Honest feedback on whether EB/BB SA 2020 is still realistic for me?

I'm a Sophomore, and I'm quite stressed. I feel like I'm behind all of my peers.

Good things about my situation:
* High GPA at Princeton
* Involvement in finance ECs

Bad things:
* I haven't networked AT ALL yet (I kept putting it off because I got anxiety about messing it up / saying the wrong things / not being knowledgeable enough.)
* I didn't have a finance related internship after freshman summer, and I STILL don't have any for 2019. I feel like a lot of deadlines have passed, and the ones I have applied to have not gotten back to me. I have cold called a lot of firms with no luck either.

Meanwhile, it seems like a lot of my peers competing for the same 2020 positions have networked heavily, already had finance internships, have great internships lined up for 2019 (some even non-diversity BB/EB), etc.

I'm worried. All what I have going for me at this point is my academics, and I've always loved school. Now all of a sudden I feel behind and extremely stressed about whether top BB/EB is even possible for me anymore. I will put in the work, but if anyone has any guidance for me and my situation right now I would appreciate it immensely.

Thank you.

 
Most Helpful

I gave the below response yesterday to a different sophomore thread, only because I was in this same anxious position as a sophomore and totally feel you. You're still early for on most of the sophomore jobs at smaller firms, keep trying after Christmas, and you should be sending emails rather than calling. Networking should be way easier with Princeton alums, especially if you can be in NYC for the summer.

Your school/GPA/ECs will probably get you in the door for 2020 OCR - all you have going is academics, but that's a lot to have. Recruiting is a rat race and you just have to keep your head down a bit, other people will always seem ahead but your edge has to come from your better story, technicals etc. I did not have a job at this point in my sophomore year, even when it seemed like all of my friends did, and ended up at a top BB/EB

Response on sophomore recruiting from other thread: I don't think you're foolish to not have an internship yet, most sophomore jobs are through informal recruiting and smaller companies hire interns way closer to the start date. Sure there are some BB jobs or official sophomore jobs, but as you said they are 99 or 100% diversity and I really don't think you've missed much.

This might sound counterintuitive but I would finish finals, send a few emails out before Christmas, and then take a solid week or two off of worrying about it. No one is hiring SAs or meeting for sophomore coffee chats over Christmas, so take a break while you can because recruiting is a long and draining process.

Come January 5th or whatever, start sending out emails hardcore. Make a Google doc over the break of every firm you've found, any alumni you could potentially contact there, and then fill it in with who you emailed, when, as well as your application/interview dates. Nice doc to have set up heading into your junior recruitment as well.

Do you go to school or live in/near a decent-sized city? Start searching there - look for smaller firms (preferably IB but really anything in finance is fine), that may not have a structured internship program, and see if they would chat with you or potentially want an extra hand over the summer. Email every alumni you can find (even those at BBs - they will be helpful next year, and they had to find a sophomore spot somewhere too) and see if they have any recommendations.

Junior recruiting is unlikely to be as frantic next spring with so many firms moving back to junior year. I would not panic about this until March.

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