How to figure out if I-Banking is right for me
Hello all,
I am currently a sophomore in UT McCombs iMPA Program. Recently I have been suggested to look into I-Banking (even though there is a strong pushing towards Big 4 in this program). I have done a little bit of research and am meeting with my career advisor but I wanted to venture on here and see what y'all have to say.
I want to learn more about I-Banking and see if I would be a good fit for it. I've heard stories of the rigor and 100 hour weeks. When did y'all figure out that you wanted pursue I-Banking?
Also, how appealing is a MPA to banks? Should I get a minor in finance?
Thanks everyone!
MPA is a no go or at least irrelevant 90% of the time.
Do you like finance? Can you handle years of 70+ hour weeks often approaching triple digits? Do you like money?
If you answered yes to those it may be a good fit. However I personally think McCombs places better in Consulting.
I need HELP--figuring out my IB path (Originally Posted: 03/03/2011)
I've been lurking around for a while trying to search out answers to my questions and figure out the best path to take to get into IB. I've learned a lot but I'm still lost and could really use some advice.
Here's the situation:
Like a fool, I allowed the "idea" of heading to a top law school to overcome my true preference to work in finance. I've spent the last year preparing my law school apps, instead of working at getting into finance, and I got exactly what I was working for: I got my Cornell acceptance a few days ago.
The thing is though, I don't want to head off to NY to study law for three years, then look back and realize that all I ever really wanted was to get into ibanking and never did because I was too wrapped up in pursuing law school, something I have almost no clue I'll like/be good at.
So, at this point, I want to defer my law school acceptances (the ones I can defer, anyway) and get into an IB in whatever capacity I can. I want to be sure that I'm not screwing my life up by passing on finance before I head into law.
The trouble is, it's 3/3 and I have done no networking, no planning, and have no clear path to get what I want. I'm hoping that someone here will be generous enough to help me with suggestions on how to proceed.
Here are the particulars:
Senior (last semester) Non-target (a few small boutiques recruit on-campus) 4.00 Finance/Accounting dbl major GMAT 720; LSAT 174 (99th) 4yrs experience as an operations analyst at an unrelated-to-IB, industry firm (quality experience with great recs, but don't know how this is perceived by an ibanker)
Should I battle and take whatever IB/Research/S&T internship I can get over the summer? Should I go for a FT position somewhere instead--is it even possible for me to get a FT position with my stats this late in the game?
Should I delay graduation so that I can participate as a new grad during the next recruiting cycle?
Any advice would be tremendously appreciated.
Congratulations on the Cornell Law acceptance (and the stellar UG resume).
I'm not at all an expert on law school or Cornell, but is there some sort of Securities Law "track" you could follow, or even at MBA/JD program?
Before you rush into delaying your law program, or your graduation, recognize that I think there are plenty of roles in finance (particularly in M&A) where your finance background and law degree could be extremely valuable.
I would go to Cornell and kick ass in your classes. Work on quant projects on the side to keep your skills sharp and network with alum. It's not unheard of for lawyers to work in IB, just rare.
LOL nice play of words.
It's not unheard of for kids from Bridgewater State University to enter JPM IBD. Just rare.
It's not unheard of for a 5'5 kid to enter the NBA. Just rare.
It's not unheard of for an asian with a 1900 SAT to get admitted to harvard. Just rare.
Ironically, I'm doing finance instead of law [which I prefer] for financial reasons.
Do you want to trade lives?
UFO: this is the exact situation I'm scared of....being committed/tied to something I don't want to be doing. Or doing something that's just bearable when I'd rather be doing what I love. I imagine it sucks. Good luck man.
I thought about JD/MBA (that's why I took the GMAT), but I didn't follow through with it because I came to the conclusion that the time/effort/expense wasn't worth it--an MBA doesn't do much for you at a top law firm, and a JD doesn't do much for you at a bank.
At this point, what I want is to get my foot in the door at a decent bank and get some experience. That way I can either pursue it further or close that door and move on to law school next year. Trouble is, I've made this decision a little late.
My hope was that someone here with a lot of experience with IB recruiting could imagine being in my shoes and let me know what they'd do. Specifically, is it even somewhat reasonable to assume that I can get an IB SA or FT at a decent spot this summer if I start from nothing today and dedicate everything to getting it?
If not, then what should I do to maximize my chances for the next cycle? Would delaying graduation (which I couldn't care less about) help me at all with recruiting later on?
Advisers at school don't seem to know anything about anything--like me. That's why I'm here.
I only did this because my family needs money NOW and when I can, I'm going to law school, likely in a few years.
MBA+JD is an AWESOME combination, someone in my family is going in next year: the options are almost limitless.
As for law -> IB I can't help much. If you go into M&A law, then jumping over isn't out of the question at some point, but I don't know much more than that.
Good luck.
If you break into IB and discover its what you want to do, you wold also be saving yourself quite a bit of scratch from not going to law school.
Just out of curiousity, why did you apply to law school and not MBA if finance is what you studied and what you want to do?
Because I'm an idiot.
It was a combination of family pressure, general confusion about my future, and because I like both (law/finance). I have all the underlying skills that top lawyers have so I've always been told (since high school) that I'm a born-lawyer and all that BS by everybody. I guess I convinced myself that everyone was right and that I might as well go.
But when I set foot in my first corporate finance class I fell in love; and I excelled at it--my IB/corporate finance professors are the ones that wrote my law school recs. I had already put forth so much time and effort into the law school process, though, that I kept telling myself to drop this IB stuff and just stay focused. It's tough to just stop and switch gears when faced with such a pivotal choice--for me anyway.
It's done now though. I'm going to get one of these bankers to hire me and I'll just go from there.
That's where you guys come in. Any tips? I'll make it happen, but I'd like to minimize errors along the way. I'll kill the interviews and all that, I just need to know how to make myself as attractive as possible to the people selecting me for the interview.
trying to do ibanking doesn't make much sense this late in the game... your story won't sell well. you should do MBA instead
your story is going to be a tough sell.
you can say you are passionate with corporate finance classes and all but its march already...
how big is your school? i would try and contact any friends/relatives/alums, thats your best shot
i really still don't understand why you want to do ibanking when you have a law school acceptance in hand... how are you gonna explain that you want to be an excel slave? theres a reason BB's hire SA's, and its cuz they know what they are getting themselves into
if you wanted to do investing or some kind of buy-side job that would be a different story.
You have to consider, this may be the same as having wet feet just before getting married: if you REALLY wanted to do IB, I'm thinking you would have made some kind of effort over the last few months......
If you are a kick ass lawyer with great people skills you can enter ibanking at the MD level without ever touching excel.
Sounds risky. I don't have any delusions that I'm going to be the next Bonderman.
I just want some IB experience, pre law school, to hedge my risk a little.
Did you do enough due-diligence on what a career in Law entails? A JD can be a powerful degree - if you know what you want to do with it. The absolute WORST thing, in my opinion, one can do is join a BIGLAW firm. Basically, it's banking with slightly better hours, less pay (at the associate level), and less upside in career progression. If you follow autoadmit at all, you'll also know that HYSCCN aside, recruiting for BIGLAW nowadays is no where as easy as it once was - you need top 50% at CCN to have a chance at BIGLAW nowadays.
I would NOT pay full-sticker for a Cornell degree, which if my memory serves me right, is at the bottom of the T14 correct? The expected ROE is extremely low, and it will take you years to pay off the LS debt, not to mention the opportunity cost.
So what I would do at this point is this - it seems you're great at finance and things like that. Apply for a 1 year masters program at Cornell or preferably a stronger target (UChicago, Columbia, Stern), and you'll get to participate in Summer Analyst recruiting through the OCR system. In my experience, if you're at a strong target, and you're not stupid, you will land a BB-offer.
Also, going straight through to Law School is an extremely bad idea because bascially you'll be the guy that's been in school for the past 7 years. Half your classmates will have had real-work experience, which is always a positive during even BIGLAW recruiting. So therefore, spread your aims wide --> apply for banking, consulting, F500 - anything that is respectable.
best case scenario --> you get into IBD worst case scenario --> you get a masters degree, a strong chance at a consulting/banking/F500corpdev role, and after 1 or 2 years, you matriculate to LS, or at that point, apply to an MBA program and jump into IBD at that point.
if you go to law school (aside from HLS which hedge funds recruit out of), and you dont have previous IBD experience, your chances of entering IBD are pretty much shot for the next decade.
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