UCLA for IB: 2021
Hi everyone!
I'm a current UCLA student and have seen decent amount of posts on this forum recently asking about IB / Consulting / Biz Econ major in UCLA and comparing the program to other schools. There have been a whole lot of other posts on WSO which address this but wanted to start a new discussion for any incoming freshmen to have questions addressed. Unfortunately, I can't give away my background (as it will be easy to find out who I am), but happy to answer any general questions that one might have.
I'm also a UCLA student going into banking, we probably know each other. My take on recruiting from UCLA is that if you enter freshman year aiming to do banking and have enough social aptitude you'll be fine. There's honestly not a lot of competition here and if you do the necessary things (GPA, internships, extracurriculars) and are able to hold a conversation with bankers I can't imagine you won't get any offers.
This is so true, you just need to know that you want to do banking early on, recruit into a few clubs and you’ll have people to help you out. If you’re diligent during your freshman year, you can make it without a lot of difficulty!
I'm a UCLA alum who didn't know about IB until I was a junior. Agree that if you aim to get into banking as a freshman or even as a sophomore then there's a good chance you'll be able to land something. In my opinion, the lack of finance classes makes it hard for underclassmen to realize that IB might be a field they're interested in. I was a business econ major and I remember professors talk a lot about big 4 accounting jobs, but I don't remember any talk about finance careers.
Go bruins
Thanks for doing this. I'm particularly interested in tech IB and looking at LinkedIn there seem to be alums in all the top groups I hear about - GS, Qatalyst, Morgan Stanley, etc. Any specific advice for breaking into tech banking? And also what differentiates the students that get those top places from others? Anything to do early on?
You need to get in to UBS work shop in order to be considered for Q. Think they only talk to people in that work shop. For MS tech, think they do not hire at UCLA , at least nobody I know break into MS menlo directly out of undergrads
For other groups, just like all the other industry team - you need to be able to talk about news / trends comfortably during the networking calls / coffees and explain why you like tech. You want to show that you keep track of tech news for a long time, not just reading through some headline of news.
In general, BAML PA, Citi SF, GS SF, Q, RBC SF, Barcap Menlo, CS SF, DB SF, LZ SF, Perella hire quite a lot at UCLA historically
That's helpful, thank you!
Lotta bullshit on this thread. UCLA should be a last resort choice if you are a high school senior who got into any other comparable school. UCLA is pretty much the only top 20-30 school without any school or faculty supported IB programs. In general, UCLA offers very little career development and the school doesn't care whether or not you land a job after graduating. As a result, your experience there will only be a function of how much work you put in.
If you're accepted into one of these three clubs: Bruin Asset Management, Bruin Hedge Fund, or Bruin Value Investing (which are all student run i.e. you need to make friends or have friends in these groups) then you're going to be fine. They will walk you through the process, help you land interviews, train you, etc.
If not, you're pretty much screwed and will have to do EVERYTHING yourself, which is overwhelming. You'll need to figure out applications open dates/deadlines, firm-specific interview tactics, technical interview questions/practice, behavioral questions, resume tips, and general guidance all on your own like you would if you just went to any non-target school. That's also only assuming you're able to land an interview in the first place which will require constant networking, thousands of cold calls and emails, and a lot of rejection.
Don't get me wrong, UCLA is an awesome school with a great culture, solid party scene and has strong career paths into a lot of different fields, but as a current Bruin, if you have the option of attending really any other top school and know you want to do IB, UCLA shouldn't even be in consideration.
I know it's cringe but could you rank BVI/BAM e BHF? Are they quite different or basically the same for recruiting?
same ish
Looks like a fuck ton of kids at credit suisse
Yeah CS has a pipeline for UCLA, only BB really to recruit from there. However you 110% need to be in one of those three clubs I mentioned or they will not bother responding to you/networking with you, since the kids in the groups try to keep it pretty competitive.
target school for LA offices (esp Credit Suisse and Barclays) and perhaps Qatalyst but nontarget elsewhere
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how so? Maybe Evercore listed UCLA as a target, but that started only this year from my understanding. UCLA's OCR is nowhere close to Berkeley as of 2021
Basically USC/Ivies/Berkeley runs analyst placement and UCLA anderson runs associate recruitment with small % exceptions.
if you don’t believe me check LinkedIn
Can confirm this is accurate.
This is right for CA. If you're at UCLA and know you want to go into IB, you won't be denied an opportunity at all (just check LinkedIn there's a ton of people from UCLA in IB/PE - Bruin Asset Management seems to be a good org to be a part of). But it'll be easier at those schools / systems you mentioned.
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