Nice job! Eerily similar to my story in some ways....I also made friends through networking that really went to bat for me, used Linkedin Premium for a month to get an introduction to my dream group (at GS/MS) and when I got an interview made it very clear I really wanted the job. Was over the moon when I got the offer.

Although you clearly had a large network by the end of it, it sounds like you also tried to make friends with the bankers and were not at all like the hordes of people who talk to a banker 1-2 times and then hope they push their resume, and never speak again. What worked for me was building a very small network (fewer than 10 people outside the firm I interned at) of bankers that actually turned into friends and who I get drinks with regularly etc. Makes a world of difference when some other banker is half-heartedly pushing someone else's resume, and a friend is really, repeatedly, going to bat for you to get you in the door.

 

Thanks for sharing your advice! But when you network with those bankers, how do you become "friends" with them? Also for people from non-target schools who are very far from, say, NYC, wouldn't the distance make "making friends with bankers" even more difficult? It'd be great if you can share more of your insights here!

 
Quaneaser:

Nice job!

But if you had all these networking conversations and only 1 bank offered even a first round interview, did this strategy really work?

Curious as well. I have/can have a good network and apart from casual conversations it doesn't seem worth it since I've been told by analysts themselves (that includes non BB firms like Rothschild) only someone like MD can have a pull in recruiting

Have friends doing an exchange in the US and they tell me it's all about networking there

 

Thanks for sharing your story; it's been inspiring. Could you give some tips on how you tweaked your email when you sent follow-up emails to people who didn't respond?

 

Hi [],

I just wanted to follow up on my previous email. I imagine you have many other better things to do but I only ask for 15 min of your time.

Let me know if there was a good time for me to call you.

Thanks much, []

And then just vary this. The key here is not to send the same email over and over again - makes it boring! So in streak (the app I mentioned above) I would have F-email1, F-email2, F-email3, F-email4, F-email5,F-email6, F-email7 etc. Just write them all at once and leave the [] for name.

For timing I found following up between 3 days and 1 week to be most effective.

 

Thanks man! Your feedback is very helpful. I still think it's hard to rephrase to the 5th email with the one single content that you want to have 15 minutes of the banker's time. Do you think it's OK to add more content in the subsequent emails?

 

Hey,

Very great post! I'm very curious how it was helpful to have conversations with the bankers if, from what I understand, you got an interview by simply applying? Wouldn't it be better to cold email saying directly you are interested in working at BB xyz and you are emailing to know how you could best position yourself?

Thanks!

 
Banananker:

Lesson 4: Got story?

What's a good story then? One that is fun, interesting, and unusual. Mine was pure BS, top to bottom, but it was fun. It was a story that people haven't heard before and so they would nod and listen. I had their attention. Obviously you need to be reasonable and have numbers in your head to backup what you say - last thing you want is to go "ehmmm" when they ask you "so when was this exactly?". Sit down, take a marker and draw the entire timeline. Develop every detail. What was the weather like? Who were you with? Was it at uni? Were you dating at the time? What was the name of your cat? It sounds silly but trust me if you can develop it to the point you start believing it, BSing becomes easy - you are just telling what your brain thinks happened.

Either you don't know what bullshitting means or you're giving bad advice here. Are you really suggesting that people completely make up their entire backstory? This is your advice on how to lie convincingly.
 
Banananker:

Pretty much yes, that's my advice. I see no harm in this type of lying - no one died, everyone enjoyed themselves, I got the job. Where's the downside?

Here's how I know you are completely full of shit. Just above this post that you wrote, you told someone else to make friends by 'being yourself.' Those statements are incongruent. Plus, you yourself said you were full of shit, which is one of the only truths that liars ever say.

Harmless lying includes telling the Mom of an ugly baby that her kid is cute. Making up a back story to fake your way into banking is just fucking sleazy.

But, it's not all bad news, you might actually make it as a career banker. Morals mean nothing to you and that's important.

@flake @ssits @"Dingdong08" @"going Concern"

 
Banananker:

Pretty much yes, that's my advice. I see no harm in this type of lying - no one died, everyone enjoyed themselves, I got the job. Where's the downside?

This reminds me of a quote that someone once said: “If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.”

You know who said that? Adolph Hitler.

Congrats OP...your path to psychopathy should be a smooth one.

 
Going Concern:
Banananker:

Pretty much yes, that's my advice. I see no harm in this type of lying - no one died, everyone enjoyed themselves, I got the job. Where's the downside?

This reminds me of a quote that someone once said: “If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.”

You know who said that? Adolph Hitler.

Congrats OP...your path to psychopathy should be a smooth one.

Apparently, OP is attempting the George Costanza of lying. "It's not a lie if you believe it."
 
Best Response
<span class=keyword_link><a href=/resources/skills/finance/going-concern>Going Concern</a></span>:
Banananker:

Pretty much yes, that's my advice. I see no harm in this type of lying - no one died, everyone enjoyed themselves, I got the job. Where's the downside?

This reminds me of a quote that someone once said: “If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.”

You know who said that? Adolph Hitler.

Congrats OP...your path to psychopathy should be a smooth one.

Correct me if I'm wrong but Addie did pretty well for himself all things considered (non-target, art major).

Under my tutelage, you will grow from boys to men. From men into gladiators. And from gladiators into SWANSONS.
 

Good job on getting the offer but with all due respect I would delete your email in a heartbeat. "Invite you for a chat"? No thanks. "Aspiring banker"? No one talks this way. So while I agree your emails should be biased towards being more casual and "human", I find your example irritating and like it's trying too hard without actually...trying too hard.

Also, agree with @DickFuld here. Maybe that advice worked for you but don't seriously suggest that to anybody else. While you got lucky bullshitting your way in, others may get burned.

Under my tutelage, you will grow from boys to men. From men into gladiators. And from gladiators into SWANSONS.
 

So what would make you more likely to respond? Would just swapping out "invite you for a chat" and "aspiring banker" with "speaking for a few minutes for some advice" do the trick? I imagine one would receive dozens of these, so I'm curious as to what makes one email more likely to get a response over another. (Not including timing/personal referrals, of course)

 

To all those worried about lying - I think you are overcomplicating things too much. I never said you need to bullshit throughout your career left and right, I also never said lying per se is good. All I'm saying is that sometimes that's your only choice!

An interesting fact - when I joined for an internship no one on the team gave a darn or could even remember why I was hired. They were a lot more concerned with how quickly I can turnaround markups.

Which leads to the only logical conclusion (which everyone sort of knows already): your career is what you do not what you say. "When I say I'm going to do something I will only allow hell and high water keep me from doing that." @Dingdong08 this sentence is about delivering on promises, in other words "doing".

 
Banananker:

To all those worried about lying - I think you are overcomplicating things too much. I never said you need to bullshit throughout your career left and right, I also never said lying per se is good. All I'm saying is that sometimes that's your only choice!

An interesting fact - when I joined for an internship no one on the team gave a darn or could even remember why I was hired. They were a lot more concerned with how quickly I can turnaround markups.

Bank-ifying your resume and emphasizing parts of your life story that position you in the best light is one thing. Mapping out an elaborate lie and memorizing it is another.

As a banker, your client needs to know they can trust you in the smallest things, hence the incredible attention to detail emphasized in banking. One wrong number or grammatical error in your deck, and the entire valuation might be called into question. In the same way, one small lie can call into question the bigger issues. If you lie for a simple interview, wouldn't you lie for much more important things? I don't want to make a character judgment, but you're rationalizing an unethical misstep... It's a slippery slope.

You have some good points in your OP, but that advice on lying taints the whole thread. Congrats on the offer, but I caution others reading this thread to think twice before following your advice.

 
Ventures:
Banananker:

To all those worried about lying - I think you are overcomplicating things too much. I never said you need to bullshit throughout your career left and right, I also never said lying per se is good. All I'm saying is that sometimes that's your only choice!

An interesting fact - when I joined for an internship no one on the team gave a darn or could even remember why I was hired. They were a lot more concerned with how quickly I can turnaround markups.

Bank-ifying your resume and emphasizing parts of your life story that position you in the best light is one thing. Mapping out an elaborate lie and memorizing it is another.

As a banker, your client needs to know they can trust you in the smallest things, hence the incredible attention to detail emphasized in banking. One wrong number or grammatical error in your deck, and the entire valuation might be called into question. In the same way, one small lie can call into question the bigger issues. If you lie for a simple interview, wouldn't you lie for much more important things? I don't want to make a character judgment, but you're rationalizing an unethical misstep... It's a slippery slope.

You have some good points in your OP, but that advice on lying taints the whole thread. Congrats on the offer, but I caution others reading this thread to think twice before following your advice.

"One wrong number or grammatical error in your deck, and the entire valuation might be called into question" - OK.

 

Great success story Bananker! It's really heartwarming to see people that used to be in the same situation as I am now and breaking into BB. I was hoping if you could answer some questions I haven't been able to find the answers to. 1. I started to coldcall a lot after reading your post and then I finally got an answer from someone. What do you actually do then? When he picked up the phone I didn't know what to say because I never prepared for this moment, so I asked him to have coffee with me. 2. What do you actually talk about during coffee, are you ultimately trying to pitch your sale and get him to hire you or should I expect a lot of followup coffee dates before he actually hires me? 3. When you research for cold calls, who do you look for? HR managers, CEO, senior management, etc. Could a simple say Financial analyst in a boutique firm be able to help me get hired?

We really appreciate your story and I hope to one day share mine!

 

1)I wouldn't want to make up my story. Then I would no I am a fake and I am not a truly successful, I'd just be a very good con man.

2) If I did make up my past, who I am then I am not me. People would be going up to bat for the persona I created not me. Why can't they just go up to bat for me?

4)Knowing I did all of that, I would suspect my coworkers of the same, because we are all known to be like this anyways right? I would like to throw them all under the bus to make myself succeed. I would be the weak cornerstone that can't be trusted, because I am not in it for my company, which pays me my salary and the salary of my co-workers with whom I will be working with for hours on end.

3) Yes you could do all of the above, but then that will take away the challenge. Part of the reason I want in on IB is because of the challenge.

Anyways, each person does what they want. Lie or not lie. Just now why you do what you do, and be able to justify it to yourself. If/When your views and justifications are questioned, and you question them, you have lost.

@"Banananker" @"MBA_Junkie"

 

If you make up an INNOCENT lie (and I do have to say in this case I would qualify it as innocent) it doesn't harm anyone, no one will ever remember it, it might change the entire course your life takes, and chances are the person interviewing you has pulled some tricks in the past to get where he/she is. If you do not make it up, you're only harming yourself. The end.

 

Arguably, it may be a better idea to lie than to say what got you interested in banking was the movie,"Wall Street".

Let's stick with this example. Let's say you wanted to lie about what got you into banking. Well, maybe instead of saying you watched a movie, say that you went to an info session --->http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/blog/a-clueless-freshmans-first-networki…

Unsure of what IB even was and fell in love with it somehow. But the truth is that you went to the info session AFTER you fell in love with Gordon Gekko. But who on earth is going to be able to disprove this? I think the key is cutting things out, then twisting it ever so slightly till your story is perfect and can't be disproved.

With that said, if you NEED to, you probably should, just be aware of the consequences. I personally won't be lying on my interview so I can stay safe.

 

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