the rest later on. Hopefully someone else can give you better guidance than I.
You're clearly a smart dude if you landed an EB internship. I am not saying dont worry about this, but I do think the best approach would be to continue to research your situation while applying yourself as much as possible and operating with the mentality that this wont slow you down. Best of luck to you, and I am sorry I couldnt be more helpful.
Seconding the FINRA thing. They ask you if you have committed any crimes you were caught for regarding anything remotely related to fraud (which theft probably covers), even if you weren't convicted and got something like pre-trial diversion (common for fake IDs for example)
Not sure if they can actually see it though.
Break the law again in case you weren't sure the first time
Lol
Bump
FINRA primarily is concerned with crimes relating to money or securities and hard crimes, like murder, rape, etc. Assault would likely be a lesser concern for them, especially with it being downgraded to a misdemeanor, and even with the intial felony charge. Hell they don’t even care about theft if it isn’t concerning money or securities. You’ll still have to jump through the hoops when the time comes but I doubt they’ll bar you, or the bank for that matter but that might be more up to the banks discretion. If you have the time to do some fairly extensive googling, you can probably find a pdf of FINRA cases relating to your situation, just use “assault” and “permanently disqualified, finra” or something along those lines. That’s how I learned about their stance to theft. I’m not a lawyer.
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