Career Advice LONG POST PLEASE HELP
Hello monkeys ATTENTION: LONG POST,
I rarely seek advice from forums, however any help/guidance would be greatly appreciated.
To start off, I have graduated with a Finance degree from a non-target school less than two years ago and then got PWM job at Morgan Stanley, where I currently work. At that point in time, I thought that getting just "any" Finance job in the beginning of your career is normal since you have to get experience, learn about the industry etc. At first, I enjoyed the position because I had to get series licensing and it was a great learning experience as well, but after a couple months in I have realized that I am going to mostly do customer service/ops work.
After doing thorough research on the topic, I have decided that I want to work in Investment Banking and started looking into ways to get a job in IB.
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My first thought was to transfer internally (MS policy is 18 months before you can apply to a job at another department) but again I have heard plethora of stories that just because you work at the company you chances of transferring from WM to IB are pretty close to 0 unless you are a networking whiz (which I am not).
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Anyways, another thought I had was to improve my modeling skills and I signed up for WSP bootcamp - I am aware that this does not help to get a job, but I think it will still help me to improve my skills and show somewhat relevant experience/knowledge.
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I am also thinking about applying for a position as a Summer Analyst and leaving my current job just to get the foot in the door and then possibly applying for FT, but then don`t they hire only enrolled students for Summer Analyst positions or it does not matter?
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Also, there are plenty company specific Financial Analyst positions (not a finance firm, but Finance department within the firm), but then it looks like I might be doing more of accounting work which I do not particularly enjoy.
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I am also considering applying to Ivy and get my MBA but then many MBA programs seek for people with 5 years+ professional experience, which I currently do not have.
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I thought about getting CFA charter and I am currently enrolled in the program and waiting for my result - but then I do not want to wait until I get the charter itself as I can take up to 3+ years and my current role does not help me advance even though I have more time to study.
It feels like one should not wait any longer to make a move because IB is very structured and you do not want to apply too late as I have talked to couple people that were decent candidates, but they were told they are "too old for the job". I really wish I knew about IB earlier but then it is what it is, and I feel like everything happens for a reason.
You guys know getting that FT position or even internship is super frustrating, but I am motivated to make it happen.
Any advice/thoughts would be GREATLY appreciated. Thank you so much again for reading this long post as well.
can't comment and won't.
Just advice: usually people in here have no skin in the game when answering. There are cases and cases. Yours implies leaving your current job for something that might not happen. My advice: keep grinding and network, and do whatever you feel the most. By writing this and doing these things you are already ahead of many people.
Best of luck
Sorry that you're in a position you are not very excited anymore about. Here is some advice I can give, for what it's worth.
To be totally honest, in your shoes it is going to take a lot of networking to get ANY IB job, not just BB like Morgan Stanley. That being said, I would make the most of the time you spend and target boutiques and MM banks. When I say boutiques, I do not mean the EB banks like Evercore. The key to realize is that your path to big name IB may take a few jumps. You could aim for places like EY / PwC / KPMG and work in transaction advisory or valuation, or work at places like Wells Fargo which are less competitive than a William Blair or Baird before making a jump to one of those. After some relevant valuation experience you will be a much stronger candidate than just having PWM experience. Have seen multiple alumni from my semi-target state school do this. The finance at a non-finance firm (F500 company) can also be good experience if you can get into Corp Dev / M&A Strategy at one of those firms.
Another path you could take is getting a few more years of experience, and assuming you get a strong GMAT score, if you got into a top 10 MBA program, you could use that to recruit for associate positions in banking. The CFA will also probably help your application. You do not need IB experience to end up at a strong IB and it is very doable, granted you go to a top MBA program.
In the meantime I would start setting up coffee chats and networking calls with alumni and cold emailing non-alumni professionals to get to meet people in the industry. Your best bet to directly lateral is going to be post analyst bonus time when some may leave their FT roles. Meeting these people now will make sure you are on their mind if any spots open up between now and that time. Alumni will be your biggest proponents 9 times out of 10.
For technical prep, I think you are on the right track. You absolutely need at least a basic grasp of modeling to make the jump, and financial modeling bootcamps are a great starting point. Additionally try to start reading technical prep books in your free time. There are great posts on here that include lists of these but the two that helped me the most were Rosenbaum & Pearl and The Practitioner's Guide to Investment Banking (extremely dry and would not read this until you have a stronger grasp of technicals). Also start reading interview prep guides, that include 100+ questions and answers to common interview questions.
The most important things for you will be to develop technical knowledge, add valuation work experience to your resume, and network with investment bankers to learn about openings and meet people that will push your resume through to HR.
Thank you for your advice! Very good information - I really appreciate it.
No problem. Also I would agree with what BigFoot said below. Be careful with the level of detail you include in your posts. It’s a surprisingly small world in finance and you never know who is reading your post.
Feel free to PM if you have more questions, I am helping a friend right now who is in a somewhat similar spot as you but doing commercial banking at the moment.
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