If the MD is really pushing for you, then there's no need to mention it. Personal experience is that we had the friend of the son of a group head in our process once. Group head said good things but ultimately left it up to us. It got the kid a phone screen, a superday invite (barely), and no offer when it turned out he was a bit of a spaz in person, and brought up the connection at literally every possible opportunity.

 

I can personally speak to this. It matters. But only if you earn it and you don't take it for granted.

The way I see it, if there are 10 applications for every IB internship, there are 4 qualified candidates. One will be a fucking weirdo who is "too" qualified on the technicals but people wouldn't work with. One will be the opposite, everyone likes him but his GPA is just a little too low considering the other two. The other two are perfect; they can do the work and they are personable. The team is indifferent between these two.Therefore, even if you nail every interview and don't have a bona fide connection, you still might get fucked by numbers.

If you have an MD pulling for you and you are one of the goldilocks two, you're good almost every time. You have a tie-breaker. If you're one of the other two "qualified" candidates, you're usually also good because they can still reasonably assume you can perform and the MD's word matters (especially because a lot of people making the decisions work for him/are scared of him).

So, you still need to be qualified and earn the role. Don't talk about your connection, and be humble. Don't assume that just because you got a recommendation, you're set. Go into your interviews like you have nothing and you're begging for a job. You still are. You're still just another worthless shit trying to break in, just the odds are a little more fair instead of entirely fucked.

Of course, this isn't true past a certain level. If your connection is close family and plays a legacy trump card or if he is sufficiently high up (Vice Chair, Group head, C-level), then unless you REALLY fuck up, nobody VP or below making the hiring decisions will likely have the balls to ding you.

 

Here is a little bit of background about me. I have just graduated from one of the Canadian universities majoring in economics... and psychology (A major that I would never mention when someone asks me what I was studying. EFF psychology. If it wasn't that I started out my freshman years in forensic psychology and didn't want to make those courses I took seemingly like a total waste, I would rather do something quantitative). As mentioned above, my resume would be dinged within 0.005s once it has been reviewed, and I'll be the first one to admit it: I dicked around for my college years. Firstly, GPA. There's only a single word to conclude with my GPA: disaster. That was largely because I chose a major that I wasn't good at, and couldn't get good grades no matter how hard I tried. Secondly, I was holding two club positions that were rather time consuming: an editor position for a school newspaper, and an event executive position for a student association. Being an editor wasn't easy, as there are people often procrastinated till the last minute before the deadline, the moment where we had our layouts, graphics, and typesetting all set, and they submitted their work. Reasons? "I have my projects/essays/midterms/readings etc. to catch up", "My laptop broke down", or "oh yea I forgot." Anyways delayed work often took up 2 straight-nights to fix, and this happened once every 2 months. The other position as an event executive, needless to say, was responsible for regularly organizing social events for members, for 200 - 300+ active members, and events including banquets, career info sessions, poker competitions etc. So in a nutshell, I was too focusing on the activities.


Okay so far at this point you might be concluding: this guy is fucked and has no hope. I won't take that up personally because that is exactly how miserable I feel right now. For the first time in life, I was actually truly regret of not working my butt off during the college years. This feeling grows stronger when I see couple others around me now either being interviewed by BB such as GS, JPM etc., or already currently working in them. Therefore for the weak academic sake, even thought I'm working hard on CFA Level 2 and on the other hand polishing my financial & statistical modelling skills, I don't see a great chance that I'll be able to pull off any interviews, or actually landing a position in ER associate.

 

It'll get you a first round/phone screen and most likely even a second round. But, if the VP/Director takes you out of the running, thats it. I speak from my own experience with getting a great recommendation from Head of Fixed Income in APAC and then said "umm" too many times during third round interviews with Directors (came across as lacking confidence) + 2.8gpa from a semi-target.

Still think about that interview and what I did wrong.

 

I don't speak fluent Mandarin, or language variation of Chinese, which didn't fit into their overall business strategy in HK. This was for a S&T position, which I incorrectly assumed required zero Chinese.

Though one of the Directors that interviewed me gave me immediate feedback and mentioned me saying "umm" and "I think" (as opposed to saying "I believe") a lot which came across as sounding "unconfident." I've since worked on and fixed those to a degree.

Edit: to sum up, a whole host of reasons I didn't move on to superday. Live and learn.

 

Yes of course. He works with and interacts a lot of these people every day and has developed personal relationships. It's definitely better than you going in there with nobody on your side.

This to all my hatin' folks seeing me getting guac right now..
 

Late to thread , but I have similar issue of saying “ I think” and “umm” a lot. What can i say alternatively that doesn’t sound like I’m insecure, or stop saying it?

 

Next week I'm speaking with the vice chairman of a BB that recruits on campus at my school. He's a pretty extended family member and I cold-emailed to get the conversation.

Any advice regarding what he'll be able to help me with? Should I ask him to connect me with head of IBD groups I'm interested in? I'm trying to figure out what is the proper way to maximize the speaking opportunity. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

 

Here is a pro tip that many people don't know. Get a recommendation to someone that is high up and involved with recruitment. Even if the VC doesn't know you very well, his slightest recommendation to someone running basic recruitment will propel you into a first round or maybe even a superday.

When the person is making records and writing notes on every candidate, your will have "Vice Chairman recommendation, personal" which is the key to success

 

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