Is it too late for me to break into investment banking?
Hi everyone, I'm 21, a finance undergrad at a non-target school, and I'm in interested in IB. I'm in my 4th year, but my graduation date is Fall 2021 (so I'm basically concluding my sophomore year relative to graduation date). After reading through a bunch of content on here I'm essentially debating whether one of several options is worth it and any help/advice will be appreciated.
Strengths are that I have a high GPA (3.84) and I have networking connections to several internship opportunities in NYC, including an interview I could get for a hedge fund internship, through family. Weaknesses are that all I have that's substantive on my resume currently is an upcoming finance internship at a local bank and I basically wasted a lot of time/opportunities earlier on when it comes to internships and experience.
So here's my dilemma. I don't know if I'm already too late to apply for next summer's round of junior analyst programs, and even if I did I don't think I have the right qualifications yet: would it make sense for me to delay graduation further and work for a year in between? It seems that graduation date is all that matters so I'd technically be a "junior" the year after next if I did that, and I could get experience to put on my resume as well. If I was technically out of school then as well I could probably take the first level of the CFA as well, so then when I return to school I'd be a "junior" with all of those qualifications.
I was originally considering trying to apply for internships at banks during or after a graduate program, but I realized recently that the vast majority of hires are done through junior analyst programs. If that's the case, is it worth delaying school further like I said above to get into investment banking?
I also have the hedge fund opportunity I mentioned above but do to the lack of qualifications I have I don't know how well I'd fare at it yet and I'm not familiar with how common those sorts of internships even are or how it'd function.
Now that I'm on break as well as the lockdown I'm going to be researching this a lot and I'm just looking to get pointed in the right direction or corrected if my logic is flawed here.
Thanks, -Jim
forgive any typos in this I'm writing it late at night here. Also btw I'll be happy to clarify any details or go more in depth.
Mate I’m 24, have been working for 3 years and I plan to break into IB. This isn’t going to be the detailed assessment of your situation that you’re looking for, but of course it’s not too late. Don’t be silly. If you can’t get in through the traditional summer intern route, there are other routes. It all depends on how badly you want it.
I'm basically just scrambling because I don't know if its actually too late to make it in the summer intern route or not. Question though, what's your plan for getting in, are you going for an MBA or anything like that at some point, trying to laterally transfer in?
I'm in audit, will be CA qualified soon. If I'm unable to lateral to CF and then to IB, I'll do an MBA. I might do an MBA anyway. Lots of options for me. Lots of options for you too! Chin up.
You are not too late. I got interested late my senior year and networked my way into an internship for the last 10 weeks of school.
Since you graduate in Fall 2021, you should be eligible for SA. Do the HF internship this summer and put it on your resume asap. Start networking with bankers and apply for the roles.
You can also reach out to boutiques and see if they need anyone helping out for the summer.
Do you think your internship will have a return offer? What got me starting to freak out is that I saw that the vast majority of hires are through the junior analyst programs for many of them? Also, what would you say I should do about the hedge fund internship if I can't do it this summer, it'd be for next summer? Thanks.
Unfortunately, there is no return offer because the boutique is too small for an additional Analyst. But there will be plenty of FT positions out there. Yes, most are filled by SA, but some people won't make the cut, others will lose interest in IB and analysts will leave for PE or other jobs. Most people then applying for those FT roles are seniors with no IB experience or the ones that did not get a return offer. If you had a previous internship, you already have experience that is super helpful along the way. Just try to get a boutique internship somehow! If you have any questions, just PM me.
Don't keep delaying. Start applying for SA 2021 now, especially if your network is there. Your GPA is good, now up your networking by 100% and get in the door. Having the upcoming internship is more than enough as a sophomore.
Experience is good but not when the tradeoff is that you'd be a 25 year old first year analyst for no reason. It's not like your GPA is poor and you have no experience right now. You have plenty going for you.
Don't forget that if you get an IB job that's not your dream job there's opportunities to lateral after your first year.
Thanks for the reply. When do you think the cut-off typically is, if I start systematically applying and trying to get into touch with bankers right now? Do any of them still recruit by the fall? Basically, how much time do I have if I'm shooting for next summer?
Also the HF internship would be for next summer at the earliest, so I don't know how I'd fit it in, unless I did that then tried to get some sort of Fall IB internship my last semester.
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