Hello WSO Community! I'm hoping to crowd-source some advice on what my next steps should be to successfully escape the BO and migrate into a FO role in IBD.**TLDR Background: **2018 Non-target graduate, 3.4GPA, Unconventional background, Missed junior recruiting and fell into my current BO analyst role at a regional bank (US Bank/Pacwest/BNY), seeking a path to IB.My story: I eventually realized I needed to grow up and decided to study a non-business subject. During my time in college, I found a love for Economics and eventually finance -- I was reading every Econ book I could get my hands on, following markets daily, etc. I decided to go back to school and study Finance. At the time I didn't know what I wanted to do for a career, but I knew I wanted to work in Finance.I attended a non-target school in New England, and finished a B.S. in Finance in roughly 3 years off-cycle. I managed my school's student-run endowment portfolio, participated in investment clubs, and generally immersed myself in everything "finance related" that I could. During my 3rd year I found myself obsessed with business valuation and financial modeling; I completed multiple WSP courses and case studies sourced from google "just for fun". I have read almost every Michael Lewis book, and have completed the Rosenbaum book at least 3 times now. This is when my desire to work in IB was born. By this point in my college career, I had already missed out on any IB SA opportunities and wound up taking an FP&A corp fin role at a regional bank. The internship position transitioned into a FT rotational FLDP program. My hope is to be placed in Treasury, however, regardless of group placement I am unsatisfied working such a middle-of-the-road type job. My work-life balance is tremendous, its not unusual to work 35 hours a week, and my salary is fair and goes a long way in my suburban NE town. My bank has a very small Capital Markets group (growing, but still MsF -> Analyst level recruiting), and to see if anyone in the community who has gone BO - > FO or who comes from an nontraditional background who broke into banking has any advice on where I go next.Thank you in advance!
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All the stuff you're doing helps, and its a good way to go about it.
My advice, and this is how I did it, is to just start networking. Get on the phone, get on Linkedin, cold call, get introductions, make connections. I know that's a little difficult to hear, because everyone wants a step by step procedure to get somewhere. A hiring manager isn't going to look at the CFA level 1 and immediately want to hire you, but they also aren't going to turn that away. When I was going through the process, I thought the same thing. But when your trying to break in, it's more about can I teach you something vs what you know.
In a weird way, trying to break in is like setting out to date a super model. There's no set formula. You can say, I'm going to get ripped in the gym, buy "X" car, wear this brand of clothes...but what really works is going up to the chick and talking.
Great analogy. Networking post graduate feels awkward, but you make a valid point that sometimes starting the conversation is all it takes. Do you have any recommendation for post-graduate networking? I'm just curious as to how you positioned yourself post-graduate. Thanks for the reply!
I started in audit, and really just cold networked to get into ER. When I graduated, I knew I wanted to work with stocks and the market, but didn't know how to get there until a couple of years down the road. Where I grew up/the people I knew, they ether worked as accountants or financial advisors. When I was trying to make the switch, I thought the same thing was you, get an MBA, get a CFA, but after talking to people, and thinking about it myself, it seemed like a very expensive way to do something that I wasn't 100% sure I would enjoy. To get the CFA is minimum 1.5 years, and MBA at the same time would be difficult. I talked to someone who said invest that time in trying to find a job in the field as opposed to just learning about concepts. I'm not saying don't do it, I'm just saying don't look at it like a sure fire golden ticket.
I would also add, get a good understanding of banking and what you really want to do. The Rosenbaum, Michael Lewis stuff is great, but it's like saying I enjoy throwing a football around in my backyard, so I want to be a quarteback in the NFL. You see QBs on Sunday doing that, but you don't see them watching 60 hours of film a week at 2 in the morning, or studying defenses for another 30 hours.
Networking, a lot of tenacity, and a good explanation for the 3.4 gpa. With any luck, you'll be able to land your dream gig.
it sounds like you're on the right track, but those internal recruiters sound shitty. not even giving you the chance is stupid and saying your pedigree isn't up to snuff when they've got 100 bankers is a joke. they're incredibly tiny.
i'd say continue your course and get into an awesome FIG group somewhere. make the recommendation to a firm to purchase your regional bank.
then, exit to the PE firm that bought it. make the recommendation that their HR/recruiting is under-performing. fire the people that told you your pedigree isn't good enough.
lots of respect for you mate. It is not easy to make it to the top and to keep grinding. use those extra hours to keep learning and build models from scratch in order to be able to defend yourself in interviews. also would recommend to build some knowledge on something machine-learning/artificial-intelligence/programming related.
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What was your band's name?
For sake of anonymity I'll keep the band name private, but we were an original band in the Vanna/Underoath/Silverstein type genre, and played small clubs/venues throughout the east usually supporting more regional/national tours (Vanna/ETID/Beartooth/etc) in the late 00s - mid 10s.
Just do it. You are on the right track and if all of your technicals are as good as you advertise, just network your way in. Find fellow alumni, talk to the cap-markets or treasury group at your firm, force the issue on where you rotate. I was in an FLDP like you, performed well and made myself flexible to rotate off-cycle into our CD group. I'm incredibly glad I stuck my neck out because I'm still with the team after the rotation ended. Don't worry so much about a "path" or your pedigree. If you know banking and valuation so well, meet bankers and tell them what you want and that you can help them. Finally, as you ask others for help etc. just don't be a jerk. Give it some time and it will all work itself out.
So you went UG -> Rotational -> Network into CD? Awesome testament to organic, brute-force networking. Starting Q2 I'll have the opportunity to give input on where I get placed and I'm definitely going to push for Treasury... If any group could help me parlay into the CM group, Treasury would be the one I imagine. Thanks for the feedback, mfog.
Yep that's right. I had a GPA similar to yours and didn't have a chance to do anything particularly prestigious out of school. Instead I had a bit of a chip on my shoulder as I learned about high finance and advisory through my work. For my first 18 months I really wanted to lateral into banking or LMM PE, but once I made it into CD I've found that the work-life balance and interesting content/senior exposure could keep me here for quite a while. Definitely network with CM, treasury, etc. Get your name out there as someone who is interested and perhaps see if you can do any side projects that would be relevant experience for those teams! Sometimes if you're not doing what you wish you were, just pretend that you are. Meaning, find something to value or analyze that isn't in your job's specific scope.
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