MM SA to lateral FT BB Recent Grad!
So I am a recent graduate from a semi-target, 3.7 who landed a SA position at a MM firm right after graduation. Wondering what are the necessary steps I need to take to lateral after this summer to a BB FT (possibly starting in January or later). Also, I realize the importance (and necessity) of networking and wondering if it is too early to start considering most firms have just started their internship cycle and since they take a large majority of their FT analysts from their intern class, I want to take that into consideration.
Currently, my first priority is to impress at this internship for the experience and recommendation. And I have a decently large amount of contacts in the city I am targeting from previous "reach out" attempts the summer before so I assume I would call upon them again (and of course new contacts) for help.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks!
First do your best at your current firm, try to get an offer there. Then, reach out to BBs once you started your SA stint, networking is the way.
This has been discussed hundreds of times before. You need to get a return offer first. FT recruiting is almost non-existent these days, so you will probably need to start off FT at the MM and then lateral, which is a relatively straight-forward process.
I could see that, I just thought that since many people transition from a SA to FT role through school that being a recent graduate would still give me some leeway positioning. Would you say that trying for the quick lateral is a complete waste or just unlikely?
Don't wait until you have an offer in hand. By then, you will have missed many of the accelerated FT processes. Obviously, getting that offer is the number 1 priority but you can't disregard networking during the summer. After a month or so, start reaching out to any contacts you might have and ask about what their firm's FT recruiting timeline is. Once you an idea of when it'll start, reach out maybe a week beforehand to ask if they expect to have any spots open. Don't reach out too early, though, since 1) you'll seem too eager and unfocused on current job and 2) they don't even know how good their current interns are and what the offer situation will look like.
I agree that waiting for the offer is definitely too long, but in terms of prep now, should I just focus on my internship and get my technical knowledge ready for the impromptu interview interview cycle (that I have read happens extremely quickly)?
One of the key points of most FT interviews is talking about what you worked on this summer, so definitely focus on your current work and really be able to understand it and talk about it. Note key metrics/strategic rationales on the projects you work on.
FT Recruiting at BB following MM SA Position (Originally Posted: 11/21/2016)
Hi Monkeys,
I have been fortunate enough to receive several respectable SA offers at MMs (Piper/Stifel/HW) and will be spending my summer with one of them. I am happy with my offers but have the eventual goal of breaking into a BB. I made it through to super days at most the BBs that participated in OCR (DB/BAML/JPM/MS) but couldn't close and was waitlisted. I know that FT recruiting for recent grads is becoming increasingly competitive/ non-existant at most of the BBs but unless I absolute love my experience this summer I plan on going through the FT process. Besides excelling this summer and receiving a FT offer from my SA bank, what else can I do to position myself well for FT? I plan on keeping up with my networking contacts at the various places I interviewed in addition to networking throughout the summer but beyond that I am at a loss. Will the fact I didn't convert on a SA offer at these banks hurt my chances for a FT offer?
Thanks for taking the time, have a great Thanksgiving.
Best thing you can do is to keep up with your contacts and get into an accelerated FT recruiting program (which will happen pretty much as soon as internships end).
"Will the fact I didn't convert on a SA offer at these banks hurt my chances for a FT offer?"
Yes, it will, so I would do everything I could to get the return offer while making sure I block out some time to keep in touch with contacts at other banks on the down low.
I'm actually going through the exact same situation right now. I just switched from Big 4 to IB, but was a little late in the transition and ended up missing the recruiting timeline for BB's at my school. I managed to secure an SA offer at a decent MM, but my eventual goal is to make it in BB as well. I heard that the FT recruiting process after internships is mostly based on networking -- if banks have any open spots, they'll just reach out to whoever they know to fill them up right away. I'd probably start touching base maybe in the middle of July, as summer internships are coming to a close? Not sure though, would appreciate advice on this situation too.
I actually summered at one of those MM and am moving to an EB (some other interns are also moving to other EB and BB so I'm not unique). Converting the offer is by far the most important thing. More "prestigious" banks won't talk to you if you can't even get a FT offer at a "lower" bank. Missing out on a summer offer won't hurt you at all, most likely, and it might even get you in their pool for accelerated recruiting unless you were an asshole in the interview process.
Just keep in contact with your network and try to expand it if you can to maximize exposure. Push for interesting work that you can talk about in interviews, but don't be annoying about it. Write everything down so you remember all of the things you did. Know all of those things at a deep level (and why you were doing them) so you don't stumble on questions about it. Practice for technicals under the guise of learning the finance of the job during downtime. Remember that you have to recruit in relative secrecy. Basically, just do well at the job and network and prepare for interviews on the side.
If you're in NYC (or wherever you want to live), then networking will be easier and you can grab coffee/lunch with people at other banks. I wasn't in NYC so I was limited to phone calls but it was still possible. Starting earlier is always better but you won't really have anything to talk about from your experiences until mid-July.
A tip that you might not like to hear: BB FT recruiting was basically non-existent this cycle and this may continue into the future. I would expand your reach to EB and "higher" MM.
CHItizen and dimabima gave some good advice. One other thing to do is to take some time and figure out why BB recruiting did not work out for you. Whatever the reason was, you are going to want to correct it. Definitely reach back out to your interviewers before FT recruiting begins.
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