[GUIDE] Investment Banking Recruiting

I've recently had some free time on my hands and I figured I should put it to good use and so I wrote an "all-in-one" guide on the investment banking recruiting process for undergrads. I figured with recruiting season right around the corner / right upon us, it could be very helpful and I've been encouraged by many to share it. A bit of background on myself, I'm from a non-core school and I summered at GS and I'm now a campus ambassador for the firm (so I think I know the recruiting process decently well).

Throughout my recruiting journey I actively used WSO to keep up on timelines, potential interview questions, and the general structure of the interview process for each firm. There's tons of phenomenal resources on WSO and I hope I can add to them!

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activ…

More than happy to give back to the community as much as possible, feel free to connect on LinkedIn / via PM on WSO (whichever you feel more comfortable with) and we can set up a time to chat!

I want to give a special thanks to the WSO community. Without you guys none of this could have been possible. I've learned a tremendous amount of information simply by reading and talking with some of the top contributors on this forum. 


 
Funniest

Currnetly have an excel sheet built with first name/last name, firm, position, phone#, email, point of last contact, and quick notes on each...its 294 rows rn. Welcome to the "jesus christ just give me a shot" club

 

You need to evaluate what you are saying in your emails if your hit rate is that bad. Reach out to any alumni from your nontarget. Scrub LinkedIn for keywords such as your hometown, university, Greek life, college athletics or anything in common you can highlight in your introductory email. Networking and breaking in is a numbers game but 0/53 means there is something more you could be doing. Best of luck!

 

1) I want people to be able to freely reach out to me (although I recognize this can be somewhat done via PM, I think LinkedIn is a lot more fluid) 

2) I don't want people to question my credentials 

3) I think WSO has too many anonymous posters – let's build the community not bring each other down. In most cases, if you're in it to help others, no reasons to post completely anonymous (although I can sympathize with people working in select banks where it may be easy to narrow down who may be posting).

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Controversial

Doing projects in your free time is nice, but how can you consider yourself qualified enough to give advice? Get real, you're basically a SA. "Office Hours" lmfao that's so cringe. Are you trying to become the new Sam Shiah? Anyone reading WSO will have access to a much greater wealth and quality of information, since the content on WSO is sourced from a variety of users, including the bankers actually reading the resumes and running the recruiting process. You don't have credentials, you are a basic bitch intern.

Another point which I found absolutely detestable is you creating several WSO accounts to reply to the thread. Do you think we're retarded?

Dear god, if you don't want to end up like Sam Shiah, get real and get laid.

 

Gotta have respect for the guy posting his LinkedIn even if he could use a little more experience. However, so far so good on his resume.

When are you going to post your Linkedin so that we can kindly critique it?

 
Most Helpful

1) I have one WSO account. I have not made any duplicates

2) I have no financial gain by providing advice (Sam Shiah charges lots of $ for his advice), and I don't see this as my "career", rather something I put together to help people

3) You're right, I don't have the years of experience that seasoned bankers have, but I am connected with the timelines of recruiting and how they're changing (as a campus ambassador and also as someone who knows many underclassman currently applying / going through the process). Doesn't it make sense to have someone who just went through the recruiting process (successfully I like to think) help students as opposed to someone who did it 5 years ago?

4) The resources used to prepare for interviews tend to switch up a bit and I simply put the resources I found most helpful into one easy spot

5) I have friends a few years into banking already and they're so busy they hardly know when applications are even due

6) You're shitposting anonymously because your comment hardly has much value... It's neither funny nor helpful, exactly the reason why I think many users on WSO think WSO should remove the anonymous function

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The timelines are great and it’s hard to argue it isn’t a helpful resource. One thing I would caution however is branding yourself ex-banking or ex-GS. You didn’t really work in the industry—you did an internship. There’s a pretty large difference between the full time role and being what is really a summer helper. I found most interns didn’t really understand what investment banks do by the end of their summer because it’s unlikely you see a full deal process in that short a span or are trusted to do anything meaningful. Might suggest changing some of the language to be less strong on describing why you are qualified/ your credentials. Rather than “worked at GS” you can just say, “non-target guide for getting a BB internship”.
 

Also, just as a heads up for you and many posters—many investment banks have policies against social media and they might not want someone being so open. Also, looking at your profile there might be some comments you want to scrub with your LinkedIn/ personal identity now paired with this account. Political comments, comments where you are acting as though you work full time in the industry, or comments where you are giving advice/ comments on other Ibanks isn’t exactly a great professional look. Didn’t see anything too bad, but there’s a lesson here you should take on being cautious with your identity and careful with what you post online.

 

Appreciate the advice and definitely recognize the caveats you've mentioned.

I would like to clarify that I never said I was an ex-banker or ex-GS. Perhaps you're right it would have been better to title it non-target guide for getting a BB internship, but I doubt it would have the same reach meaning less students would be able to benefit from it (yes "Goldman Sachs" is a buzzword and I'm guilty of using it). Also note the title of the article is "A College Student’s Guide to Investment Banking Recruiting" not "How to get a job at Goldman Sachs " which would have probably gotten more visibility but yes would be deceiving.

Also agree on your point about my background, maybe I should have been more clear regarding me having worked there for the summer as opposed to many years. With that said, my article is not about working in the field, it's about the recruiting process for getting into the field, which I certainly feel qualified to speak about (having just done it and in the process of helping several students as well). 

Maybe I'm flying close to the sun by posting the guide / being transparent on this forum in regards to bank policies, but I certainly think it's worth it if it can help many students. I also provided general advice for the interview process, something that is public. Here's Morgan Stanley's Interview Prep. Honestly feel pretty comfortable with this and don't see a need to censor anything I posted, but I appreciate the advice.

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For clarity—meant your personal comments on your WSO account. Again, it’s a helpful resource—but I’d caution against being too heavy handed and just note a level of humility otherwise the full time role is going to be extremely challenging for you. Additionally, until you sit on the other side of the table, it’s hard to really know what investment banks are/ aren’t looking for. 

 

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