Fellow Non-Targets Question

Stop caring so much

Everyone comes from different places, embrace who you are and focus on yourself. You can’t change where you’ve been but you can always control where you’re going

It may feel awkward at first but as a fellow non-target, you will realize that over time these little distinctions don't matter at all in the span of 2-5 years into your career. The best summer intern at my BB IB group was a kid from a non-target school in the midwest and the worst intern was a student with a 3.9 from an Ivy. Sure, does going to one of these schools help and allow you to stand out? Yes. However, once you've secured the gig and prove yourself on the desk with top-tier deliverables, it starts to hold less weight/meaning over time. If you still feel bad 2-5 years later down the road...go get an MBA from H/S/W and rebrand. Remember that most people in IB love scrappy kids who can grind and you'll have a strong story for how you landed an internship at "XYZ" bank rather than say you submitted a resume on handshake and leveraged OCR.

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I go to a really fun non-target. I just embrace it since it’s unique and in a beautiful place. Makes for good conversation. I always get asked about it in interviews, but it tends to be out of curiosity and not condescension. Don’t overthink it. No one cares about you more than they care about themself

You’re overthinking it man. Don’t worry about it because it screams “ I am insecure”. Change your mindset into “they’re insecure because we ended up at the same place regardless of background”. Not saying to think less of others but phrase your thinking in that way and overcome your own negative thoughts

Two things:

• Doesn’t matter what people think about you.

• People really don’t give a shit about you as much as you think.

“You’ll worry less what people think of you when you realize how seldom they do”

I can’t even tell you what schools my fellow analyst went to, and will never care. Worrying about the wrong things. Ended up in the same place so who cares, focus on performance

Lose that thought process. It's frankly more impressive (to me) to see a non-target hustle and get there, because you're in the same place with two very different backgrounds. Several years out of school, nobody cares where you went or what you majored in, just if you're good at what you do on the job and built the credibility to be a capable member of the team. If you want the pedigree that comes with those schools, get an MBA. Otherwise, focus on being the best version of you that you can be, and stop thinking so hard about where your competition came from. That mattered a long time ago and the kids who still walk around in their Harvard vests talking about school all the time lack social cues.