Did I miss the train?
So, I went to an extremely non-target school, in fact, most people outside of the state my school was in (Florida) have never heard of my alma matter, even though it is an accredited ranking university with an incredible finance program.
Recruitment for me was non-existent, on-campus recruiting consisted of usual government crap, and shitty internships with rental car companies, and other crap companies. I've been into banking ever since a VC/LBO class I took sophomore year and I have been following the industry religiously.
Here is my conundrum, every firm I cold call/email is met with the standard "we like what we see but are fully staffed, keep your resume on file if something comes up, sorry we have nothing, et cetera.." It seems like I just cannot find a way to break into the industry, even though I have some credentials;
-Interned with a BB in Beverly Hills
-Managed Student Endowment Portfolio
It just seems like the mixture of the economy/the already high barriers to entry make it pretty much impossible to get anything rolling, every opportunity that seems like it might materialize ends up slipping away and it it getting extremely frustrating. I am not sure what to do any more, I am in the middle of cold calling/emailing all the local boutiques, however, it does not look too good.
I am also worried about not being able to find anything until next recruiting season, what happens when another wave of college grads hits the market, then what? Am I totally fucked?
Thoughts? Comments?
It's highly unlikely for you to get an offer with any firms you coldcall/email. If they're fully staffed, they're not gonna take you in. Next cycle, there will be a hell of a lot of kids from a target, and they're not gonna take YOU over these target kids. I'm not tryna bring you down, just trying to give you a dose of reality. On the bright side, I work at McDonalds and they're hiring!!! We can cook fries together.
http://nvmnd.wordpress.com/ NVMND.
I don't know what school you went to nor what your finance program w as really like, but I would stray away from saying that it was incredible, because it likely wasn't. Now onto actual advice...
The most important thing is to establish a network. I got my first summer internship through a connection I created on the phone. I was cold-calling firms and one guy was impressed by my pitch, so he referred me to a few of his friends. None of them had any room in their summer programs, but they were able to pass me on to additional contacts. There were many steps in between, but that one person resulted in my first internship. Even if someone says that they don't have any positions open, try to keep them on the phone--even briefly--you never know what could result from the conversation. Use the search function to find some threads on cold-calling advice.
Persistence is key. One of my friends spent 8 hours a day for nearly a month calling hedge funds before finally getting a position. He contacted roughly a thousand firms and got just 5 interviews. It's tough out there. If you want it bad enough, have a great pitch ready, be enthusiastic and do all that you can to make a good impression. It also helps if you do some quick research on the company before calling.
Another option is to go industry and try to lateral after a few years of experience. I've seen it done a number of times. If THAT doesn't pan out, there's always B-school. However, it doesn't appear that this is the path you want to take. Keep your mind open though--it's a tough market and some of the best opportunities come out of the most unlikely places.
I see that your from Stetson.....this is going to be tough, your best bet is to get an advanced degree from a top tier school and use alumni/ocr to break in.
OP - this will be a long post but hopefully you find some encouragement in it.
I also went to an "extreme" non-target (think NOT top 5 college in Ohio) and wasn't even a finance major (accounting). I went straight to a masters program at a target (not finance either) and got a position (through SA) at a top BB. I applied to the masters program two days before the deadline using overnight mail.
The only thing I had going for me was my high GPA and knowledge of financial markets, since I was genuinely interested in finance. I had no other EC's or internships and still got in, so you have a chance as well.
I still had trouble getting interviews, like a 10% success rate (3 out of 30 applications or so). And this is how I got my first interview:
I walked into a BB presentation at my school 15 minutes early and saw about 15 guys in Navy wso/">suits, so I just walked up to one of them and started talking to him with about 4-5 other students. It turned out that he was a first-year analyst in ER (the department I was interested in).
After the presentation, I decided to go talk with the VP in ER, but he was swarmed by like 8-10 people and I couldn't hardly get any questions in. I realized that the ER analyst was basically by himself, so I walked up to him and chatted with him for 20-30 minutes. Long story short he guaranteed me an interview without even seeing my resume.
I remind you that this guy was a first-year analyst and he had just as much say as the VP when it comes to choosing candidates for interviews. My advice to everyone here is to always try to talk to the person that is getting the least attention and they will remember you for sure and forget about going to the person at the top of the food chain.
Another piece of advice for you is to mix up your cover letter or even resume if you are not getting any success. I had this boring cover letter, which basically said that I had to overcome a ton of challenges to be in the position I am today. But after getting rejected for the twentieth straight time, I decided to redo my cover letter completely and wrote something from the heart that you wouldn't read in any textbook example, because I knew there was nothing to lose and was curious how this "experiment" would go.
I wrote something along the lines that I have great passion for financial markets and read finance journals and watch CNBC all day long and have been trading on my own account for 3+ years. That's about it, no other information about myself was in there. All of a sudden I got an interview for IBD at Evercore and an interview for a Hedge Fund, but I declined both interviews since I already secured an SA position with the first BB I interviewed with. And yes, I did take ER over IBD.
Hopefully you will find this information helpful in securing a job on Wall Street. Good luck! and let me know if you have any questions.
but your best bet is probably to get some solid corp fin/accounting experience, head to b-school in a couple years, and then try to get in after that. Guys with actual street experience can't get on right now, so it's tough to see you getting on somewhere, but who knows.
Great story man, props.
@stk123, I think I am almost to the point where you mention you just write what flows out of emotion rather than what a bank would want to hear.
I seriously think the system is fucked when a you automatically get discounted because the school name on your resume. Fact of the matter is I have tangible experience and I know what to do and how to do it, I just need one door to be even cracked open I and I will blow this shit apart. If I can my foot in the door, I will be damned sure I am the last person to close.
I'm sorry, just venting. Hopefully, by some miracle, my emails or contacts will turn out good and I will get something.
Thanks for the advice so far.
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