2019 Investment Banking Full Time Recruiting - Do I Have a Chance?
I'm a non-traditional student, attending a non-target school, with a GPA of 3.49. I participated in some SA interviews this past season with JPMorgan, CITI, BoA, and Goldman, along with some smaller regional banks, but unfortunately nothing came of any of them. The only option I see from here is to read and study this summer and prepare myself for full time recruiting in the Fall and Winter. What should I do to prepare myself for the full time interviews, if I'm lucky enough to get one?
First remain positive and start networking heavy. As a non-traditional student as well I can sympathize with you the struggle when going into interviews. With that being said your goal this summer and going into FT recruiting is to have 2-3 analysts and at least one MD or D you have made a great connection with recommend/ push your application through. This is crucial as FT recruiting is tough due to some any banks wanting to give offers to their summers.
For color, when I was interviewing at a BB last October the MD who oversaw my schools recruiting said that it is almost impossible to get an interview for FT. You need to know someone because their offer rate to summers is so high,
Thanks for the words of encouragement. I've been filling my time with reading and networking. The main book I've been reading is Investment Baking by Joshua Rosenbaum and Joshua Pearl. My girlfriends cousin is also an associate at GSAM, but I'm trying to get him to hook me up with a couple of contacts in IB. I've also contacted a couple of analysts at JPM, and I'm trying to work my into their Junior Analyst position come next summer.
Didn't know Rosenbaum and Pearl also wrote a book about baking.
What past internships do you have?
I did an unpaid internship the summer after my sophomore year for a small search find here in Knoxville. It was mostly industry and small business research, with a little bit of excel here and there. Nothing crazy.
currently considering doing same thing(search fund). How relevant do you think it was to IB?/Did it help you get interviews?
Man... I hate to break it to you, but maybe you should prioritize another career path for the time being.
For some background, I also went thru FT recruiting for IB, also non-target. I had a 3.7 GPA, double major with engineering, 2 boutique IB internships and a $20B PE fund internship, hundreds of hours networking & MD referrals, and I still an INCREDIBLY difficult time getting my offer. Even had a very tough time at MMs, where I was at superdays with 5-10 equally qualified people for 1 spot.
All the bulge brackets, aside from a couple, had absolutely no FT openings at all. I recall a couple pretty senior guys pushing hard for me and HR maintained they were hiring 0 FT analysts because they got everyone they needed from the intern pool. FT recruiting is so much harder than SA recruiting because the pool of candidates hasn’t materially shrunk but there are only a handful of spots open at MMs and maybe 1-2 at a larger BB/EB, if that. You can be very qualified, do everything right, and still not get a FT offer at anywhere besides a small boutique.
The fact of the matter is you go to a non-target, your GPA isn’t that great (especially for the bloodbath that FT recruiting is, where 3.7+ is the norm) and you have no internship for this summer (massive red flag). Your first step here is finding something, anything to intern at. Telling someone that you just studied your junior summer is not going to cut it, 0% chance.
If you’re really set on getting into IB, it’s going to be thru a regional boutique with 10-25 people, and really pounding their door down hard.
He can still give it a shot. I have a 3.49 like him. I networked my ass off and got an offer to a top BB.
It's all about how you sell yourself and portray your interest wherever you are interviewing, and also being super personable - if he doesn't have the ability for these either then maybe he should stay away
Typical wall street oasis user who likes to put his career on a pedestal and make things seem harder and worse than it actually is. Could u have found the process difficult because you werent as polished as you were when u got the offer? Perhaps u werent as sharp on your technicals early on? No offense but to me a post like this comes across as an ego massage and offers no help or benefit but to discourage OP who is perfectly qualified. This and your AMA post. It seems like as opposed to helping people you come to seek validation on your offer.
I agree that it will be tough to break into, but you did it why cant he? Neither of you guys had much relevant experience With comments like these op immediately feels unconfident to the extent that he wont even try. Why not be positive and supportive of someone in your shoes last year?
Op: if you network your tail off anything is possible. Try to find something relevant to do paid or not this summer. Best of luck
I agree. I’ve been told by a number of people that major banks are trying to move away from considering people strictly on GPA, and more on fit. Albeit a fantastic GPA will always help. And already knowing people inside some of the major banks I think will make networking a little easier. That being said, a couple of things:
1) isn’t it true that once you start working outside of IB that it’s harder to break in? I’ve been told that they want people who are dead set on IB.
2) if GPA is so important, wouldn’t it make more sense to study and prepare myself for the upcoming semester to raise my GPA rather than taking an internship that might not give me any relevant experience?
Re: #2 above, it's not an "either or" question - you really need to do both to position yourself well. Find an internship for the summer and work hard next semester to raise your GPA. Even if the internship isn't directly relevant to IB, the important thing is that you'll have work experience and projects that you can speak to in full-time interviews.
Agreed, you need good grades AND an internship. The summer between your junior and senior year is crucial, so I would take whatever you can get at this point. Anything, unpaid, that is remotely related to finance.
Banks will not look at you when you recruit for full-time in the fall and say you just studied this past summer. I agree that fit is important, but they have plenty of candidates applying with better grades and multiple internships that are a good fit.
It sounds like you have decent contacts and have been working on your technicals, but I still think an internship this summer will be key in successful recruiting this fall.
One of the ideas I've seen floating around is postponing graduation for a semester, in which case I could still be considered for 2019 SA positions. What are your thoughts on that?
1.) If you are okay with postponing graduation. 2.) If you have considerable scholarship. 3.) If your parents are okay with it 4.) If you already have contacts for SA 2019 5.) If you can inc. your GPA a tad bit.
If 3/5 of those are met, then, yeah why not! I will say, for #4, it will be important you have contacts bc recruiting has been well on its way since mid-to-late spring 2018. Houston/Dallas is practically done with recruiting and I know some NY banks have already had superdays for SA 2019.
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Okay. So let's say I go ahead and keep my graduation date where it is, I've decided to take some summer courses to keep myself busy over the summer, are there firms that offer internship opportunities to recent graduates? I've also considered saving some money and going to one of the Wall Street Prep boot camps within the next couple of months.
To add to this thread, any update on open applications?
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