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What's up guys!
yay random non target schools!
Glad to join this group!
I'm a senior in HS going to a non-target next year. Any tips on what I should do? Macaulay Honors Baruch
what are your goals?
Well I'm looking at IBD/S&T in the future, but for now I just want to learn and get a taste for the different fields in finance. I'm also looking for summer internship opportunities in NYC for basically any areas related to the above or make it easier for me to break into finance in the future.
get involved with several clubs they end up being some of the best gateways
I attend Maryland, this summer I will be working at TD Bank as a Credit Analyst, how do i leverage my experience for IB recruting this fall
hey everyone. I did my undergrad at Illinois State University (shitty non target) and masters at University of Illinois (another non target). I have my work cut out for breaking into the consulting world but I will share my experiences with you all!...hopefully after I get there lol
did you go straight from UG to MBA?
my masters is in health policy and management, its an MPH degree. i want to pursue my MBA a couple years from now, hopefully Northwestern or UChicago. I have a BS in biochemistry / molecular biology. I took a nontraditional route, and its been an upward battle.
This is fantastic. I'm from Brandeis with a shitty GPA (3.0) rounded major in Math. Its been absolutely brutal for me. Keep on chuggin fellas.
what are you looking at getting into? im guessing IB, BB, PE, etc.
Does anyone here actually work on the street? I'm still in ug
IlliniKid,
f
Nice, yea i dont have as much interest in banking/financial sector as most people in this forum. I just want to work in management consulting, preferably in Chicago and eventually get my MBA and after working in consulting move into some Fortune 500 company and hopefully work in executive/upper management.
Penn State represent =D I've actually scored a couple interviews and have kept in touch with my interviewers because they claim to really like me - but its hard for the major players to justify taking a 3.1 GPA state uni acct major when I sit in the waiting room with a bunch of target kids grinning at me. I'm still pressing hard, graduated this week and I have an "interview" coming up with MS at the end of the month... =/ eek! We can do it, it's just hard as hell and you HAVE TO WANT IT MORE.
with what dept?
MSSB Capital Markets... its a serious longshot, but I've been spending at least 10 hours every day since my last final trying to learn as much as I can - as a non target applicant with a mediocre GPA my only hope is to show determination, ability to learn extensively on my own, and just the fact that I am capable of doing the work. Going to be tough. The "connection" I found in the dept who is pushing my resume through asked me to attach some spreadsheets with examples of my abilities to model etc, which I did literally NONE of in school, so I have been working on learning basic revenue models and stuff today. I have done EVAs, amortization tables, dupont/swot/porter analysis and things like that but being in accounting we just had 0 exposure to the finance side of things which I think is a very poor choice by our school.
Good luck to everyone! I'm no expert but I'll be starting as an IB analyst this summer with WF (a quasi BB) coming from a Midwest non target school (literally hundreds of miles from the nearest investment bank lol).
I would say REALLY focus on getting the highest GPA possible in your undergrad career (3.5 minimum) - when you're going up against target school kids your intelligence is automatically questioned, a high GPA is the best way to bolster your case. Also, really become genuinely interested in finance and READ as much as you can! Of course read the WSJ, Forbes, BusinessWeek, etc. but that's only part of it - you also have to read beyond your textbooks, really dive into finance and dig deeper into the concepts presented in lecture. For instance, read research articles from influential finance/economics professors (Black, Modigliani, Fabozzi, etc) and well known books like "A Random Walk Down Wall St." The main point is you need to be passionate and want it more than anyone else.
Beyond the academics, really leverage the resources you have available. For example, I worked at WF in their Home Equity department while in school - totally unrelated to investment banking but I was able to form relationships and get great recommendations which helped me transfer to the IB Group once I graduated. Bottom line, get experience wherever you can in banking, bust your ass and earn a good reputation, and keep your eye on the prize. Just remember guys, some of the biggest names on Wall St came from non-traditional backgrounds - they love hard working success stories! Think Sidney Weinberg, started as a janitor and eventually become CEO of Goldman Sachs!
Great post. Did you intern in IB as a SA?
But in reality if Mr. Weinberg was not Jewish that would have never happened.
^^^^^^^^^ Dupont/SWOT/Porter analysis LOL.
My guess is you took BA 411 with McClure this past semester?
Yeah, and 404. Worthless goddamn classes the both of them... well, I got everything out of college that I wanted. Besides the whole, you know, education bit. Have had to teach myself pretty much everything on my own time in order to not look like a complete retard at interviews =/
I hated McClure. That class was awful, had it not been for the 2 exams I would've gotten like a 98% A. Settled for a B+ unfortunately. Yeah, I've been cramming pretty much my whole college career.
Good times. Well, I wish you the best of luck in your hunt for an IB gig, perhaps I'll stalk you on FB one of these days and whichever one of us gets in first can quickly dissuade the other from following :o
Miami of Ohio checking in, doing S&T this summer, looking to go to the dark side (Ivey League Masters/PhD) if I don't get an FT.
Can't wait to get out there and start hiring non-targets, though there is a lot of Ass Clowns, the best of the Non-Target applicants seem to out shine the Target kids every day.
Remember, everyone loves an underdog, use it to your advantage and don't bitch that you can't get what you want because you don't go to a target; you can get anything you work at.
FYI, ivy league PhD is equally as hard as undergraduate ivy or harder....extremely selective. i applying to several ivy PhD programs this year and from what ive learned, acceptance rates (generally speaking) are usually between 10-15% for most programs. however this should not deter you from getting into ivy masters, since they are relatively not too difficult to get in. i got into a masters at cornell and nontarget (georgetown) for a specific masters program with 3.4/1250gre.
Blue Falcon is really taking strides to break into banking, now sure if it will be successful but if it is there could be a real surge.
Yah that kids got balls.
Budfox, where did you wind up going, if you don't mind me asking
Hows it going guys, SEC Finance senior reporting in. Just finished a summer position w/ value investing equity L/S hedge fund.
Hey guys recent grad from Northeastern in Boston. I was wondering what your guys thoughts were on reaching out to someone in a COO position or really high up that's an alum. My school doesn't have much in a way of banking alums so this is one of the few guys I can get in contact with. Thoughts...
is he a coo at a bank? hedge fund? f500? its always great to reach out to anyone... you never know who they know or how they can help
Yeah he's a COO at a bank, but a smaller bank with an AM group
Cool, go for it.
@ Matt the Tiger
How was working at the fund?
Awesome, later this semester I'm going to visit the fund office in New York,(it was a tiger seed, so main office in town and then an arm at the tiger building on park). Amazing learning experience, I learned so much in 3 months under the analyst mentoring the other intern and I. Something might be there after the spring but i'm going to try and get a gig in NYC sellside via some contacts that the analyst working with us were so kind to offer.
Thanks man, is anyone here from the Boston area?
what grade are you going into?
senior year. mixed emotions about finishing up, but excited.
thats great... how did you get the job?
Thinkin about the Duke MMS program to get into entry level Consulting firm. Is the risk of not getting into consulting worth the $40k+ for one year?
PM me if you're still interested. I was a non-target and am in the program now.
PM sent to you in regards to the DukeMMS program. Thanks
Deleted...
I am a freshman at a non-target yet well known school.
Currently, I am interning as a stock broker trainee. I am gaining lots of experience with cold-calling and flirting with secretaries ;) Hopefully, if all goes well, I will be nominated to take the Series 7 over the 2011 summer. Wish me luck :) At the same time, I have been working with a senior analyst who is teaching me Excel and financial modeling.
The firm I am currently working with, headquartered on Wall Street with a branch in Midtown, also has a paid IB internship that I hope I can get into by leveraging my stock broker contacts.
I am also thinking about transferring into a target school by doing well at my current school, scoring higher on the SATs, and using recommendation letters from my firm.
Be and stay positive.
Hey, great to see all these posts. I'm a first semester freshmen (soon to be 2nd) at a non-target CUNY in NYC. Doing an internship at a FoHF (back office), and I'll see if I can leverage that into something...
Has anyone from a non-target started getting interviews for SA positions?
I'm going to be going to a non-target starting Summer/Fall (CU Boulder) as a transfer. I'm really looking to work in Denver (which is why I'm going to school in CO), but thinking about some regional cities as well if I can't make that happen. Anyways, stoked to be here, best of luck to y'all
What firms are you looking at in Denver? I'm aware of RW Baird, Piper Jaffray, and George K Baum. What else do you know? What is your interest? IBD vs S&T?
Anyone have any recommendations for trying to grab S&T full time offer from Bulge Bracket going into second consecutive year of internship at MM IBD. How can I start pitching to headhunters? What is the best way to get a hold of these people (cold call/ask for recruiting/others)?
Great to see this thread-clearly a lot of dedicated people here. When I first joined WSO, I searched my school and the only threads that came up were threads telling people not to go there and that it was a joke. One user even posted that he would be offended if he ever worked with anyone from my school-ouch!
My piece of advice is to go to career fairs and recruiting events at target schools. I've actually been kicked out sneaking into these on multiple occasions. I would make up a false story pretending to be a student there (dorm, major, year, etc.) and try to BS my way in. One time I got kicked out of a career fair for sneaking in a back door when an employer left to smoke a cig. It actually makes for funny conversation during informational interviews ha. When you do get it, however, it's a great way to stand out. Half the recruiters will be offended that you aren't from their school, but the other half will really be impressed. Get their number, follow up, and schedule a meeting in person. You'd be surprised at the success rate of this (probably >80% interviews).
So yeah, you'll piss a lot of people off but it worked for me- complete non target and I'll be doing IBD at GS/MS/JPM this summer and ended up turning down 5+ interviews. The process sucks but you have to be bold-best of luck to everyone!!
Holy shit makers mark, you are my hero. I've been pretty much cracking the books open all summer, but haven't called anybody. I know that recruiting season is coming and I'm gonna need to do something about it. I'm from the DC area and tried talking with Georgetown to let me in on their recruiting events, but no luck.
I know a guy from GS, equity analyst, but I think I bugged the heck out of him and he is no longer communicating with me. What do you think I should do? I can try to contact some of his connections from linkedin and then try to find out when Georgetown recruiting is from GT students or something. I just feel tied up at the moment though.
If anyone is curious, I ended up getting a job at a F500 company in CF but I am still eyeing my other career options. I think a lot of people had to go with Plan B in the last few years, but as things get warmer in the economy I'm staying on my networking bit and leveraging the people I've gotten in touch with in my own company to get contacts in other firms. I have managed to get pretty friendly with people right below the C level in my company, but they mostly have friends who are C levels in smaller companies, or partner level in public accounting. Not a lot of association with banking surprisingly.
It's tough working easy CF hours, getting paid pretty "fairly" and having a pretty clear career path ahead of me and knowing that I am working towards throwing it away for a chance to get thrown on the girndstone at some bank haha.
Hey guys I'm going to be in New York next week starting on wednesday and then leaving on the 4th. If anyone would like to meet or has some advice or words of wisdom please PM me. thanks
MissingNo, if you treat your CF job like an IBD job you will jump far ahead of your friends. Pick up every single extra project you can (especially in the areas you're interested in). You won't even have to work 80 hour weeks, 60-70 hours and you will be the golden boy of the office. Just because you're not in IBD doesn't mean you can't create the opportunities you're looking for by being an IB Analyst.
went to uconn. andddddd yep. if you dont know what i do and where i work you obviously dont read forums :P
I have only recently read a lot of WSO, so where do you trade? I assume in energy or commodities right? Thanks Short!
I might be able to start helping bitches with internships starting next year if anyone has interest in corp strategy or analytics.
Nobody's interested in what you have to say. Go be happy with your pants, Mcgee.
Any super non-target people on here? Small PA state-schoolers?
Keep hustling. Three years after graduating I am still trying to make my way into S&T.
It's been a year since I've graduated. I'm working in another field now, but I still can't give up breaking into ibanking. I've tried cold-emailing to start, but I've had no luck yet. I know the alums at USC really have your back over here in Southern California. But is it worth it to ditch it all and go get an MBA at USC?
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