Log 6: First Scheduled Coffee Chat

This isn't working without posting as a comment? anway:

Dude I respect the hell out of your hustle, and I've been in your shoes before so I sympathize, just want to offer a couple words of advice:

1. Syzygy is right on the timelines. You're not going to get an IB internship at a BB or an EB for this summer, and if you want to set your self up to do it for next summer, you do need something. This means you gotta target shops that don't have a structured recruiting-- smaller advisory firms, real estate shops, investment firms, or if desperate wealth management (honestly no shame in that, most people I know in IB did one at some point). And I don't mean to be harsh when I say this, but you really should have figured that out by now. There are a shit ton of threads about recruiting for IB on WSO and if you haven't read those and realized that cycles ended months ago. I was in your shoes my Jr. year and decided to target HFs because I was too late on recruiting cycles. This worked out for me but only because of my next point:

2. If you are feeling awkward on phone calls, or as if you don't know how to lead conversations, it probably means your aren't prepared to take full advantage of those connections. Realize this: anyone that is picking up the phone to talk to you is doing so because they genuinely have a desire to help you. If you are not prepared to blow them out of the fucking water, you are wasting their time. You should be self taught to the point that conversations you have with people is more about asking what you should learn next, rather than just about their career track. I came from a super non-target so I have always had to hustle harder than most, but by November of my sophomore year I had probably worked through ~10 DCFs on a wide variety of companies just so I learn the material. I had read Valuation by McKinsey cover to cover as well as read most of Investment Banking by Rosenbaum. Read Matt Levine and whatever other morning business news letter you want daily. There is literally no reason for someone to hire you if you don't them any value. Especially as a sophomore who probably won't come back full time once they graduate.

3. Don't listen to people bitching about you post, I understand publishing as a log to keep yourself honest.

4. For following up; always send a message within 24 hours thanking them (as I'm sure you do). I wouldn't worry about the timing of a follow up as much as I would the content. Once you make some progress in something thats substantial, use it is as an excuse to follow up. If you only had a phone call maybe ask to meet in person, if you're prowling linkedin and see they have a colleague whose CV looks interesting ask to be connected etc. After ~4 months it gets awkward to reach back out, but I'm sure you'll find something before that.

5. Don't send linkedin messages (or even connect w/ them, i always found that super weird to do). Find their firms email format (BCC all varieties if you're not sure which one it is) and send at noonish on tuesdays - thursdays. No one responds to emails mondays or fridays.

6. Keep grinding, I was approaching 300 when I got the offer for my previous job.

If you have any other specific questions feel free to PM me. I ended up about as far away from IB as you can get, but I still went through the IB hustle for sometime.