Presentation and piece of advice
Hello everybody and hope you are having a good time.
I'm new in this forum and firstly I would like to introduce myself and walk you through current situation
I've just turned 24 years and I would categorize myself as a extremely competitive guy. From 18-22 I studied Civil Engineering in my local university (ranked the 3rd-4th in my country and obviously a non target school) ), I graduated with honors getting the 2nd best marks in my classroom (we must take in consideration that in my career only 5-6 of 100 complete the degree in 4 years). While I was studying I got deeply involved in sports, achieving the 2nd place in the under23 European championship in the last year of my degree so it could be say that I've some resilience and work capacity.
After finishing my degree I decided that I wanted to enter into the "Business & Finance World" (I really have no clue about that to do in my professional life). After seeking for advice, I made the decision of study Master in order to gain some exposure to business world, so I applied for a junior MBA with specialization in finance at the IE Business School ( the master was ranked the 7th and in 2018 has been ranked the 6th by the FT). I also graduated with honors (3.8/4 GPA) and I we won a national asset management championship. During that year I passed CFA lvl I. I have to say that until this point I didn't have any professional experience, during the summers I had several competitions and I used to train 3-4 hours every day so virtually, I didn't have time.
Just before finishing my Master I got an offer from a national bank (3º largest national bank and I think the 20-25th in Europe) in order to be part of a Rotational Graduate Program. Basically, the program consisted in 3months length rotations along the 4 main Corporate & Investment banking departments: : Credit analysis, Structured Finance, M&A and DCM. I had almost no idea if it was a good pick but I thought I would gain a good exposure to all the banking business so I accepted the offer.
I've to say that during this year I've learned a lot, and I'm very grateful to my current employer to gave my the opportunity because I've no previous working experience but, I'm now decided to take the next step an try to get an opportunity into the IB industry main players.I've several concerns about my profile and my chances to gain that opportunity. During this year I also passed the CFA II and I'm enrolled in the lvl III for June 2019. The parts I've liked the most were M&A and structured finance where I worked at CF, pitch-books, excel models...
So far I have several questions about which path and the next steps to take, since I've limited time and I would like to invest it in the most efficient way:
Do you think that I have any chance breaking into a BB? and if I had should I apply for a summer internship, off-cycle... I also have to say that my current position is not so bad ( I'm making €40-50k with a 60-75h/week) but I think that I could invest my time in a better way if I were in a more competitive environment and I would learn much more. I'm willing to renounce to my current job and "position" if it's worth and I gain more exposure to the "real" IB industry.
If you think that I'm too old or I'm out of the scope for BB / MM / Elite Boutiques what steps should I take? I've heard that the 95% of the places in that players are supplied by the interns and I graduated 1 year ago from my master an 2 years ago from my degree.
In any case, I would very appreciate any recommendation or suggestion in order to improve my chances or just to know which steps should I take.
Thank you all,
Tonino, way too quiet in here. What about these resources:
Or maybe the following WSO members have something to say: clmulveyhudson @Jake-Ross" MC99
Hope that helps.
You post is long on explanation but short on key facts. I take it you're from maybe Eastern Europe or North Africa (somewhere with geographic proximity to the markets in W Europe, since you mentioned a European bank plus IE). Are you working in a major city, or a smaller city? In Europe, or...? What is your goal, BB/EB/MM in London (?) or what exactly are you trying to accomplish.
The steps you should take are to polish up your resume with your experience at the rotational program (including any deal experience you have) and your CFA. Then you should get in contact with recruiters and start looking for analyst positions in your geographies of interest. I would also talk to IE classmates / other alumni who work in the banks you want to join, and start networking.
I don't understand the part about the internship, I thought you've already had a F/T job for a year? Why would you do an internship now? (And who would take you?)
You are not too old. At my BB in NYC we had 2 analysts on my team (when I was a post MBA assoc) who were older than I was, and several who had some work experience before coming in to BB (usually a lateral hire w/in the bank).
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