My Four Year Plan
I am currently in the process of laying out my college career. I recently decided to pursue investment banking, and when I began the application process for SA 2019 I realized it was far too late. I did apply to all the BB’s and top tier MM’s, however I realize with my 0 networking and non-target state school status, it is safe to assume these will be out of the question for summer 2019.
The fortunate thing is that I have 2 semesters worth of college credit from AP classes. This allowed me to spend fall semester at a corporate finance internship, combined with my current internship at an insurance broker this summer to give me 2 internships as a sophomore. Because of the classes I’ve been taking during my internships, I currently could still graduate in 3.5 years even though I took the summer off. This will give me another shot for a summer analyst position in 2020. My current focus is obtaining the highest-level internship possible for 2019 to allow me to have the best chance of a summer analyst position in 2020. I have applied/cold emailed about 100 firms these past 2 weeks (in addition to the BB) consisting of lots of IB boutiques, private equity firms, asset management, and some hedge funds.
- Which of these types of firms would set me up best for a BB/MM SA role the following year? (which should I focus my time on/accept if I receive an offer)
Ex: Boutiques, then PE, then hf, then asset management (please rank according to pedigree)
Also, from looking at summer analysts at BB’s I’ve noticed it is very common for them to take multiple semesters off from school to take as many internships as possible. That leaves me with my next question:
- I am now leaning towards extending my graduation to an even 4 years and taking a second semester internship to leave me even more qualified for a 2020 SA position. Perhaps I would do this next year during the fall so that I could have it on my resume when applying in 2020. Also, if I were to do this should I look for different exposure? (if I did a PE firm in summer 19’ should I look for a boutique in fall of 19’?)
Here is the layout of my plan so it is easier to follow:
Summer 17’ - Enter university with 1st and 2nd semester complete (AP credit)
Fall 17’ – complete 3rd semester
Spring 18’- complete 4th semester
Summer 18’ – (First) internship at small insurance broker
Fall 18’- (second) finance internship at fortune 500 company
Spring 19’- complete 5th semester
Summer 19’- (third) internship at Boutique/PE/HF/Asset mgmt.
Fall 19’- (fourth) internship at lower level MM/Boutique/PE/HF
Spring 20’ complete 6th semester
Summer 20' (fifth) summer analyst at BB/ higher tier MM
Fall 21' complete semester 7
Spring 21' complete semester 8
Summer 21' Graduate and become full time analyst
While this may sound overboard, trust me when I say my university is the opposite of a target school (average act 23, 80% acceptance rate, state school) and judging from Linkedin there are less than 10 alumni at the top banks such as Goldman, CS, etc which is somewhat disheartening. I really feel like my first 4 internships (in addition to networking, strong GPA, leadership in extracurriculars of course) will be my leverage to snagging that 2020 IB SA position, which I can then leverage into a full time offer at likely a lower tier of the BB/MM. From there I will likely work for several years and then go back and get an MBA at a top tier business school, which would open impressive opportunities for me later. I realize this is long winded, but I feel like I must execute this near flawlessly to beat the abundant number of ivy/ semi target students fighting for the small number of SA positions. Any answers to my direct questions, general comments, or other bits of strategy are greatly appreciated.
Just to clarify, you're planning on taking time off of school to pursue an internship? I strongly believe that many of these BB summer analysts took internships and classes at the same time. I know I did that and I know for sure that my classmates did as well. Not sure if this is going to change anything for you.
Taking time off of school meaning I won't be taking a full 5-6 class schedule like I would be if I was at my university. For example, this summer I did 1 class during my internship, and during my internship this fall I will be doing 2 more classes
None of the SAs at BBs took classes on top of their internship, unless the class was an easy A joke online course, or their internship was in a 2nd or 3rd tier city. You dont take classes on top of 80+ hours per week...
I think what @LBOver was saying was that if people pursued additional school year internships those were conducted on top of class, not that people did school on top of being an SA at a BB
I can see that you are very motivated, but this seems like a very roundabout way of getting to where you want to be. The best way to leverage your experience is not to have a lot of internships that you are not really interested in. I would suggest focus on getting some IB experience at a local boutique and then network hard with any alumni etc. Networking is probably way more important than an internship at a small insurance broker IMO.
I accepted the offer at the insurance broker mainly because following ones first year you’re lucky to receive anything- so I couldn’t be too selective yet. I’m still glad I did it, because this will allow me to be much more competitive for exciting internships next summer (that are directly applicable to IB)
Don't worry doing too much is never a problem. Getting internships now is a good start... people on this forum don't understand that getting a local IB internship when you go to a shit school is extremely hard (I went to a shit school too). Good luck man I hope it works out for you
Remember, college is fun and there are lots of girls there
Hell yeah. Luckily I'm only 40 min drive from my campus... ill be there on the weekends
How will you even fir 5 internships on a resume? And what leadership roles are you going after?
wedfewafewaf
i went to a non-targ 82% acceptance rate. i did x3 internships 1. Fortune 50 CorpFin 2. MM PE 3. BB IB.
Going to a shitty non targ labels you as an undesirable plebeian even if you ace your interviews. Luck plays a huge role and the numbers game is very important. 100 is sissy you need to ramp those numbers up... girls? Worry about slaying poon once you've locked in that internship.
Wow thanks man. I can't tell you how refreshing it is to hear from someone in a similar predicament. And I 100% hear you on the numbers game... now that summer school and internship are wrapping up I'm going balls to the wall for the next month straight.
You have to show a different level of commitment. I'm not saying that this is a good idea but just to illustrate... I would facebook stalk my interviewers and casually bring up their interests in the interview. Sometimes this would crash and burn but other times it would work well.
One piece of advice I would offer you is to pick one/a couple industry groups and add something to your resume that demonstrates an interest in it. Ideally it is something you already enjoy.
For instance, one guy I knew developed his own apps part-time and another did some time as an EMT.
Not only will this make you a more interesting candidate (especially to members of the group you happen to interview with), but it will offer you opportunities to talk about lessons you learned or possibly industry trends in interviews.
Interesting. One thing I enjoy already is investing in growth companies in my personal portfolio. I keep a trading journal and also am an avid reader of investing books. I will work on weaving this into my resume as I bet it would create good conversation/help me distinguish myself
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