Q&A: Went from Cap Mkts SA to MBB FT
Hey guys, I graduated from a target school this past spring and I'll be starting work in a few months at an MBB firm. I know FT recruiting is on a lot of current SA's minds and wanted to give people some help. I worked at a BB in cap markets (DCM and got a return) and wanted to recruit out. Went through a few IB interviews before realizing that wasn't for me and went full force into consulting recruiting (only at MBB). Was fortunate enough to get an offer last fall. Lemme know if y'all have any questions and I'll do my best to answer.
What made you make the jump to consulting from a cap mkts role? Since most SA are focused on getting a return offer for their current roles how did you strike the balance between doing well at your job but looking for different roles inside the bank and/or outside the bank?
Sorry super late about to respond but here goes:
1) So there was strong urge to leave cap mkts and to enter consulting. I worked in a DCM type role and found myself NEVER using my mind. I would be filling out a ton of market updates or looking at contract, etc. This really struck me when I realized no one had good exits. Ex. going to another banking group, moving up, working at bum fuck roles outside of finance. Which all made me want to gtfo as soon as possible. I networked internally to move to an IB classic group, however I realized that purely looking at a company's financials isn't where my interests lie. Rather, I'd prefer to look at the wholistic image of a company, hence why consulting seemed to be such a good fit.
2) Ah yeah this was a tough one, but not as difficult when you think more about it. In any job you get a good amount of down time. I used some of that downtime to subtly send out networking emails or to practice interview questions. I used times when people weren't expected to be in their seats (ex. early morning, during lunch, during seamless pickup, and at night) to take networking calls. But I always made sure to kill it during work hours. It was tough, but I would also go home and study for interviews for about 2-3 hours after work and grinded throughout the weekend.
Thank you for doing this. I have an offer at a BB ECM group for next summer and was curious to know how you went out about moving internally to an IB classic group.
Did ibd SA but trying to switch into consulting full time...What is strategy for preparing case interview? And how did you go about telling the "why consulting" story? Thanks a lot!
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