Career changer, and after 1 year, got a SA offer

You sir, are a baller. Congrats on the offer, I'm sure you'll kick some ass.

Folks, keep in mind when reading this, that it worked for him, but nothing is the same across the board. While being a top student may not be absolutely necessary, don't let your grades slack, it's important to learn the material (and if you know the material, you'll get the grades).

Best of luck Tupsi!

Yes, thank you, absolutely do not let the grades slip! What I meant was that top grades do not guarantee anything, but they certainly DO help. Do not good grades lull you into a false sense of complacency (eg, I graduated first in my class so I will def get an offer) might be a more accurate way for me to put it.

Well done, dude.

Can you elaborate on how "dumb luck" played into your situation. Congrats!

Elaborating on dumb luck:

I randomly emailed an MD that I knew thru an small org we were in together. We had met before at an event, but I didn't know him that well. Turns out, he has an analyst leaving in a few weeks that he had not found a replacement for yet. So it was a combo of being 1) VERY proactive and CONSTANTLY searching for people to reach out to 2) really really really lucky timing and 3) someone else leaving.

Honestly, it could have just as easily gone the other way if they other guy wasn't leaving. The MD prob would have said the usual "thanks but no thanks". But like someone else said, you have to consistently put yourself in situations where these things can happen. I can't even tell you how many times I did this same thing (cold email) and was rejected before.

Hi tupsi22,

First off - congrats on breaking in as an older candidate, it's really tough if you don't go through the normal cycle. I'm curious though why you didn't choose to do an MBA and go in as an associate, or what did you do in a prior life before deciding to career switch into banking (know the hours, and the difficulty of firms assuming you won't be able to work with someone younger but more senior, and etc).

I did an MS because I wanted very specific education in Finance, not the more general MBA studies. I think it is very much a myth (at least it was for me) that having an MS, or an advanced degree, can bring you automatically in at the associate level IF you are a career changer OR you are older.

If you already have biz exp, sure no problem. But what I kept hearing over and over was "You have a great degree/grades/reccs but NO experience, NO job." In my previous life, I worked in a totally unrelated field, so yeah, not many transferrable skills there. They really did not care that I had worked in my previous field for 10 years and had done great work there. Maybe this was different before the economy tanked.