Networking as an Analyst
I recently started as an analyst and am already trying to leverage networking opportunities when I lateral in two years. This type of networking seems totally different than undergrad and I'm not sure whether my initial thought process is applicable.
For example, there is a firm that I potentially want to lateral to, or at least have the opportunity to lateral to in the future. To be in the best position, it would make sense to reach out to a VP (who graduated from my school and grew up in the same city) and simply ask him about his experience on the buy side and at the firm. Would this be an appropriate thing to do? Periodically I could correspond with him a couple of times a year (I'm not totally sure what that would look like).
I would love to hear people's previous experiences and how they leveraged their school network after undergrad.
bump
bumppp
I would approach it more along the lines of wanting to get to know some alums. Be casual about it and approach it more as friends rather than "So what's your favorite part about XYZ firm" "What does your day to day look like". You're years away from even possibly lateraling so no reason to make it super formal right now.
Also need to be realistic about lateraling. While in undergrad analysts from a total no name school can land big offers with networking, if you're at a tiny boutique looking to go UMM/MF (or something similar) you're going to need to take a step or two in between first.
I work at a LMM fund and come from a target school. Ideally I'd like to lateral to another LMM/MM fund and or growth equity which is I think is reasonable.
That sounds like a reasonable expectation. Just network in a more casual way - new to the space and would love to hear about your take / meet some investors. focus on building a network rather than the very transactional nature of undergrad networking
Just my opinion, not saying it’s right or wrong, but I don’t think it’s productive to network in your first 6-9 months in IB if you come right out of college. You just started working, do your job.
Networking is great and I’m not saying you should ignore people, but it’s hard to know what you want to do next until you do the job day in and day out for a few months. An analyst who’s been working for 3 months and barely touched 1 or 2 models can’t tell me they “love modeling”, they just don’t know what they like yet.
Quo dicta sit ab nihil. Id fugiat aut cumque earum molestiae voluptas eos.
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