Just interviewed with MM M&A firm
Hello,
I'm pretty new to the ibanking world in general but I just interviewed with a very small ibank that does MM M&A advisory on the sell side. The position is pretty flexible considering the size of the company (4-5 people in the office) and it strikes me as kind of "finance lite" but I'm voraciously doing research on ibanking now... I understand it's a little late to be working things out but the interview went swimmingly and I want to be prepared to say yes or no. A little about my background:
- Very non-target school in Oregon (I have a recurring nightmare that no one can find my school)
- 3.31GPA
- Experience in Tech Support and I was a company wide systems admin for a CPA firm for a bit
- No banking experience and nothing to show my analytical side other than a slick interpretation of all my school work and personal past time of arguing political arguments and resoundingly defeating my opponents in a torrent of raw data.
- I have some interesting asides like being a MENSA, a state champ wrestler, having sat on a non-profit board and I'm an Eagle scout
In any case my ambition includes a top 10 B school (I'm 1 hour from Boston so Harvard, MIT-sloan and the Tuck school at Dartmouth are all within reach. The description of the job seemed to basically entail writing the book and helping research buyers. It doesn't seem to be a number crunching job or a sales job and I'm wondering if I'm walking into a dream career or just some dead-end finance-lite job that's going to screw me into finding another job. They will also have me covering the from desk and phone (they said no one really ever calls or comes in) and IT stuff. It also seems I'd be covering HR since I was interviewing with the guy who's job I was going to fill.
Anyways let me know what sort of insight you can provide me with in case I get an offer. Also I have one or two budget analyst type jobs on the burner (interviewed for but jobs put on hold) and the iRobot corp called today but I missed their call so this might not be my only option.
doesn't really sound like an analyst position. i would probably keep shopping around especially if you are going for harvard biz school.
that's kind of what I was thinking. Are there even solid analyst positions on the sell side? They deal with 50-250m companies and do sell side only so I wasn't sure exactly what this side of the business would normally be doing. However I'm not particularly worried about comp, with anything over 40k being considered a bonus but I'd really like to have the prestige to get me into a top 10 B school.
im pretty sure that a 3.3 gpa from a non target in oregon is not the usual candidate that gets into a top 10 b-school
It all depends on what they do after school. The average GPA for most Top 10 MBA programs is around a 3.4. You can come from Bumsville Idaho College and still get into a Top 10 if you do good on the gmat and have good work experience for several years. Afterall, and correct me if Im wrong, but just because certain schools are classified as nontargets in the banking world does not mean shit when applying to BSchools. Two totally seperate things.
Well thats more encouraging. I would like to move more into management of "regular" businesses anyways if I go the corporate direction. It just seems ibanking, even at a botique, would have more prestige when trying to get into a relevant b-school than doing corporate budget forecasting or some seedy commission only PWM.
I know but with enough ambition and a really unique set of skills/experiences I was hoping to get in somewhere... I imagined I'd missed the boat all along (ohh the stupid choices of being 17/18) but I was willing to work on making it up at this point. However it seems things are leaning towards target school + BB work experience is what it takes to get in. I'll still give it a go in a couple years though.
any more comments on the job or very small boutique firms in general?
job description sounds like a glorified administrative job. given your situation/stats and lack of experience it's a tough call. if you have no other opportuities you could always repackage your experience as quality m&a exposure. beyond that, with such small firms, nothing is set in stone, who knows, perhaps you will end up with more responsibility in time but this is impossible to tell.
an extreme scenario I know of - friend of my is a 1st year analyst at a MM Asian bank's NY office. There was an administrative assistant/secretary person who had worked there for a couple years who everyone liked so much and believed in that they let her take her Series 7 and are now grooming her for a role in institutional equity sales.
so anything could happen but im not promising anything. in the end its all on you and how you can maximize whatever scenario you end up in
Corrupti ex impedit quos aliquam. Est illum aut animi.
Error aut dolores omnis. Qui ullam odio explicabo autem quis in. Dolorem eaque quo aut. Corrupti deleniti ipsa iste et accusantium dicta dolorem. Doloremque repellat animi quia ad.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...