Went to a Top 110-120 school 

Strong extracurriculars that speak well about how you can help the firm you're interviewing for. Ex: starting your own investment fund at your school, having finance-related internships, having leadership roles on campus, and of course NETWORKING

Array
 
Most Helpful

Went to a non-target state school, graduated with a < 3.0 GPA, and broke into a top Rx group after a year to two years of graduating.

People on here say networking, but you should get creative with that. I've done over a hundred coffee chats and networking calls. The hard part is getting people to respond. I was trying to reach out to 10+ people a day via LinkedIn and cold emails, and I made sure to follow-up with the non-respondents each week for 2-3 weeks thereafter. 

My approach involved looking for people that went to my college, went to my high school, was from my hometown, went to a college in my hometown, had unconventional paths into IB (e.g., lateraled from other finance), or went to a non-target school like myself. With every networking call, I found it best to find some sort of common ground with the person, and reaching out to the people that fit into one or more of the categories helped. People with those backgrounds tend to be more inclined to connect and to better understand your situation.

On top of all that, I took modeling courses, had my story very tight, and was prepping for interviews all the time. I've gone through SA recruitment the last couple years, and you should try to have a 3.8 or higher (though not an absolute must) and try to have as much relevant experience as possible. This means internships and clubs. For internships, try to find some boutique IBs or PEs or VCs to work for; that's probably the most realistic, traditional, and ideal internships you'd want on your resume before submitting apps for SA or FT recruitment. 

When you're networking with people, try to do one or more of the following: (1) find out about any openings; (2) get a referral to someone else (in that group, in another group, or perhaps another bank); and (3) establish a relationship that you can revisit for when a position does open up.

Being prepared and networking is about 80-90% of the work, and the remaining 10-20% is just being lucky and finding a process. Opportunities are spontaneous.

 

Went to a non-target and broke into S&T at a BB. I had a passion for the role and what I felt to be a compelling story; I cold emailed 500+ people to get interviews and then eventually got a couple offers.

Biggest thing that separated me was getting others to like me and demonstrating your passion for the role during these networking calls. Both go hand in hand IMO.

 

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