Networking is not working...
Hey guys, I've been lurking for a while here and also own the networking guide from this site. I'm having trouble finding an I banking internship because there are no contacts from my school and other than cold-calling, I don't know what else to do.
I'm currently a Econ major/math minor at Roanoke College in Virginia. I'm going to be a rising junior and transferring is not an option because Roanoke gave me a ton of money to go there. The school is tiny, maybe 2000 kids, and is not very competitive. I'm one of the brighter kids at the school and I don't consider myself brilliant in anyway, shape, or form.
I come from a low class background, my rents and I are immigrants from Bosnia so I don't have any family contacts in finance.
My dream is to work in I-banking in NYC. I work around 30 hours a week during school to help finance college because my parents can't pay for it all but I still do pretty well academically. After I retake a physics class that I bombed last semester I'll have a 3.7. It's a 3.6 now.
So I guess my question is, what would you do if you were at a tiny school in the south and attempting to get a IB internship? Cold calling is getting me contacts and names but when recruiting season rolled around last year I didn't get any offers (and my school does not get ANY I banks to recruit there)
UVA is nearby, like a 2 hour drive and I know that they get recruiters but I don't even think its even possible to talk to someone if you aren't a student..
Any help is appreciated,
Thanks
You're in a tough spot. Some non-targets are not known for their academics. Roanoke is KNOWN SPECIFICALLY for its subpar academics and... generally disagreeable student body.
That 3.6/3.7 may help you at another school but it hurts you here. Bring it up to a 3.8/3.9 by the time you graduate. Bust your ass.
Do you have any internships?
If not, go for anything finance related. PWM, ops, finance, accounting. Anything to get your foot in the door
What do you do working 30 hrs/wk?
Consider transferring. It may slow you down by 1 year but if Wall Street is your dream, then the network is invaluable.
You have a very tough road ahead of you. Good luck.
If Wall Street is your dream and U.Va is on your radar, then I would apply to U.Va's M.S. in Commerce program. It's a fifth-year program designed for people in your position -- students who didn't study business / commerce / finance undergrad, but have decided that they want to pursue a business-related degree.
Check out the website here:
http://www.commerce.virginia.edu/academic_programs/MSCOMMERCE/Pages/ind…
It's expensive, but you're going to have to pony up the money to get a real shot at your dream job.
Without the experience, even MFin from Princeton will not help...
I dunno. The summer before I interned at a BB, I was working as a programmer at a small Chicago clearing firm. I didn't have any contacts in finance either, and I didn't do any networking. I came from a flagship state school and had a Dad with a few business contacts in Chicago, so I had a little bit of a leg up on you, but I think you can still pull this off eventually- you managed to make it all the way to Virginia from Bosnia; surely you can make it from Virginia to an NYC BB.
An internship is probably a prereq for a full-time offer, but the work-experience prereqs for an internship are pretty minimal.
Do SOMETHING this summer or next semester that involves the financial industry and try to get a transfer to UVA. Worst comes to worst, you may have to spend a few years in corporate finance before you make the jump to banking.
Noke2012,
As a preface, I am not in investment banking or investments in general. From my experience is everything takes time, so I wouldn't expect you getting your dream job out of college or even one year out of college.
The next thing I would say is operate like the US Army Special Forces. Go into your room and determine What you want to accomplish, Why you what to accomplish it, Where, etc. This is key. Your trying to network, but you have no network. That is probably not the best way to accomplish your What or mission. You need to figure out what tools you have to work with, what the environment you have to operate in (which you have given us a glimpse of in this post), and determine a solution.
I am from a non target, I apply to jobs, I network, but I also do many other projects that I believe when complete will get me in the door. In my case, there are about 3 requisite projects before the actual project to get me in the door.
You need to think up a creative plan of attack that you think will work. Then inevitably it will not work, but what makes you different is you will have a plan B that might work, and when it doesn't a plan C. Each time reevaluating your position and the environment. If you do this, you will ultimately succeed regardless of the challenges.
I can totally relate to your predicament. I, too, am at a non-target school and come from an immigrant background, my family's Indian, though I'd say we're middle class, and like you I don't have any contacts in the finance world.
However, I have got some moderate success so far with getting into finance as I've interned at a HF and done a PWM internship at BB.
I'd suggest you look up alumni from your school that work at IB firms whether they be BB, MM, etc. and try to figure out their e-mail structure. They'd probably be even more willing to help you out as they to have experienced a similar uphill battle. Also, don't be afraid of reaching out to non-alumni, I actually got my BB internship through contacting a person who didn't attend my school, but was just proactive and really pushed to get in.
Good Luck, hope something comes your way.
Dude, I just have this to say:
You need to look at yourself and where you are right now, and realize that there are literally boatloads of candidates that have a leg up on you right now. What this means is that you have to reevaluate your strategy. Is focusing all your time on grabbing an i-banking internship the right way to approach this?
I'm not trying to discourage you from pursuing banking, so keep reading. You won't get into a bank without any applicable experience... but I don't mean that you have do an internship at an ibank. I know plenty of people, including myself, that never interned at an investment bank, but received plenty of interviews. After you get an interview, it's a much more level playing field. Given that, maybe you should look for smaller hedge funds or PE shops to intern at and use that as a stepping stone to something better later. Maybe look for a PWM internship and find people in your firm to get informational interviews with. If cold calling doesn't work, try changing your approach, or maybe skip it entirely in favor of cold emails.
The point I'm trying to make is that breaking into this industry is a slow, tedious process built up of many, many stepping stones for the vast majority of us. Once you have that first relevant experience on your resume, the next one will be easier to get, and with those two the following one will be easier to get and so on and so forth, but you gotta start at the beginning.
-double post-
If your not doing it already. I would go with the cold email rather than the cold call. Also dont coldemail/call HR as they usually of are not help.
Find names of bankers on the street, guess email addresses and shoot off those emails asking for career advice.
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