People from Non-Targets, how do you deal with insecurity?

Honestly, the strategy might depend on the school you go to. You're already anon, where do you go?

It’s just a job dude, it’s all the same shit in the end. Quit over-valuing it so much. Once I wrapped this mindset around my head I gave less fucks about prestige or whatever. 

As you get older and more 'mature' for lack of a better term, you simply won't give a shit anymore

Don't tie your identity to your school or job is my philosophy. I broke into IB with a shitty GPA from a non-target, but I had experience with others things that made me confident in my ability to perform well. Additionally, living a healthy lifestyle allowed me to have more confidence in myself in whatever activity I participated in. Who cares that someone else got a piece of paper with Harvard stamped on it, you're there too right, that's all that matters.

Why do you think you are inferior?

I think it'll go away for you in time. I look back to high school and think how the fuck do college adcoms take anything 17 year-olds say or do seriously. The school you go to is only a facet of who you are not your whole person. They'll take you over a Wharton guy if you're a better candidate than them lol. Grind hard and prove that you're better than you were in high school. 

You’ll realize after your first or second Superday that going to an Ivy doesn’t make you any smarter than a non-target. In fact, when you get into those interviews people will respect you more. Because you got to there without much help from your school and alumni. Also, forget about prestige and understand that it’s a going to take time to get where you want.

In my experience, once you get to the interview, everyone is one th same page. Chances are if you’re from a nontarget, you’ll be more knowledgeable and work harder than the others. Tbh though after recruiting for banking and buy side i pretty much think it’s irrelevant. I always played up the fact I went to a fun school and had a good time vs someone who went to Harvard 

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Cant relate but maybe you can make yourself feel better by making comments on WSO about how the admissions and interview processes are unfair. Nontargets love doing that 

It fades over time. I am non-target as fuck and over the years I learned two things:

a) those guys and gals aren't gods walking among us mortals, they make horrible and laughable mistakes and I had my fair share of correcting some of their stuff that was just plain wrong, because even their ivey background wouldn't help them in grasping a few of the more complicated (or sometimes very easy) finance stuff

b) if you're performing well for years, nobody gives a shit. by now, I could tell people I dropped out of high school and they wouldn't treat me any different, other than being surprised.

keep your head up high, champ. hard work and dedication matters in the end, not the prestige of some school.

The non-target life sucks, but you can’t dwell on that. Convince yourself that you’re just as skilled and competent as the Ivy guys (which is probably true enough). In this case a false sense of superiority can translate into actual superiority if you have the skills and motivation.

I stopped caring about my career years ago.

After ten years in the game, I couldn’t care less about where I or someone else went to undergrad.

1. I look at my bank account.

2. As someone who attended a good school but a non-target, I don't feel initimated at all by target graduates. I've realized that I know finance as good or better than the average target school grad. My university had great teachers and used the same books. Targets may have the brand name going for them, but do not have an edge in actual knowledge of finance.

Just keep hustling if you're still trying to break in - I've seen people come from what most people in finance consider "no name" schools (not just a non-target, but like actually ones most people have probably never heard of). 

Then once you do break in, just think about how you went to a shittier school but have the same job as somebody who went to like an Ivy, so like who gives a shit at that point.

From a non-target myself and now that I'm 5+ years out of school what people actually care about is my prior work exp, not where I went to college.

I avoid thinking about it at all costs, as deep down inside I know that I would never be enough. I also avoid the sunlight when walking to my office, take the stairs but never the elevator, and use only half of my dinner allowance as I know I am not worthy. I sometimes day dream about getting into Harvard Businees School one day. But who am I kidding, one must know where he belongs. I can only dream that one day my son and daughter would strive in their early youths and be granted by god a place in Ivy League. I wish, oh I do.

There are generally two buckets of people that got into "target schools": 1) those that were fortunate enough to come from well off families (not necessarily financially wealthy, just knowledgeable) that had some idea of how to get their kids into the best colleges, or 2) those individuals that hustled their ass off and proved they weren't going to let their circumstances (that are outside of their control) dictate their future.

To be blunt, you're not going to be able to compete with the second bucket, because they'll work just as hard as you will but will come from a better "pedigree" on paper from the getgo. But the first bucket, there are plenty of people that got into target schools more because of they were "handed" the path rather than worked for it, and many struggle with putting in the kind of hustle and grind that IB/PE/HF requires of them when they start full-time. It's not lost on employers that some kids that come from perfect pedigrees have a sense of entitlement and aren't the hardest/smartest workers. And if you look at any career over the long term, it's the intrinsic motivation to grind and work hard/smart over long periods of time that leads to long-term success (which implicitly means adding value to the employer). As someone that has been on the hiring side, an entitled person that thinks they don't have to work hard/smart because they've had it easy most of their lives, is one of the worst hiring choices.

You just need to convince an employer that your future potential speaks far more volumes than what your resume may say on paper. This isn't an uncommon strategy. Many of us were given the benefit of the doubt in exchange for some comfort knowing that we would work for what we deserve, rather than expecting it to be handed to us.