Getting that IB referral

Hey fellow monkeys, wanted to share my success story with you for recruiting. No I haven't gotten the role yet but its basically in the bag and I wanted to share some tips.

Step 1, The reach out:

• Finding an alumni at the bank you are interested at. There weren't any alumni at GS TMT so I got in touch with a guy in S&T to help. Alumni will do anything for you, so gotta leverage that. Remember a BB is a BB baby!

• In my message I told him that even though I wasn't interested in markets I NEEDED to know how he got a role at a BB.

• Be sure to understand their power in the company. In my reachout, I asked him if he was senior enough for referrals to matter. Remember, if it is a junior guy they have no power so you gotta get them to move you to the MD.

• Finally close out the message by giving him a list of times you are available. If you are busy studying for your finance/junior level class how are you going to give him the time of day?

Step 2, the call:

• Timing is key, you can't come off as desperate. Call a few minutes late to drill in the fact that this is a casual conversation between two High Finance Alphas and not some networking call. While I have never gotten with a girl, I keep hearing these sorts of techniques worked. I guess given I got the referral it does.

• Nailing the greeting is key. When I hit up the guy on linkedin asking for the call I learned he was some nerdy quant. Knowing this I realized I had to make him feel like a banker who slays, so I opened up by saying "What up bro how you hanging?"

• Be relatable. Realizing that he worked at a BB so he was rolling in money I casually hinted that I was used to wealth by mentioning that I was spending coronavirus lock down at my family's vacation house.

• Have a good why finance/banking story ready to go. I talked about my eagle scout project my dad pushed me to do where I repainted two signs at the park. I discussed how raising the $50 for equipment made me realize the importance of M&A.

• Be a factfinder. When I talked to the alumni I made sure to note my interest in banking instead of some nerdy quant shit by asking about transferring from his group and out when I inevitably got the role. If you want GS TMT, and the dude isn't there you gotta know how to work it from his group. Banking is the long game folks.

• Value his time. I made sure to let him know when he was mentioning redundant stuff by cutting in midway through saying "yeah I already knew that". This guy is taking valuable time out of his day, you don't want to needlessly waste it. Heck I think I locked up that referral when I let him know after like 10 minutes for what was supposed to be a 30 minute call that I learned all I wanted to know and hung up. I didn't let him say goodbye so he could get back to work.

Step 3 the follow up:

• Make the ask. I made sure to ask if he would be willing to do a referral or at least put me in contact with someone in banking who had that power. I also pre-emptively sent my resume for good measure. Remember they can't help you if you don't ask how you can be helped

• Be memorable. Don't write something boring like "thank you for speaking with me", try to plant seeds of friendship. I personally wrote "great talking to you, hopefully when rona virus is over we can chill at my lake house with other alumni". This is a people business folks.