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Bulge brackets don't give summer analyst positions to college graduates, although smaller firms may. But most who break into IB late are the ones who worked for a few years, went the business school route, and came in as associates at 27-28. Delaying graduation is a possibility if you're willing to stay on for another semester.
But without relevant internships and experience, even that might not work out. You would probably need to first take a summer internship at a regional boutique first. Those who get SA internships at a BB usually already have two internships on their resumes. Either two SA's at smaller firms, a PWM/SA combination, or bulge bracket experience but within a division lower down the prestige chain. Some might already have a SA internship at that or another BB already.
And if your goal is to get into a BB, it would be tough to get in during full-time recruiting (two summers from now) with a regional boutique SA internship, a non-target school, and a low-ish GPA. (3.4 isn't THAT low, but some bankers can be sticklers and think you aren't intelligent or hardworking enough.)
With your GPA and being from a non-target, you will really need to network, cold call, and cold email, and mainly focus on smaller firms to get your foot in the door.
Bulge bracket SA internships are what most people strive for if they're serious about getting into IB, but the odds, as already mentioned, are heavily slanted in favor of those with a target school, high GPA, and those who already have two finance internships on their resumes. They can just about fill up their intern class with people who have these backgrounds already, so that's naturally what they tend to do.
Without that sort of background, it's a bit tougher and will take a ton of initiative and hard work to throw your name out there just to get in somewhere. But if you beat on enough doors, someone is bound to answer and some should give you attention. Just need a lot of persistence if this is this is truly what you want to do. Good luck.
Thanks for the information SF_G, it was very insightful. I truly appreciate you having typed out that much advice for a stranger on the net.
I think that at this point, I definitely know that I will have to get into a boutique. But do you think that my current internship will help me get into a boutique? It involves a lot of invoicing / billing / account reconciliation activities, as well as reaching out to clients and report writing, and of course administrative duties. The title sounds really nice/related to the i banking industry actually, it's just that the roles don't involve too much financial analysis / equity research type of stuff. It is at one of the most famous firms in the world (for its industry), and it's year long / ok-ish pay. Do I really need to do internships at investment banking firms? Can something like this suffice? If so, then I may have to quit early and start looking for boutiques NOW.
I also understand that I need to cold call. I have devised a plan to use linkedin and the list of companies on this website to cold email and call. Hopefully my fraternity / alma mater network will be able to help me get into something.
Lastly, do you think that it's good to go to grad school right after, in hopes of getting grad school internships? I know that I couldn't get into a good MBA program because of my current stats, but at this point I can't put it off anymore since I might face unemployment or a really terrible first job that'll look terrible on my history.
Thanks once again. As for GPA, I know that I'll be able to increase it greatly this semester, since I've woken up.. The only reason why my cumulative sucks is because of ONE bad semester where personal issues ruined my GPA. My first year was 4.0, as 2nd year was around 3.7. One semester was like a 2.0 though... Should I also explain this in a cover letter?
Regarding your current internship, you just need to make it sound as relevant to IB as possible (without BS'ing too much of course). As long as you're able to back up what's written... It's definitely better than nothing.
And the name brand of your current company could help to an extent, although when bankers read through resumes they're looking for firms and job descriptions that are IB related ideally (like investment banking summer analyst). So while everybody knows something well known like Microsoft, to most, it wouldn't be of greater significance than some small IB firm like Cantor Fitzgerald.
In this day and age, it is really really tough to get into IB as a full-time analyst without internship experience. So IB internships are obviously best if you wish to get into IB. But definitely don't quit your current job unless you have something lined up at a boutique firm. And interning during the school year isn't ideal because it takes away from the time you need to dedicate to your schoolwork.
As for graduate school, it's an option, but you'll be placing yourself in a more competitive pool for IB internships. Once you graduate college you're no longer eligible for summer analyst positions. (There may be a few exceptions at smaller/regional/middle market banks, but this is more or less the "rule.") So you would be competing for a summer associate role instead. And these are eligible for MBA students and those who are pursuing advanced degrees.
Generally, the best candidates going for summer associate positions are a lot more accomplished than those you would encounter going for summer analyst internships by virtue of the fact you'd be competing against people five years older than you a lot of the time. MBA's have resumes with their college internships, three years of full-time work experience and whatever internships they've done while in business school. It's a lot of competition to fight through.
If you wanted to go the path of least resistance, you'd probably be best off delaying graduation a semester (if that's viable) and shooting for a summer internship at an investment bank while applying for full-time positions in July 2016. Even then, you'd have to figure out your employment situation for after you graduate since, if all goes well, you wouldn't be starting as a full-time IB analyst until June 2017.
As for the second-easiest route, you could just graduate normally in May/June 2016 and try to cold call/cold email your way into a full-time position at an investment bank somewhere by being aggressive in putting your name out there this year. This would be difficult and would take some help from other people. Full-time recruiting is ongoing currently and is even technically over at some banks for start dates in summer 2016. But most of the smaller shops recruit on a need basis, rather than a formalized process, so you just have to cast your net as wide as possible.
Thank you for your tip. I had a question about the first path of least resistance that you brought up. If I were to go for a summer internship at an investment bank in summer 2016, I know for a fact that I most likely won't get in anyway, since even by then I won't have enough internships under my belt (with the exception of the current one) and I'll still be a non-target. So in that case, don't you think that it's not worth the risk of delaying a semester, because I have like a 1% chance of getting a summer analyst with BB anyway?
Since you said I should get into boutiques and they usually recruit on a needs basis, I'm thinking the best route is still to graduate on time and get a boutique job. How hard is it to break into BB from a boutique, assuming that I perform well and get great experience/references from there?
I am definitely planning to do what you said about the second easiest route, and that is aggressively trying to get into boutiques and maybe even a MM.
You may simply wish to graduate as planned for the simple fact that you'd be taking the risk of not necessarily getting into a better bank in the end anyway. Plus I'd never advise anyone to go into extra debt unless he or she felt it was entirely worth the cost.
If you worked at a boutique 1-2 days a week during the school year, or even did an externship over winter break, you would definitely increase your chances of getting an SA IB internship if you delayed graduation by a semester. A BB would still be difficult to pull off, but a MM would be realistic. And you could perhaps swing a summer 2016 IB internship into a full-time offer. But by the time you'd finish in August, you'd have to wait another ten months to rejoin that firm on a full-time basis. So you would have to think about how to fill those ten months in between. You could do another semester of school to kill 3-4 months if you wanted to, and then after that maybe rejoin the boutique you worked at during college assuming all went well there.
But going back to graduating on schedule, you would need to cold call/cold email in pretty high volume to find your way in. You might literally have to contact hundreds of firms and hundreds of bankers and recruiters/people in HR to land something. Try your best to get your GPA above 3.5, as well.
Try out MM and smaller/mid-sized boutiques to start out with. Aim for firms that are about on the level of Piper Jaffray or so. Find alumni that work for these banks if you can. Even if you're at a non-target, if it's large enough in terms of student population there are bound to be some people in investment banking.
If you go with regional boutiques, this is okay, but ideally go for firms that have offices in several parts of the country. If you go with a regional boutique you'll be limiting your exit opportunities and also your compensation. Regional boutiques are good for sophomore year internships as a stepping stone to a good junior year internship, but that's out of the question in your particular case.
As for lateral hiring into a BB, it's almost impossible coming from a regional boutique, though more doable (yet still difficult) for firms that are more mid-market but still conduct business on a national scale.
Lateral hiring to a BB depends on the market and your connections. Some don't feel it's worth it once they get into a firm. They also might place you back as a first-year analyst, so in a way it's almost like a demotion. And another year of 100+ hour weeks. And there's also a chance that people within your firm will find out that you're seeking to leave early and not be entirely happy about it. (I've heard cases of people printing out their resumes and cover letters to another bank using the company printer, and forgetting about it, only to have their boss see it in the printed stack the next morning.)
Lateral hiring for associate positions is also difficult given fewer associates are hired than analysts, many get directly promoted internally, and there are also people with MBA's and advanced degrees to compete with. Cold calling doesn't really work in these cases. It's mainly about getting referrals from those within the firm. But all this stuff is a long way off and you would have to cross this bridge when you get there.
So the common theme in all this is the importance of networking regardless of the situation. The good news is that you have a good eight months or so to figure out what next summer will bring. You can delay graduation to still be eligible for an IB SA internship, or keep on track for summer 2016 graduation and just try to get in somewhere full-time. Even if it's a smaller/regional firm, the name of it will be the last thing on your mind once you start working and at least you'll be doing what you sought out to do.
Thank you SF_G for your continued insightful responses. I think I will try to find some MM or Boutique internship for the winter/spring breaks (I hope they're not as uncommon as I think they are), and if I succeed in lining one up before October class registration starts then I'll purposely make myself one credit short of graduation for Spring. If I don't, then I will probably go with graduation and look for full time Boutique/MM. However, my concern now is, since summer analyst positions start recruiting around October/November, any internship that I lock myself down for the Winter Break or Spring Semester will not get to make it onto my resume when I actually am applying to those Summer Analyst positions (since I'll be working them AFTER I submit my apps for SA!)... Maybe it's plausible to put future internships on a resume?
Thanks again for your help.
Try to go for an internship starting in September or October. So right around the corner. The ideal position title would be "Investment Banking Fall Analyst."
You wouldn't be able to put a full entry of a future internship on a resume for the simple fact that you haven't actually worked there yet. Or technically be able to talk about it in interviews if it's not in the past or ongoing. However, you could possibly list it without any bullet points and write something along the lines of "Starting January 2016". I've never seen that done, given that people rarely look for work at another employer before even starting their upcoming job, but it could work.
But if it's possible, try to get something for the fall. That'll prove that you've been there and done that to an extent and emphasize that this is what you'd like to do as the next step in your career.
Try to aim for something that'll give you about 20 hours per week of experience. But you would need to make a lot of sacrifices to make this all work out, given a 20-hour commitment could actually turn into a 30-40 hour commitment with travel time, preparation, any extra work, etc.
Oh god, I think it's too late for Fall internships now. That'd also mean quitting my current one barely after it starts.
I think the best I'll be able to do is a winter break internship, but thanks a lot for all of your insights!
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