Would be nice to have a thread of what people had in UG compared to where they are now to get a better sense of what is an average resume vs. great resume for IB recruiting.
School:
GPA:
Internships/Experience:
Where you ended up:
| +326 | UBS Tech MD hires Son (from no-name college) as an Intern | 57 | 16h |
| +248 | Evercore Intern Seizure | 38 | 3h |
| +90 | [Official] 2026 IB Analyst Bonus Megathread (with 2025 Consolidated Pay and Perks/Benefits) | 12 | 2d |
| +55 | Is DCM actually underrated ? | 21 | 15h |
| +54 | JPM M&A is Gone??? Purely Coverage Banking??? | 22 | 6h |
| +46 | Are all Tech / TMT groups sweaty? | 33 | 1d |
| +40 | Losing my personality in Banking | 7 | 11m |
| +39 | Am I behind? 31 Year Old Analyst | 9 | 1d |
| +39 | Associate & Above IB exits | 16 | 2d |
| +31 | Incoming IB Analyst: Best Ways to Prepare? | 8 | 2d |
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School: West Coast non-target GPA: 3.5 Experience: local boutique IB internship Where I ended up: BB coverage
Recruiting experience was brutal due to lower GPA and no alumni. Interviewed at 2 firms -> 1 offer
I've had a pretty similar experience.
West coast non-target, 3.7
Local boutique IB internship
Heading into an SA at a west coast boutique
My college is a blast, hope I can enjoy some of senior year.
Can someone show me what a resume looks like for soemone like this w/ 1 internship. Assuming this is for full time not summer
Ivy League
3.3
62 chicks
EB
With the amount of posting you do on this site, you definitely did not bang 62 chicks
Or end up at an EB
Not to mention in order to study enough to get into an ivy from high school you have to basically be allergic to vagina and have no social life.
He didn't say what type of chicks, for all we know he could be getting action behind a gas station dumpster. Therefore I believe 62 is possible
Lolol
62 is doable, some market sizing indicates an average of ~8 for each 15/16 week semester. There are 8 semesters in your undergrad years…
The Wharton School of Business
3.7
EB. 1 interview -> 1 offer
Lol F*ck you
Stats for your ass:
GPA: 2.9, state school (obvsly non target)
Smashes: 25-50 range
Failed classes / retakes: 2
Total Semesters: 9
Lifting / Basketball each week: 10 hrs
Partying each week: 20-30 hrs
Bank: MM IB
Enjoy your college days
woah woah there, how tf you made it.
i would formally like to network with you i love basketball aswell, :)
YOLO.
In all seriousness, I'm not saying you should do what I did, but you can find a solid medium between working hard and enjoying college, while still landing a desired career.
You don't need a perfect GPA, perfect college, or perfect technical skills to land an IB gig. So don't waste the 4 best years of your life (4.5 years in my case) striving for perfection.
Teach me your ways
I have a similar background but less partying and more bball. How do I get into IB?
Network.
I can't tell you how many people on these forums that are afraid to talk to people, or afraid to admit it. Nobody wants to admit their fear of cold calling.
Once you transform nervousness into excitement, you'll never look back.
What internships did u have
School: non-target
GPA: 3.75+
Internships/Experience: top MM IB, MM ER
Where you ended up: recruiting for SA 2022
so you took extra semester?
Nope
School: Non-Target SEC School
GPA: 3.7
Internships/Experience: PWM sophomore year, none after
Where you ended up: BB Coverage Group
School: Non Target city school
GPA: 2.5
Internships/Experience: 2 PWM non paid internships. 6 years military experience
Where you ended up: Top MM IB ECM
School: Top 5 Engineering
GPA: 2.85
Internships/Experience: Tech, BB IB
Where you ended up: EB IB
.
Can you share your experience in getting an intern at BB while on the lower end of GP
Can you guys also add your gym stats
bench; 185
squats; 245
Weight: 168 --
Squat: 350 / Deadlift: 475 / Bench: 265
Cap 🧢
That’s insanely impressive
You must be 5'5.
Weight: 220
Bench: 370
Snatch: 300
C&J: 350
Old and fat now, but I recently benched 401 which I was pretty stoked about.
School: Top Ivy
GPA: 3.7+
Internships/Experience: various econ research gigs
Where you ended up: Econ Consulting
FWIW I never had any interest in banking, but I browse here for info on the more research/quant heavy finance roles and bc Im stuck at home bc of covid
Édit: I edited to get rid of some identifying info above.
Few friends of mine are in econ consulting and told me that unless you're a Econ PHD, the partner track is literally non-existent. Any truth to that?
The common exit opps they've told me include management consulting, data scientist (analyst), and MBAs. Was wondering if you could share some spirit of what your next plan is, thanks!
For the big firms, yes, for the smaller firms, no. I interviewed with a partner at Brattle who had just a BA.
My future plans? I would really like to work at a BB macro research team after some time here. Also might to try to move to a long only, I think doing anything in fixed income AM sounds interesting, or really anything data sciency in AM. I also like the idea of working as a data scientist in a startup—ive heard of people moving from data science to ML stuff at smaller places bc roles were less defined there. Basically there are a lot of possible interesting paths that I plan to network for and see what sticks. If nothing does I’ll apply to grad school but Im less excited about that route.
Work at one of the larger firms, lots of MDs have masters or MBAs only
Shortstop Avg .285 hitter 4 homeruns a year at a non-target mid major in the south... not a power guy but I miss it every day
School: Sweaty euro eng school
GPA: 3.5
Internships/Experience: exams in the summer, impossible to do summers
Where you ended up: depressed
ETH.......
A man of culture
Body count: 0, but that was implied in eng school
School:Large Midwest State School Big 10 (OSU/IU)
GPA: 3.5
Bodycount:12
Top 5 by aum real estate private equity
brookfield?
Oof a body count of 12 at IU is like a body count of 2 on the coast. IU girls are easy even by midwest standards. Plus a 10/10 at IU is like a 7 in USC/UCLA.
I had a girlfriend every year so most of those bodies were mistresses lol
Y'all aren't gonna believe me, but every word of this is true
GPA:
Cumulative GPA that rounded up to 3, but started with a 2 in STEM. "Target school" if such a thing exists in Canada (it does IMO, but this board says it doesn't).
Internships:
No relevant internships during undergrad. Applied to probably 50 STEM focused ones, got none. In 3rd year I was a fucking landscape laborer over the summer. I literally laid bricks and shoveled shit. Character building stuff. I meet a lot of people who would benefit from a few months of this type of work. I graduated without a proper job lined up, and spent every. single. day. for months on the phone/in coffee shops trying to fucking find one.
Found myself an "internship" in something called investment banking, and converted it for nearly 3 years spent at a completely unremarkable bank. Recruited aggressively in my 3rd year and turned down a few laterals before I somehow got a PE offer. Which leads to...
Where I ended up:
Now I'm on my 3rd year at MM PE ($10bn - $15bn). Up for promotion (or so I'm told, who knows) but am considering leaving PE. This industry sucked the life and health out of me. Going on 6 years and 25 lbs later I don't like what I've become. I see what's ahead of me at VP and Director and it ain't pretty. Shit gets worse.
Misc other facts:
Smoked a shitton of weed - still dabble (and invest) in it now. Failed multiple courses. Skipped so much class in 1st year. Graduated a virgin despite being attractive, a good athlete, and playing in a band at house parties (I had confidence issues). Partied an absolute fuckton. Hit rock bottom a few times and came back. Also had some of the best times of my life. My best semester was a 4.0/4.3 in 2nd semester of 4th year. Worst was 1.7 (academic probation is 1.6) in 1st semester of 1st year. Learned a lot about myself. Met my future wife and my best man.
I have dealt with crazy imposter syndrome ever since my first day at that unremarkable bank 6 years ago. When I first got to my current seat, in a sprawling office spread across the entire floor of a beautiful building in a new city where I knew no-one, surrounded by EB/BB alumni... it was surreal.
I have been tossed out of recruiting processes as recently as 6 months ago due to my GPA even though its not at all indicative of the type of person I am today. If I'm ever in the position to make hiring decisions I won't filter by GPA. I've worked with absolute brochure candidates who fucking sucked in banking and in PE. In my limited experience, people like me who you wouldn't have hired out of school can sometimes be quite interesting (or they can be exactly what they appear - complete duds).
Dilly dilly
The out of 4.3 kinda gave away the school - are you in Canada or US?
Eh, a lot of Canadian schools use 4.3. By saying I went to what I call a target narrows it down substantially.
I work for a global firm out of the US.
Love this story, good hustling
Can you PM me? Fellow Canadian here.
School: Non-target state school GPA: 3.8 Internships/experience: Valuation Ended up: Direct lending / private credit fund
How do you like direct lending? Any thoughts on where you go from here?
I feel pretty lucky I got to the buyside from a non-traditional background, so I don’t plan on leaving for the foreseeable future. Given higher deal volume, private credit is a great space to get exposure to many different companies, industries and transaction structures. I like that I get to frequently interact with sponsors / management teams and follow along with portfolio companies post-close as an investor, while not having to deal with the tedious, heavy-lift operational initiatives. As for comp, it seems to be all over the place dependent on firm and where they’re able to invest in the cap stack. Some firms pay in line with PE, my firm probably pays below market - but I like the people I work with and am given as much responsibility as I prove I can handle so I’ll call it a trade-off. Hours can definitely still be long, but if you make it to partner it seems more relaxed vs. PE. Overall, I think it’s a decent lifestyle / comp balance for a buyside career. Personally, only thing I can see myself leaving for is a lower key corp dev or strategy type role - would happily take a pay cut for even better hours once I’m married and a mom. Others are the opposite and try to move into traditional buy-out PE funds, which is doable but requires some networking, proving out your equity investor skillset and being realistic about the prestige of funds you apply to.
School: Non-target state
GPA: 3.0
Internship/experience: Student investment club managing $1m+, boutique consulting
Where you ended up: BB IB
Love that
Me too 3
School: Non-target
GPA: 4.0
Smash Count: -1 (see above for reasons)
Experience: Local IB advisory and small PE shop
Where I ended up: BB coverage
WSO app is trash for commenting. Keeps removing spaces
BB coverage seems really easy
Edit
So many non-targets... that explains everything on this website
Ok high school
School: Target state school (Australia)
GPA: c.3.7 (3.9 in Finance)
Internships/experience: Data analyst (non-finance)
Ended up: BB Coverage Group
School: LAC Target
GPA: 3.2 (athlete)
Chill-to-Pull: 5/5
Associate at an EB
Mccoy is that u
School: Large State School
GPA: 3.5
Bodies: 15
Internships: Public Policy Research Group, F100 CorpFin, Large AM Firm
Destination: Returned to AM Firm
School: West Coast Target (USC/UCLA/Berkeley)
GPA: 3.7
Internships: LMM PE, Boutique IB
Result: EB
U at Evercore?
.
Literally from the UK stfu
USC and UCLA are 100% targets on the west coast. You'd be hard-pressed to find a group in SF or LA with no USC or UCLA alumni.
Non target 3.7 GPA CRE internship Bench: 295 Squat: 415 Result: fucked
No deadlift? Beta.
semi-target, 3.1 GPA
BB coverage
Went out 4 nights a week in college, bagged ~20ish
don't let the nerds on this site tell you that you have to give up fun in college to make it - just work hard when it matters, be a good guy, and network like crazy
If you need to brag about how many girls you fucked anonymously on wso... you probably don’t get any ass
School: LAC athlete
GPA: 3.5
Chill-to-Pull: 3/4 (simplified)
Analyst at boutique
.
School: Non-target State School
GPA: 4.0
Experience: Small PE shop, various irrelevant jobs on/around campus to pay bills
Where I ended up: BB Coverage --> MF PE
School: West coast non target (in LA/SF) GPA: 3.6 Internships: CRE at commercial bank, VC, BB PWM, IM firm SA FT: return to IM
School: Ivy
GPA: 3.8 econ
Experience: 2 IB internships + 1 PE internship
Ended up: EB
Edit
/
School: Purdue
GPA: 3.8
Internship: SA at MM
Recently signed for FT at coverage group with MM
School: HYPSM
GPA: 3.98, but very fuzzie major
Internships: A) prestigious but identifying, B) start-up
Mid tier BB coverage
Didn't look at finance till fall junior year
I don't get this shit. You're litterally posting anon? Do you think someone is going to stalk through your anon account and find furry porn or something?
Says the guy posting in anon.....
edit
Response
School: HYP
GPA:3.1 Political Science
Internships/Experience: Large mutual fund family for one summer (worthless), Camp Counselor for the rest. Ability to hit a softball 375 feet
Where you ended up: BB (Floor NYSE, NYMEX)
Petition to get all the non-target/state school/post your job acceptance on linkedin/finance-or-die hardos off of this site
Pretty sure most of WSO is nontargets. I mean, it’s mostly helpful for them, whereas target school kids dont really need an online forum to tell them to study/network/prep
Cry harder
School: Bottom-Tier PAC-12 *added 10 to body count, went out 4 nights a week, was in a fraternity, but still partied a lot less than my counterparts
GPA: 3.99
Experience: 2 boutique investment banking internships (freshman and sophomore summers)
Where I ended up: Top 3 BB TMT coverage group for summer analyst (junior year) that I converted into full-time
Curious what class did you get the A- in.
Two A minuses: Survey of Black Literature and Public Speaking for Business Majors
School: Number one University in the Middle East
GPA: Econ Major, transferring to Finance, 3.85
Internships/Experience: Part of the Student Investment Fund (1M+), Cabinet in 2 of the largest clubs, Offered an internship at the Central Bank (HELL NO!), currently interviewing for Citi for CorpBanking and PrivateBanking.
Where you ended up: To be seen, I might look to transfer to the States, or go to Law School
School: Non-target state
GPA: 3.8
Lays: 8
S/B/D: 365/225/405
Internships: PWM, F500 CorpFin, BB S&T
Where I ended up: BB S&T lateraled to MM M&A
lateral as in like after you did a year in s&t or as in you did full time recruiting into mm m&a
Non target ASF : 3.0 ( freshman year was really bad due to family issues.) Experience : three internships in CRE finance / brokerage Body count: 36 Where I will end up: just accepted offer to a major lender analyst program. Network hard and grind.
UG: EU Semi-Target, 4.0 GPA
PG: EU Target, 3.7 GPA
Internships/Experience: No-Name Consulting Boutiques
Ended Up: Consulting EB
What’s a consulting EB?
Firms like Marakon, Mars & Co, Kaiser Associates and Altman Vilandrie & Co
School: Non-Target in the Northeast.
GPA: 3.5
Internships/Experience: ER in a small boutique in London; DCM in MM in NY.
Where you ended up: Unemployed/still looking
Westcoast non target
GPA: 2.8 (loved the fraternity too much)
Bodycount: 43
height/wingspan: 6'4" 6'6"
Analyst at real estate private equity fund
yeah but what's your bench/deadlift/squat
He’s 6’4”, birds don’t care if he benches 10lbs
Target state school, 3.4, interned for random companies not in finance, work at a boutique in ER
School: Semi/non target
GPA: 3
Internships/Experience: small PE shop + Cap Markets at large bank
Where you ended up: UMM infra PE
Party time: way too much
School: non target
GPA: 2.6, maybe 2.5 idc
Internships: startup, asset management, family office
First full time: mm repe
6 years to graduate, did lots of sex and drinking (ask your sister about me)
My senior year slash line was .320 / .435 / .380. That's right - I was an on-base machine, with less power than a triple-A battery. I made up for it with some stolen bases, but let's be honest, I was a table-setter. The consummate leadoff hitter.
wait what kind of stats are y'all talking about
State school (non target obv) 3.9 gpa Experience: Local LMM PE SA and MM SA Landed at a BB full time
How did you go about FT recruiting for a BB from a MM?
Well if you think about it full time recruiting mostly consists of people from worse banks trying to move up, people from better banks who didn’t get a return offer, or people outside of IB trying to break in. Out of the 3, sometimes the candidate from a lower bank trying to move up makes the most sense. Also I just generally am well-spoken and explained my candidacy better than others.
Non-target liberal arts school
3.4 GPA
Experience: BB PWM SA and off-cycle IB internship at no-name boutique my senior year
Went full-time at no-name boutique, worked there for 1.5 years, then lateraled to an EB.
School: SEC state school
GPA: 3.14
Internships/Experience: Student athlete, just missed '16 Olympics
Where you ended up: Quant hedge fund
Could you PM me? I had the same experience.
HYPS
3.85, 10-12 (quality over quantity though)
Summer at EB
Associate at UMM
School: T50 State school
GPA: 3.9
Internships: Think Tank in DC, education start-up in South Korea
Ended up: MBB
School: top 1000 Non-target
GPA: 3.5
Internships: local AM firm
Ended up: D1 basketball assistant coach -> Corp Dev at a F500 bank -> EU MBA -> REPE
School: Top public university, but very non target for IB
GPA: 3.6
Internship: Regional boutique IB (sophomore summer)
Ended up: Top MM bank (blair/baird/lincoln)
School: Top Ivy
GPA: 4.0 in quantitative major
Internship: BBs
FT: Coverage at top BB
will say school / GPA has helped land a lot of interviews without networking. Have had 50-75% hit rate on black box resume portals
Ivy League
3.5
MM
School: Ivy
GPA: 3.9+
Internships / Experience: Nothing freshman year (could have landed an unpaid startup gig in NYC that would have left me in the red so I stayed at home and read up a bit on finance over the summer), buyside internship sophomore year (apparently landed based on a cover letter, which many other applicants from my school neglected to write)
Where I ended up: EB / UMM
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