HOW I GOT A JOB ON WALL STREET
(And How Others Can Use What I Have Learned to Get There Too!)
Here, I will describe the long and arduous procedure that I undertook to get a job at a prominent investment bank on Wall Street. I did not start out in the beginning of my senior year with designs on security a position there. In fact, I though that I did not want to work on Wall Street. But here I am during finals week of my first semester, and I have just found out today that New York is where I will be living next year and investment banking is what I will be doing. I think this give me a unique opportunity to take the time to sit back and reflect upon what I have learned. And boy, did I have a lot to learn!
As I have said, I did not start out knowing that investment banking on Wall Street was what I wanted to work toward. I was actually envious of those who did know exactly what they wanted to do right from the start. It gave them more focus.
Thus, I applied to everything available, because I just did not know what I wanted to do. I applied to investment banking jobs, sales and trading jobs, and consulting positions. My advice on this front would be to not follow this pattern unless you are like me and really have no idea what it is that you want to do. Then, the interview process can be very educational in deciding your career interests.
As you look at different positions and meet the people who work in them, you will figure out quickly what it is that you prefer. However, if you think you want to go to investment banking, then by all means go for it. If you only apply in those positions, it allows you to focus so much more on each an every interview. Instead, for me, there was a period of time where I had three to four on-campus interviews per week. It makes it that much harder to
Good post.
Very informational. Thanks.
thanks a lot for this. great insight.
Great post.
post, and super insightful.
which school did he go to?
SMU
SMU = ???
saint mary's university or southern methodist university?
Southern Methodist
Excellent post, thank you.
Thanks for your post it was very interesting. I am a sophmore at Baylor and was considering transferring to SMU and I was wondering if you would suggest this as being a good move. I would like to be an investment banker and am trying to be as competitive as I can. Did SMU's reputation help you get your job?
And advice would help.
Thanks
Transfer to an Ivy, Chicago, or Stanford. They hire entire analyst classes out of those schools.
nice post...it cleared a lot of things about the interviews....
Jyeh are there any good Ivy's in Texas besides Rice that higher a lot of analyst?
There are about 5 Ivies in the state of Texas. The Ivy League is huge these days.
Rice isn't an Ivy, but if you're looking at Texas schools, try UT-Austin McCombs. They have a good program and you pay in-state tuition as opposed to SMU's 40K a year.
Wait, wait... when did the Ivy League start taking apps for new members? Five Ivy League schools in Texas? Not in the real world.
There are tons of great schools, mind you... maybe better than the Ivies, maybe worse. These differences are always hard to measure -- funding, research, faculty, programs. Who are we to say Harvard's better than Rice? But the phrase "Ivy League" refers to a certain breed of school, a certain mindset, a certain locale and tradition. We can call these schools in Texas top-tier schools if we want, but we can't just crown new Ivy-league institutions. The Ivy League, friends, is exactly the same size as it's always been.
To keep the clamor down, let me just say that I'm not an Ivy leaguer and have no interest in being such. But I do work on Wall Street and nearly everyone I know is from one Ivy or another.
I don't know WHAT you're talking about. There are ivies all over the country.
Rice is a very good school, and all of the big I-Banking players recruited at Rice this year. There is some recruiting at University of Texas, and less at SMU. Most of the positions these schools fill are for the energy banking in Houston.
Yes, I agree. But which ones are they, Zala? List them.
I'm just joshin ya, Mis Ind.
The Ivy League is just like the Big 10, Big 12, etc. It is a conference of schools and has been the same for many years. You can not be a good school and proclaim yourself an "Ivy"
Found this on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivy_League
Scroll down and it lists 8 schools that the ivy league is comprised of.
I thought that working on Wall Street makes you more sensitive to sarcastic remarks. Apparently not.
Thanks for all the help!!
were there any technical questions that you flat out drew a blank on ?
awesome post btw
excellent post, it was very informative and gave really good tips on how to answer some of those ambiguous questions
really? banks run screens on resumes and throw them out if there's not a certain number of keywords? i find that hard to believe.
lehman will pay for your mba? i've never heard of any bank offering that...
great post! did you do an internship at a bank while in college?
I would pick Texas over Rice any day.
Great post.
How difficult would it be for me to shift from credit card analytics to IB? Am not an MBA though, a masters in Economics.
Why are people resurrecting 3 month-old posts?
If you have a question, start a new post.
This was a very informative post btw
awesome post!!!
It's great how most of the people didn't even read and understand the title of this topic. Everyone seems to be thinking that the OP was the one that wrote this article, and they are asking him questions like he wrote it.
Sorry for resurrecting again, but did this post get killed during the switch of the forums/servers? I seem to remember this being longer and way more informative. Does anyone happen to have the original version of the post? Thanks.
yea this article looks interesting... but i couldn't read more than a few paragraphs of it because it was cut off...
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