Best Practices for Finding Lateral Opportunities
Hey WSO -
I'm currently in my 2nd year working as an analyst (generalist IB) at a no-name boutique in a big city. I'm extremely grateful for my experience and the people that gave me this opportunity, however (and without going into detail for fear of doxing myself) I'm in the process of evaluating lateral opportunities and wanted to ask the group for advice. To preface, I've read just about every thread on this site on lateraling, including of course Sil's famous guide, but I think/hope the below is still fair to discuss.
While I know opportunities become available sporadically, I'd really like to know what resources others have relied on to find new opportunities. While having a great network is always helpful, I'm also aware that people like Sil were successful by just applying to jobs online, even if they didn't know anyone at that bank or within a particular group. Are job boards/aggregators like Indeed still a great source for IB? LinkedIn? Talent Oasis? Direct job boards on banks' websites? What about setting your profile on LinkedIn to tell recruiters that you're actively looking? Are there any head hunters/recruiting firms that people would recommend using or avoiding? There is a lot of content on here that suggests recruiting firms aren't very useful, but I would love to know if there are some that people have liked working with and maybe even some of the opportunities they showed you (even if it's just something vague like BB/EB/MM/Industry/Product or something like that).
Apologies if this is very redundant, I just want to make sure I'm able to look at as many opportunities as possible going forward, and don't want to spin my wheels with a recruiter or job site that isn't actually as helpful as the other resources that are out there. While many former analysts at my firm have gone on to join great BB and EB groups, or taken buy-side opportunities at respectable funds, I am in no way chasing prestige. I really just want to find a more established and/or smaller-but-growing firm where I fit in and can contribute. Thanks all for reading and I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts.
Bump--very interested in this as well.
I lateraled from a well-known boutique with terrible exits (WSO could guess it pretty quickly) to a BB/EB a while back. I had done exactly what you did in terms of reading everything on WSO and the Internet about lateraling as an analyst. While I can believe that applying online for lateral positions could lead to an interview, what is more helpful and how I got the job is by reaching out to friends and connections at other banks to see if there are any openings for analysts. Most of the really great banks don't end up posting positions at all because they have a constant list of people who are trying to lateral that they just choose from.
The very first bank I reached out to was the one I got the offer at. The entire process from outreach to offer took about 2-3 weeks.
I have an off and on relationship with networking. When I was recruiting for FT, I didn't get an interview at any of the banks I networked with and ended up getting an offer from a bank through the school's resume drop. For the new lateral position, the exact opposite happened. I got the position only through networking and didn't get an interview at any places I applied online to.
What was also interesting was that it was much harder for me to land an interview in corporate roles (especially corporate finance and corporate development) compared to IB. It's just a matter of what your skillset is and my IB skills were in a sense completely transferrable to another IB though in reality, I'm sure it would be relatively easy to get a Corp Fin job if I got an interview.
Thanks for the thoughtful reply- this is really helpful and definitely changed the way I'll be approaching the process. I had a similar experience when recruiting FT- the places where I networked never resulted in anything substantial and the two offers I did receive in the end were with shops that I had done zero networking with (just submitted a resume). I guess that's why this time around I was thinking about putting more emphasis on job sites, etc. With that said you make a great point- all the name-brand banks are going to have a bench of resumes they can pull from in a crunch since everybody on the team is going to know friends, family, alumni, etc. who would love to join. A couple follow ups- as you were looking, did you ever reach out to a recruiter/HR person first (as opposed to starting with your network)? There are a few places where I might not have a solid connection (e.g. smaller banks with not a ton of employees to begin with) but also don't want to dismiss entirely. Also did you have any landing spots in mind when you were looking or did you just focus on places where you had a good relationship to leverage? Thanks again for your help.
Edit: tweaked my first question
I don't think there's ever a need in my experience to reach out to HR first. The IB team is the one making the decision. For my case, HR was informed about me after I received an offer. As for recruiters, it depends on what types of banks you're aiming for. I reached out to a lot of recruiters to be in the loop but they all only suggested mid-tier MM firms all the way down to unknown boutiques. If you have some interests in MM firms, I don't see any harm in reaching out.
Easy landings spots would be groups that have openings and banks at which at least some acquaintances/alumni/friends work. I've ended up getting a lot of internships/jobs by just cold emailing people (including the lateral position).
Perfect - this is great advice. Thanks again for all the insight.
Thanks for the insight. Going through a similar process now- were your interviews fairly technical/deal-focused and had you closed a deal by the time of interview? Would be helpful to hear of some questions to expect and if you think theres a minimum amount of experience (6 months for instance) that an analyst needs to be considered for laterals. Thanks man
The interviews vary depending on the company/group and what they are looking for - you'll see this echoed in other lateral posts on WSO. The majority of lateral positions will ask you to do some form of a modeling test to assess your skills. I got lucky in that I didn't need to do one (since I had actually never built a model or done much technical analysis myself at my old firm).
I closed one major deal by the time I interviewed. I believe this was pretty helpful and built up my rep given I heard a few people say that they were impressed by my background and knew I had some proven skills since I had already closed a deal. At the same time, I don't think it really matters too much, especially if you have some good experiences to talk about for ongoing/dead deals.
I personally think you need at least 9 months before starting to have intro conversations about lateraling. I say this because one of the most important things you have to convince everyone you interview with is why you want to lateral and leave your current firm. I had more than a year's worth of time at my old firm and was still asked multiple times why I wanted to move, which even shocked me a little since I thought having a whole year at a firm would be enough for people to have given a firm a chance to see whether it matches up to your expectations.
Know inside out why you want to leave your current firm and join a new one. You will get asked this many times (people who ask this multiple times are probably trying to make sure that you don't also leave them)
Know your responsibilities on your deals really well because you will get asked this all the time. If you closed a deal, you will be asked the most about that one, as people will just assume you know the most about it and that you are more willing to talk about it more freely given the deal and company are public. This caught me a little off guard (though I still knew the deal pretty well) as I hadn't worked on that deal for several months and was way more well versed on the other deals on my resume.
While I didn't do this, if you are interviewing for a different group/city, be prepared to talk about why you want to switch.
In sum, if you are thinking of lateraling, even though you want to disassociate yourself from the firm and do the least work possible since you know you're going to leave at some point anyways, you should actually try to take on more interesting work so you can bolster your resume and facilitate the lateraling process. Also, if they ask for references, you want to make sure the people at your old firm can stand up for you.
Wells??
Bump,decent discussion!
SG Partners actually reached out to me randomly with a lateral opportunity at an EB. I thought I’d give it a shot, so I expressed interest, and they just told me to drop my resume on the EB’s website and they’ll also pass me along (it was all quite odd.)
Not sure if you have plans to use headhunters in the future for other (buyside) opps, but you may want to use this route sparingly, lest they not really believe your story when you want to move again after 1-2 years. Perhaps explore some of the lower quality ones that wouldn’t get you a strong buyside connection, anyway.
And, as others have said, connections at other banks are extremely powerful. It’s most helpful when someone can vouch for your abilities since laterals need to perform well quickly, and spots don’t often open up and are even less often publicized. Even cold networking can put you on the radar of firms that need laterals...sometimes before they even know they do!
Thanks for the reply! All very helpful. Interesting points/anecdote on headhunters. Also, appreciate the last comment on cold networking - seems obvious but I've been hesitant. Needed to hear that!
Just lateraled from a no-name boutique in a tier 2 city to a better (not super well known but ~70 people compared to the 12 at my current firm) in NYC. As someone who doesn't have a ton of friends at banks I really relied on recruiters. I suggest just looking for banking recruiter firms and applying to jobs on their portals/maintaining relationships with recruiters. I had a few that i've known for years which came in really clutch at the end of it all. Goodluck!
Thanks very much for the reply - this is really helpful. Any specific recruiting firms you would suggest using (or avoiding)?
PS - congrats on the new role!
The one that gets the most heat (rightfully in some cases in Pinpoint partners however I have known people who have gotten good jobs through them and when you get a good recruiter there they are helpful.
Would it be more advisable to lateral after 1st year or after 2nd year if intending to stay in IB for the long run?
Not completely qualified enough to list the pros and cons of this. If the firm you're currently working at doesn't promote A2A after 2 years, then you'd be "skipping a year" by moving to a firm where you can become an Associate after 2 years if you lateral after 2 years in IB.
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