Hey guys, I'm a non-target incoming IB SA for a BB coverage group. Before I ask for advice, I want to give a brief background on myself.
I played D1 college basketball for 2 years before having a career ending back injury. I decided to study finance (I was undeclared previous to injury) and knew little about the industry. I bumped into an old friend during winter break that had finished his SA stint in banking and told me to give it a shot. I networked and studied like crazy for a year and luckily was extended an offer.
Before my first superday interview, they had all the candidates sit in a conference room for 45 minutes. There was about 18 of us. There were a handful of kids from Columbia, Yale, MIT, Stanford, and a few other Ivy Leagues. A few guys asked where I went to school and literally laughed when I told them. My confidence somewhat dwindled as I sat in the room and listened to all these guys talk about the classes they were taking, the people that they knew, internships they had, etc.
I am extremely grateful and relieved to have received an offer. However, I'm a little nervous for the summer. I've read every thread on here about how to prepare for the SA position. My plan moving forward is to: keep GPA high, stay up to date on everything going on in the industry I'll be covering, enjoy this semester, and get more familiar with power point and learn the basics of modeling.
What else do you guys recommend for me to do to be able to feel confident leading up to the summer, if anything? After preparing as hard as I did for the interview season, I feel a bit idle and lost now. I want to avoid feeling like I did before that superday with all the other candidates.
I want to develop the skills, and confidence to not only secure a full-time offer, but to position myself well to have good exit ops post banking for PE or CorpDev (I know they're extremely different, but I'll most likely decide which path to choose after the summer). Obviously, securing a full-time offer is priority. Any and all advice would be more than appreciated. Thanks everyone.
Edit: This post isn't for me to complain about a few guys laughing where I went to school. I want to see if there is anything I can be doing to develop more skills and confidence to before heading into the summer.
This is very relatable. I too am coming from a non-target and felt the exact same way during my super-days, and I know a lot of my friends who will be doing IB SAs felt the same as well.
It'll be helpful to hear what others have to say, but the way I keep my confidence up is knowing that I was chosen to be there for a reason. Your interviewers saw potential in you, and took you over the thousands of target ivy kids drooling for that same spot. Some will try to bring you down, say you were a diversity hire etc, but the truth is that there are still thousands of diverse ivy kids still fighting for those "diversity" spots.
Plus, if you do a great job and know your stuff over the summer nobody can take that away from you. The advice I can give you, having interned in a non-IB group at a BB last summer, is to make friends with those kids and help them out on the job. If you're a nice guy who's helpful and they're still assholes just because you're from a non-target, that's on them.
Congrats on your offer. I didn't fall under the diversity category. That's great advice. Thank you!
Thanks, you too! My main concern is since most of the analysts/associates I'll be working with are also probably from targets, will this affect my chances of getting an offer even if I do a great job? (Due to internal quotas for certain schools, nepotism, etc.) Maybe somebody here can answer that, or I don't know if you've thought of the same situation.
If your bosses are any good, they'll appreciate humble people with good work ethic over cocky kids who had a free pass into the Ivy League (unless their parent is a CEO in the industry or something).
Someone laughing at you based off of the school you went to should make you feel good, not bad. As one of my MDs says "that's their problem, not yours". When you're both making pie charts, the guy who cares about rowing teams will think he's too good for it while you're grinding away (ideally).
To the other kid's credit, there's a chance they just don't know how to handle hearing someone's from a non-target. Not all IB recruits are social butterflies. Give them some more time to prove to you that they're awful.
Thanks for the reply. I agree with you. They laughed in surprised way; it wasn't condescending. Most of them seemed like cool guys. More than anything, I just want to come in and be as sharp as possible and not feel like an outsider to the industry. Other than one friend, I don't have any people to ask questions to familiarize myself with the how things work in the office. I rely pretty heavily on this website.
What could give you more confidence than thinking that there is a strong possibility that the person who laughed at you (or many of his peers) about your uni ended up with no offers? Be proud of yourself and for who you are and what you do/have done. Acceptance rates for internships are significantly smaller than acceptance rates at the unis you mentioned. Prepare as much as you can, put in the hours, be determined and confident of your abilities and you will do great.
I attended a non-target as well, and even during training some guys were dicks when I told them what school I attended. The same summer analyst that laughed at me for going to a non-target had no idea how to use basic excel functions or how to navigate through a 10K in one of the training sessions, and this helped me realize that school isn't everything.
How do you react when they're dicks about it?
Just have to kind of laugh it off
I don't think there is anything in particular you should prepare for. Keep up to date with the markets, interest rates, etc. and come into the internship with a good attitude. Attitude, work ethic, and attention to detail are key. Just wake up with that in mind every day.
I had a few uppity people in my summer class from top tier schools who enjoyed showing off during training. No one respected them by the end of the summer so don't let their "prestige" fool you, everyone is on a level playing field. The goal is to work hard and secure a FT offer, stay focused on that and you'll be fine.
Will do. I appreciate the advice.
Please stay away from these people. Most of the time, people like this will always see you as that kid from that non-target school even though you are so much more.
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