I am still in high school but fascinated in the private equity sector. Everyone has telling me to build my network and I am wondering what exactly this entails. Should I cold connect with people on LinkedIn or cold email employees of places I would like to work ? None of my family or friends or anyone I know is involved in ib so I am wondering how to best get my foot in the door. Any help appreciated thank you!
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Just enjoy high school, worry about that freshman year. Have fun and make some great memories!
Thank you but probably not an option really want to get ahead of the curve here.
Bruh, the man gave you good advice. You’re too young to become this much of a hardo, relax. Unless you’re related to someone in the industry you’re not getting anywhere in high school. No one wants to coffee chat with a high schooler.
Enjoy life, keep your grades up and focus on getting into a good school. You’ll do just fine.
also change your username if that's your real name
It makes me sad that this is where we are with recruiting.
You have nothing to offer (as a high school student), why would anyone want to network with you? It's a waste of time. Focus on getting into a good uni and polish your social skills first (i.e. go bang some chicks).
This is sad to see. Dude being this much of a hardo will only cause you regret later down the line. Get good grades, get into a good college. That’s it, otherwise have fun. Those precious years go by so fast and they never return. I’m in year 5-6 of a career that’ll last 40 more years. While I enjoy it, there will never be a break as nice as what high school and frankly even college basically is. Make good friends, have fun with girls, play video games, etc — just trust me that post college life gets more complicated and life gets more tumultuous
Seriously, don’t give this too much thought until at least college
I understand this is a serious question, not a troll. If so, please do not seek networking if you're in high school. Best case scenario you will come off as a weirdo, worst case people will remember and you could hurt your chances down the road.
Any type of networking outreach while in high school is incredibly cringe and absolutely no one will treat you seriously.
I get it, you want to have a head start. But trust people here, it does not work like this. Just relax. Focus on getting good grades, do sports, have fun with friends, have some memories to talk about. This is the only thing you can do to help your PE recruiting in a few years.
Listen here you lil shit, your future network is going to be the kids that you party hard and make awesome memories with. They are the ones going to push you and your pitch/agenda when it doesnt carry as much weight as the next hardo banker, because you know what? because you are his bro. You went crazy with him in high school, made awesome memories, helped other friends get around their troubles and they helped you. You are their true "Friend". These friends will become your future support network. Its cool to think of PE or whichever field you like, but do not be that guy who misses on those memories.
Your network grows old with you, and becomes more entrenched. Enshrine that, go out and celebrate it. Dont be Carl from school who didnt give a shit about anyone. But work hard to get to the best school possible, do activities that help you to feel wholesome (If PE coffee chats your thing, fine, go do it).
Get into as good a school as you possibly can, and don’t come back to WSO until sophomore year of college when/if you start looking for internships
No one will care that you did DCFs in high school or you day traded your $4.20 account. In fact, that could get you dinged for being a weirdo hardo
also use throwaways for your username. Different first name, different school, different sector, etc. I’ve been tracked down through this site (guy went to my school, he was cool) but you never know
And don't say jack on Facebook, Linkedin, Youtube comments, etc either using your real name or giving out too many personal indicators. Even as much as you want to talk about family issues, politics, etc. HR people are zero or one hundred. Some will do their research and track you down like UCSDThrowaway, even if others will be lazy to a fault. I'm not speaking out of both sides of my mouth because I know I've said some things that could give me away too, but I learned.
How the fuck do high schoolers even know what private equity is
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