Breaking Into Banking: Your Timetable is Everything
I've seen many posts on this site, most of which very helpful. I can thank the many of the contributors for helping me break into banking at a top MM, after attending a regional target with very little finance knowledge or exposure at the start of my college career. I've seen tips on breaking into investment banking but never a monkey mention the timetable or, in better words, expiration date of an analyst. I'll use this post to go through my story and my opinion on the recruiting process in general. Hopefully the knowledge shared in this post, and the subsequent comments, will give students a better understanding of the recruiting process and requirements to be competitive in the world of finance, specifically, investment banking.
Background:
Regional Target: 3.7 GPA, Finance Major with a few minors.
A Few MM firms and one BB recruit at my school, so spots are limited.
IB is becoming more popular by the minute so being resume competitive is essential.
Sophomore Internship: Boutique IB, 2-5 Banking employees, 3-5 traders.
What have I learned? Timing is everything.
Look, there are plenty of boutiques around the country for people to intern at. Many of these boutiques were started by MDs or Associates at large bulge bracket firms or MM banks, so these guys aren't stupid. They're well connected and smart. I'll be short and sweet: offer yourself to these banks. A letter of recommendation from a former MD at a BB is huge in the recruiting process. Don't get caught up in the salary of a Summer Analyst. Truth is, most of these boutiques never had one prior to your arrival. You'll need to, in more ways than one, sacrifice your sophomore summer to make your resume, and yourself, more competitive for junior year recruiting. In my own experience, after my sophomore internship (unpaid) at a boutique IB, I landed interviews at every investment bank that recruited at my campus and am headed to a top MM firm in June. Don't be apprehensive, know what you're looking for. There are hundreds of boutiques across the country looking for help in any way possible. Especially with the staff totaling 5-10 people, on some occasions. Will you have to make financial sacrifices via transportation or food? Yeah, probably, but I guarantee you that you'll be compensated in more ways than one when recruiting begins in the following fall on your campus. Just wanted to throw this out there.
Truth is, if you reach a certain age (in my opinion 24-25), with no outstanding circumstances, it will be nearly impossible to break into a MM or BB bank working as a full time analyst. So don't wait, these recruiters are looking for talent, youth and possibly most important: experience.
Moral of the story: If you know you want to do banking, do it, despite the circumstances, and be competitive.
When is the ideal time to apply to a boutique bank for an internship during your sophomore summer? Winter break?
It depends. For some (including myself), sophomore year summer internships are obtained during the last minute. Some people are able to land these boutique IBD internships during the fall semester but I am sure most boutique IBD internships get posted during mid-spring semester as most firms start realizing their needs as the summer approaches.
In any case, it could never hurt to start looking early and applying. Check everyday for postings and you'll land something in no time.
If it helps, I cold-emailed in early to mid april and had like 5 offers by the beginning of May. I think it's mainly just luck as most of the boutiques/MM I came across didn't have formal internships and it was more of a "I guess we have enough work to justify an intern" type of thing.
rofl if your definition of "success" is ending up at a "top MM" then in WSO standards you failed. Come back and write your inspirational story after you land at a BB/EB
This post gave me cancer.
lol? Here's basically an equivalent example:
Hey guys I'm from an unknown high school for basketball recruiting but I practiced super hard and never gave up and was able to land at a Division II school playing basketball there! Give me silver bananas weee!
My response? Come back after you get into the NBA or at least a Division I school. kthxbai
Nice post! and monkeyleverage is a moron, stop ejaculating over "preftigious banks", and first land an offer. Lastly stop defining yourself through your work.
Believe it or not, everyone doesn't come from an ivy league school where offers are handed out like candy on halloween. More people attend public schools where it's harder to break in than prestigious, and expensive, ivies. This post isn't meant for the entitled.
i'm all for hustle, and i'm glad it worked out for you.
However, your jab is a bit ridiculous.... offers definitely aren't handed out at ivies and because of financial aid initiatives, ivies are often much cheaper (or even free) for the ones who truly need it.
Fair, but I know plenty of people at my school who's family income was as middle class as it got. Plenty got in to ivies but were not given a realistic opportunity to attend. I understand both sides, just a scenario for certain people out there not in the best circumstance looking for tips on breaking in. My two cents can't hurt anybody.
so no hope after 24-25? sounding so omnious .....
hey monkeyleverage...shut up
well, I might as well ask: I'm 25 with an accounting background. I found out about investment banking just recently and have been educating myself. How can I best position myself to break in given my background? Is it MBA->Associate?
That would probably be the most standard route for you to transition over.
In addition, you might want to try to start moving towards 'IB type' accounting roles so you have a better exposure/ experience when pitching your story during interviews etc. This is assuming you're not already in such a role.
I see, thanks.
Would it not be possible to get into an analyst role without an MBA? I've heard and read contradictory info stating that once you're out of university with 1-2 years experience, getting an analyst gig is next to impossible. I've also come across info that says you can break in analyst roles as late as 28.
Might be perceived as a stupid question, but why are you so sure that you cant break into IB at 24yo as analyst? Thanks for sharing.
It's harder to break-in outside of the structured recruiting process, but far from impossible. Just in the last month I saw three people break into IB/CM from middle/back office type roles at BB (albeit with some relevant experience in their roles). This may set you back a year or two as an analyst, but happens more often than people think as there's a good amount of unexpected turnover in analyst pools that need to be filled relatively quickly.
whoever put this crap on the front page...
I think what the OP was really trying to get across was to act upon what you want as soon as you know what it is that you want. I know that this seems simple to many of us, but in all honesty, I meet a lot of underclassmen at my school who definitely want to break into IB but don't understand that they can and should actively take steps to gain experience in the field if they want to be competitive candidates, especially given that they don't attend top target. Anyway, good post OP, I'm happy that your hard work paid off for you.
Might have to reread the last part. Outstanding circumstances could include getting an MBA late or lateraling from a current position unrelated to banking. This post was mainly meant for students who wouldn't normally have access to the recruiting benefits a top 15 school provides. The halloween comment was obviously exaggerated. To those who didn't appreciate the post, I'm sorry. No need for the negative commentary. For some people a MM firm is the pro's. It's all relative to your circumstances.
congrats and ignore the haters... @"monkeyleverage" has shown what an asshole he is on multiple occasions and is close to getting banned anyways.
I think the point of getting relevant experience, even if it is at a tiny shop is great advice if you can manage to scrape by the cash to survive for the summer unpaid.
Thanks for sharing, Patrick
Appreciate the reply, Patrick. New to the site and looking forward to contributing more in the future.
All in all, the point of this post was to communicate the benefits of reaching out to small firms early. Try to keep it civil, guys.
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