retail relationship with IB

If you're working in a large company, ie: Merril Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, it is a possibility to get a referral over to the IB side, but it really depends on what your contact there views you as more than anything.

depends...usually these financial advisor recruiters are only recruiting for their little 3 man shop in the boonies...and have absolutely no contact with HR in the main office.

but sometimes he'll be from HQ...still the chances of him actaully getting you the interview are slim to none...the most you'll get is MAYBE(and thats a huge maybe) he'll give your resume to the HR person for IB.

Disclaimer: The post above has been made by someone who is not currently employed in IBD, and has not had an interview yet...

agreed

Not likely at all.

Retail financial advisor recruiters never have relationships with IB. IB has their own unique and structured recruiting process. It would simply not be worth your time to pursue this route in an attempt to secure an ib interview.

It will be futile.

for your thoughts. Any more advice on how one would successfully take this route? What would you do if the recruiter tries to talk you into working as a financial advisor? Do you think it would be rude to keep telling him/her that you are just interested in corporate finance? How should one present themselves so that they are "viewed" as an i-banker? Thank you for your thoughts, I really do appreciate them.

If you don't mind me asking, what did you wear when you met him (i.e. bussiness casual or a suit)? Do you think it would be okay to ask them for contact or should would it be better to wait until they offer? Thanks for the help

Richyla... just curious, is a FA you're only contact at a particular IB? Any other prospects?

Just for perspective I'll toss this out to the other fellas... now, let's think about it... if a FA is an ex-IB from ML, do you think this "exit" after IB into retail financial services is common? Nope. Extremely rare.

Also, even if an FA has familiarity with someone in IB on account of syndicate offerings (e.g. a REIT) etc., what is the likelihood that the familiarity will lend itself for an IB referral?

In such a scenario, the relationship is hardly ever between the FA and IB directly. It's more between a syndicate desk and the FA if anything at all. I had to Google this, but take for example, an upcoming REIT offering by NorthStar Realty which is projected to distribute say 12,000,000 shares. (Mind you, some offerings could be significantly larger, but let's just use this). For the sake of argument, say the offering will be shared by 4 banks and distributed among the banks' institutional clients, retail branches and the latters individual FA's and their respective retail clients. A retail branch gets allocated a portion of shares and a typical FA participates in the offering by getting a piece meal portion for individual clients, if at that. Unless ofcourse the FA is a million dollar producer, then he'd get a wee bit more. Anyways, this is hardly sufficient for a FA to be locked elbow to elbow and buddy buddy with an IB. In fact, the FA and IB are probably six degrees or more in separation from each other. Therefore, extremely rare also.

An acquaintance years years years ago who was a recruiter in IB who knew other recruiters in IB and she couldn't even successfully refer her fiance into the business. She tried exhaustively!!!

The retail financial advisor ----> IB referral just doesn't work. I'm sorry fellas, it's simply not the strongest network.

However, I'd be tickled to hear about one such back door referral succesfully working out.