Funniest Networking Stories?
Bankers / Traders, what are the funniest stories you have about when students have networked with you? IE dumb things they have said, dumb things they have done etcetera.
Bankers / Traders, what are the funniest stories you have about when students have networked with you? IE dumb things they have said, dumb things they have done etcetera.
+233 | My chaotic IB journey | 27 | 5h | |
+211 | MS M&A vs GS HC | 48 | 14h | |
+176 | Ending My Life if I don't get an SA 2025 Offer | 63 | 21h | |
+115 | Anyone live in a different country before? What’s it like? | 43 | 17h | |
+72 | Hazing in the Bullpen. What to do? | 15 | 7h | |
+53 | MD shoved food down my throat. Is this normal? | 16 | 19h | |
+40 | Improving in TMT | 11 | 4h | |
+35 | Basically necessary to be a varsity athlete to get BB IB from Bowdoin? | 22 | 1d | |
+34 | Later Chodes - I'm Taking My Talents to The Mega Fund Leagues | 8 | 1d | |
+19 | Too late to be Analyst 1 with 5 years of experience? | 16 | 2d |
Career Resources
I accidentally shit myself at a coffee chat once. Had too much coffee that day networking. Does that count?
I want this to be true so badly.
.
Such a fear
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More on the informational interview side of networking, I caught wind of IB and learned the basics about breaking in from a cougar I dated for a few months who had worked at a BB.
On the other side of the table, I once grabbed coffee with a student who pitched me on investing in his HF in 20-30 years, and gave me stock picking advice.
I once gave advice to a McKinsey partner on how to start up. Solid fellow, that one. I also told him shit I heard about McKinsey, and asked him if it's true.
While I was having a networking chat with this guy from an EB, my phone began ringing loud, in a fine dining restaurant, playing RATM's "Pistol Grip Pump" Took me some fumbling to get to the damn thing.
This girl asked me on a coffee chat, "What are your thoughts on sugar babies?" I said, "Why pay for shit which I get on a regular basis for free."
I think you misunderstood what she was really trying to get at.
Entrepreneur Hero please enlighten me
I wanted to join the board of a non-profit, so looked up current board members to see if I could connect with any of them. Looked up someone with a pretty basic name followed by the name of the city I live in, and found a few results. Turns out she is around my age, should be good for getting on the board. Send her an email wanting to meet up and talk about the organization.
We meet for coffee on Halloween in the morning, introduce ourselves and talk a little about our jobs. Then I ask her about the organization and turns out she thought the non-profit I was asking about was a different group (acronyms were similar). The individual on the board with her same name was a different person. I played it off pretty well and pretended to be interested in the group she had been involved with. She then invited me to a Halloween party that night and ended up making friends with her friend group. I also later got on the non-profit board, though no thanks to her.
Non-profits are gay. For-profit for life. Deus Vult. Capitalism Vult.
I was asked to meet and associate from a top EB that I had been speaking with for a few months for golf. We played at his country club - only the front 9. He was so bad but talked a huge game. After he double parred the first 3 holes I honestly felt bad and recommended we not keep score. It was kinda awkward. The waitress also spilled water on me during lunch. Strange day. Regardless he still got me an interview but didn't seem to like my jokes about his golf game.
Realizing I read the directions backwards, my b
I went to a networking session with the tag still on my suit once. Got back and my roommate pointed out that I never removed the tag. Rookie move
Recently saw a kid at a session with the vent on his jacket still tied, made sure to give him a heads up before an MD saw him.
I wouldn't say this is necessarily funny but, it does go to show what a small world banking is.
Through networking, I got introduced to three different guys in the same group (only 15 people) none of which went to the same school as me.
The Bloody Nosed Phone Call: Networking Disaster (Originally Posted: 10/23/2013)
I had a very unique and terrible experience during one of my informational interviews, and I thought I would share it with WSO because of how ridiculous and horrible this was.
I was able to set up a phone call with the Global Head of M&A at a BB (GS, JPM type) that took me about 3 months to secure a time-slot in this man's schedule. I was thrilled to finally have his secretary set something up for me, and after constant back and forth, the phone call went down a couple days ago.
I prepped as always, and was ready to go. I was sitting in a study room (a 6 by 6 small room) in my University's business school while taking this call. It is all glass, thus everyone can see inside. So, I call the number at exactly 2:00 when it was scheduled, and after waiting a few minutes for him to finish something up, there he was. Speaking with me.
I started of the conversation as I normally do, and had some great questions ready to ask this guy. About one minute into the phone call, my nose started bleeding (just so you guys dont think this sounds crazy, I have had recurring nosebleeds since I was a kid). But not just a small nosebleed, I am talking profusely bleeding. It almost made me hang up and go seek some help, that's how bad it was.
So I tried to play it off, and just let it go while I was talking to him. Keep in mind, I am in my University's business school in an open room where students were looking right at me. I kept asking questions and acted normal, but it started to get very very bad. After about 5 minutes, the whole floor was covered in my blood, along with my clothes. My face was also covered in it, because I was trying to make it stop by putting my hand over my nose while he would answer my questions. This made it smear everywhere. I literally looked like I got my ass beat for those who actually saw me through the glass wall. (I am not exaggerating this at all).
It got so bad, I forgot what I was supposed to ask him. I wasn't being myself, and I kept sniffling every 2 seconds. He probably thought I was ripping some lines while listening to him. I got severely off track, and dropped my phone twice while talking to him because I was trying to grab pieces of paper from my backpack to hold the blood down. It was an absolute mess. A very strange experience, nonetheless, one I will remember.
I lost track of everything planned, and the phone conversation ended rather abruptly due to my ailments. I tried my best to keep it going, but it just didn't work out. I could even tell that he was loosing interest.
In conclusion, I followed up with him saying Thank You, without making note of my strange and horrible timing of a nose bleed. I just simply thanked him like I always thank others. I have not received a response, and it looks like I blew this one big time. With a man of this seniority, say he doesn't like me because of this, does this completely screw my chances at this BB? Or is he too busy to even care about potential SA candidates?
I hope you that my experience made you feel uncomfortable just thinking about it. I think this nosebleed gets the worst-timing-ever-award (yes, even worst than the release of Leveraged Sellout's book). At this point, all humor is welcome, because it is already in the past. Although, I am curious to hear how you think I should further approach this, given that this was a rare phone call that most kids don't get the opportunity to have.
Best,
That sucks, but I really don't think it's much of a problem.
To be honest, he's probably too damn busy and most likely forgot the call already.
Good luck.
If it's the guy at GS, I know him, friend of my gf's uncle. He won't even recall and if you were to apply for SA, he won't even know its so far below him.
no way he has time to call HR and blacklist you. If he thought you were incompetent, he will assume others will think the same; therefore, no reason for him to spend his time making sure you don't get in.
bad luck... keep plugging away man
I get it....because of the nosebleed thing
I used to have chronic nosebleeds, once a day easily. Definitely was a big pain in the ass. I've been in similar situations. Honestly, if I were you, I would have just told him what was up, asked for some time to take care of it, and tried to finish it up when you are done with it. Not worth blowing it (and obviously ruining your clothes, and getting blood all over yourself) just to keep it going. On the flip side, I'm sure all the tension or awkwardness was multiplied by about 100x, that's usually how it is. I wouldn't sweat it.
Brutal. Try not to worry about it and continue to network.
That really sucks man. I wonder if perhaps it would have been better to ask to pause the call for just a minute to grab a tissue...
Greatest Networking Story Ever... (Originally Posted: 12/29/2007)
I just had to share this with you all because I thought it was just unbelievable.
Yesterday, I was at the doctor's office to get a few shots for my abroad trip next semester. I was visiting my friend the past few days who lives about 2 hours away. So as we are walking from the waiting room to the examination room, the nurse and I start chatting about how annoying the snow is and how terrible it was driving to get to the doctor's office from my friend's place.
She comments that she was just chatting with her adult daughter who was trying to get into NYC to visit her boyfriend who works at a top consulting firm. Of course, I ask her which consulting firm and she responds. She then asks what I do and I say I'm still in college but have been actively searching for an i-banking summer position. The nurse says wow, that's great, my daughter is actually an investment banker. I ask her where and what group, etc... she replies that her daughter is a VP at a XX bank (a top BB) in Chicago. Of course I get excited because I have applied here but not heard back about any sort of interview. The super-nice nurse says oh, why don't you write down your information and name and I'll go call her right now. She comes back about fifteen minutes later after the other nurse gives me my shot and says, so my daughter called th NY offices and you'll be receiving a first round interview. No clue if this was her doing, or my previous connections, but in any case, I've recently received an e-mail confirming my first round interview.
Gotta love this stuff.
well, I guess that was a late christmas gift huh? Good start into the new year, congrats! ;)
I never had anything quite that random happen, but in general telling people your goals will result in some good leads... you never know who they may know or if they can refer you to someone. Also a lot of times if what you're doing/trying to do is far removed from their own occupation they might think of other people like you more quickly just because it's uncommon.
Congrats on the interview though, great start to the New Year.
did the nurse know anything about you at all. Such as the school you go to, that you were interviewing with other places or something else about your credentials? Or did she know absolutely nothing except that you were looking for ibanking summer internships?
That is a really sweet story. Good luck with the interview
wow im happy for you. congrats!
Wow I'm going to the doctor more often
That's awesome...
I know a girl with a similar story. Her dad sat next to an ER VP on a plane ride, started talking, and of course she has an interview lined up now. If only I could be so lucky...
Sammy101, the nurse knew relatively nothing about my credentials. We talked a bit about the school I went to and what I knew about the banking industry. We had a fun time chatting and my guess is that if she figured I was personable and well spoken I would mesh well with her daughter's company.
I'm thinking that the nurse's daughter maybe had access to my resume to look over for a second just to be sure that I wasn't some kind of flop. Like I said before, I do come from a non-target but have solid finance-related experience, started my own company, hold a few top positions on campus and a good GPA.
Just goes to show, being at a target is great, but not absolutely necessary to break into this stuff. I really think it will be interesting to see how SA positions pan out for all of us.
wow congrats!.. good luck!
That's awesome. Congratulations. Quite random though. I've heard of people seeking out individuals in the investment banking field in bars in NYC and all but this is completely out of the book.
thats awesome... Probably the best story i've heard. Congratulations and good luck!
i had a similar experience. When i was buying my suit for my first anticipated interviews last year as a sophomore the guy who owned the clothing store(clothier?) told me all three of his kids work on wall street (i live in Louisiana so this was VERY suprising). His daughter was an MD at a BB I had applied to. He sent her my resume and she patched it through and I was contacted the next day by HR. It didnt work out but I got closer than I would have gotten as a non-target sophomore otherwise.
Awesome story. I think I'll go around telling people I'm looking for an ibanking internship!
That's amazing!! I usually feel on top of the world, when I get a lollipop after I leave the doctor's office, but an interview? :)
i got my internship last summer in a similar fashion, not so random but nevertheless similar.
great feeling, isn't it? congrats.
thats how this networking thing works out sometimes...nice job
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