Non Target to FT PE Advisory and Fundraising - Boutique

Not a BB success story - but i think I made out well:

I came from a VERY non-target state school, accepted because I was offered full ride based on SAT scores, seemed a good idea at the time. Always wanted to break into finance (VC in particular) but I had NO IDEA the pedigree problem that existed until about halfway through college (tip: IT DOES). We even had an alum that works at a very top tier Boston hedge fund come in and talk about how Finance shouldn't be taught at lower tier schools.. asshole. Either way I worked hard (read: not that hard) to get a good GPA and graduated without any debt at all.

Through my last year of school networking was key. Attended every event, 200+ cold and warm emails. Resulted in 50+ info calls and 25+ trips into NYC for informational meetings. Graduated with NOTHING but a list of 30-40 warm contacts who had hiring potential. Spanned BB's all the way down to 5-10 man boutiques. Finally found an MD (three actually) that were leaving a MM IB and starting their own shop doing private equity capital raising and advisory. They had just decided to add on another analyst the week I placed a follow-up call. Seemed lucky but really persistence was key. Had three interviews with them, killed it and got the FT offer. Took three months to travel Europe, Dubai, Australia/NZ (want to do this again somehow).

I'm six months in - work/life balance is great (compared to IB), might open a thread on it later. Bonus is totally dependent on how the business does.

WSO and MI were HUGE on industry information, networking tactics and motivational material. Like to thank everyone for that.

I intend to post here more often and become part of the community instead of be a lurker like I have been. Unless of course I decided to take the FOTM street musician exit after 1 year.

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