Monkey to Millions | Grace (Session 4) - Winter Break and a Chance to Breathe - Jan 3, 2020
About
In this session, we take a moment to celebrate the fact that Grace has already landed a summer internship in IB after her Freshman year. We talk about getting more aggressive now that she has a bit of time to breathe on networking as well as potential early recruiting programs she will be targeting at larger investment banks.
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WSO Podcast (Episode 4) Transcript:
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:00:04] Well. Hello and welcome, I'm Patrick Curtis, chief monkey of Wall Street Oasis, and this is monkey to millions. A show where you get a front row seat as I mentor young students and professionals to try and help them break into their dream jobs in the first cohort. You'll meet four students, all preparing for intense job interviews while trying to also balance a personal life and schoolwork. The goal of this show is to shine a light on the struggles of trying to break into competitive positions with a non-traditional background and to give you a roadmap for your own success. My hope is that as you get to know these four impressive students, you're inspired to dream big. Remember, these are real people, and this is their true story. Let's get to it. In this session, we take a moment to celebrate the fact that Grace has already landed a summer internship in I.B. after her freshman year. We talk about getting more aggressive now that she has a bit more time to breathe on networking, as well as potential early recruiting programs she'll be targeting at larger investment banks, but first here from grace over the previous few weeks leading up to this session. Hello. So this week I had my interview at the boutique investment bank here in the city. Burglary, noise and I, the interview went very well and I received the offer for the spot. So next week I'll go in one or two days to while the current intern in this group is still there to get everything set up and then it'll officially start in the spring semester or in January. And then this week is the last week of classes for the semester before finals start next week. So I'm very busy with lots of final papers and assignments. But I also have a few coffee chats and other phone calls this week, so overall a busy but productive week. Hello. So today was the first day of my internship. I won't really start until the spring, but I went in today and I'll also be going in on Wednesday just to start learning the ropes of everything from the current intern who's spot I'll be taking since this is his last week in the office and it went well. All the people seem really nice, so I'm excited to be starting there. And this week I also have finals starting on Thursday, going through the middle of next week. So it's a very busy week with lots of studying and finishing up some final papers. So this week is a continuation of finals, and then on Thursday, I'll be going back home for winter break and then I'll have a lot more time to put toward networking that otherwise, this past week, I've just been spending most of my time on studying, so nothing else really knew.
Grace: [00:03:26] So this is my second week of winter break, and in addition to seeing a lot of friends and family, I've had the time to put into networking and doing a little bit of work for my internship, as well as just generally getting myself organized and ready for the second semester.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:03:48] All right, so it looks like you had winter break or you're still in the middle of winter break or you're going back on Monday?
Grace: [00:03:55] No, I have one more week.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:03:56] Oh, that's awesome.
Grace: [00:03:58] January 11th.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:03:59] I think that's a long break, isn't it?
Grace: [00:04:01] It's actually shorter than most of my friends.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:04:04] Oh, really? Uh-huh. So how many? It's two full weeks or
Grace: [00:04:08] Two and we're closer to three, I guess.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:04:10] Awesome. So you're just staying home seeing family?
Grace: [00:04:14] Yes, a little bit. Yeah, it's been good.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:04:19] Nice. Well, so last time we chatted. So if you just give me an update like last time. You had secured the internship. Mm hmm. Yes. Very exciting. Thank you. And then so is the idea now so that set up for your freshman summer, you're basically going to be doing that right after classes and or how does that work in terms of timing?
Grace: [00:04:42] So I'm starting in the semester, actually, I'll be going in one and a half days a week during the semester and then full time during the summer.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:04:51] And so it starts right up after, like in May, after you're done with the year with the classes and finals.
Grace: [00:04:58] Well, I've actually so I went in a few days in December and then I've been doing a little bit of work remotely over break two and then I'll be going into the office when I get back to school.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:05:07] So you've already started work for them?
Grace: [00:05:09] Yes.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:05:10] Awesome. Ok, so yeah, once you do like a month or two more or like probably another month, it'd be great to get an updated resume. Ok? With just a few bullets on specifically the type of stuff you're doing, even if it's like market research or is that the type of stuff you're doing for them?
Grace: [00:05:27] Not exactly, but I'm still getting a sense of what the majority of time is going to be spent doing.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:05:32] So were you surprised that you got it, given that you're were kind of.
Grace: [00:05:36] I mean, the interview was good, so I was surprised.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:05:41] Were they kind of surprised that you were prepared as a freshman? Did they say anything?
Grace: [00:05:46] I'm not sure. I only interviewed with one person, so it was hard to get a sense. And it wasn't that long of an interview either.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:05:54] Ok, that's great. And so it's you and one other or just you for the.
Grace: [00:05:59] So I'm the only intern on my team, but there's three other Fordham interns there right now and one person from Dartmouth also.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:06:08] Ok, and so you're going to basically be going through the summer and then is it does it tend to be a thing where they give you another offer to come back after your sophomore year? Or how does it or the people tend to progress up to other banks?
Grace: [00:06:23] Most people stay about a year. I think they've had a few people who start interning, maybe in their sophomore junior year and then end up working their full time after, OK. But I think so. I'm the youngest intern they've ever hired. But the only other person they've hired, I think, started in their freshman right after their freshman summer stayed for a year and then he started interning somewhere else.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:06:48] Got it. So like for that means for the sophomore summer, they were somewhere else. Mm hmm. And is that kind of your thing like, I think you'd be good to get to a slightly larger shop if possible, for your sophomore summer, if you can do that, especially if you have. I think this is going to give you a huge advantage as your networking in the spring and through the summer. You're still going to be in New York, correct? Yes. You're going to have a huge advantage just being there. It's going to be awesome, right? You're going to know so many people by the end of your summer, you're going to be so sick of the coffee chats and all that stuff. It'll be good. It'll be good. You'll learn a lot, too. You'll like, really get a sense of what each job is like and that that should be the goal for you. It's really you're so young that, yes, you want to make a good impression, but you should really be asking. The questions that you want the answers to, not the question, I think they want you to ask too, especially for the younger people you're networking with instead of trying to always look so polished, it's OK to ask what you'd consider potentially dumb, not stuff. You can put questions that what's it really like in this specific group? You know, in terms of like, are there certain MDS that are good to work with other interviews that are tough because as you kind of get through your sophomore year, that could be it. You could be, you know, go through sophomore summer and they could be who want to extend you like full time. The way accelerated recruiting is happening, it's not out of the question that after, you know, in your sophomore year as you head into kind of sophomore summer, that could turn into your full time. Right. So I think it's important before you kind of get locked down, it's such you're going to be like twenty-one before you get locked down into a specific bank that you kind of do your research because if they're smart, they'll lock you down early. But I want to make sure that's right for you. Mm hmm. Yes. You know what I mean?
Grace: [00:08:49] So that's why it's good. I'm doing this.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:08:51] It's great. Yeah, it's great. You're doing this because you're there. You can talk with a lot more people all summer. Hopefully, it doesn't eat into too much of your time for school, for other stuff, for you're just not networking because you want to have fun too. It's not like you're never going to go back to college. So it's like, you know, if you're doing clubs and you're doing networking and you're doing interviews and work on the side, it can quickly get really overwhelming. So. Now that you have that, you don't need to be going now that you have that internship, you don't need to be going like. Every second of every day has to be perfectly optimized, I think taking a break over this winter. A few days just to completely decompress, I think is really smart. Ok, so I think you sent me a file or you sent me a sorry Google doc that had some interview stuff in there, is that correct?
Grace: [00:09:45] I think we'd started that with the last time we talked or the time before that.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:09:51] And I think I requested access that maybe was sent to the wrong one, but you could send that to me because I'd love to go through.
Grace: [00:09:57] I mean, I think I resent it. You did
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:09:59] Ok? Was that today?
Grace: [00:10:01] Yes.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:10:02] Ok, so I'll take a look. Let's see. Can you shoot the link over maybe in the chatter here?
Grace: [00:10:06] Mm hmm. Yes, that.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:10:10] Here's the chart. Did I? I think I did look. I started looking at this. Mm hmm. Yeah. This is good. Yeah, because you have, for example, on each of them. Mm hmm. Yeah, I think this is great. Greatest strength, consistency, top of your work, you. Yeah. Ok. Yeah, I think these are good, let's do you have other story one
Grace: [00:10:59] That you started right there was that.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:11:03] So this has some of that because you said, for example, the only thing this on these four examples. You're not giving it, you're giving an example of like kind of how you work. Like, you never have this because you're consistently on top of your work instead of giving somebody a vivid example like a specific example. So for example, my I had finals with this, this on this past year, this past semester and blah. More like a specific week, give them like an actual picture of a real-time or a real project instead of saying This is how I work, and so I'm fine, you know?
Grace: [00:11:39] Mm hmm. I think that, yes, I think we have done worked on that before we started talking about the stories I just sent, the stories
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:11:47] I just rescued requested access on the other. Ok. Sorry. I always ask for the Gmail one because I'm always logged in there. So yeah, for this one. So the common interview questions, that's great to have. You know, we had done that. You're right. And then we had kind of done this other one with the stories, right? You had started that.
Grace: [00:12:08] Yes. And I think you had looked at that once.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:12:11] Yes, so let me. Here it is. Ok. This is perfect. So attention to visual appeal, I think you meant detail.
Grace: [00:12:24] Oh, I think so.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:12:26] Ok, yeah. This is great. So I'll look through this because I think this is going to be this star story, thinks you got one to? So you have one two, three, four, five kind of five. Mm hmm. Right here. Yeah. Teamwork skills do you have ones with like struggles or conflict?
Grace: [00:12:53] Um, I don't. None of these fit into that,
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:12:57] Really, you need at least one like that. You think of a time you had a conflict with your boss, with a group member doesn't mean you were like fighting, but it could mean like a disagreement. I think that because if you get asked that in the interviews next year, right? You want to kind of have that story really locked down.
Grace: [00:13:21] Mm hmm. Ok.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:13:23] So think of that and think of as detail-oriented. So, yeah, I may do some editing here or ask you questions, I'll go through this today. Ok? And just try to kind of dig in a little bit and then I think it might make sense for us on our next session to actually go through this. And I'll ask questions that kind of ideally prompt you to tell the story. Ok. Because. Practice makes perfect and actually through it instead of just taking it out, actually saying it and hearing yourself. And that'll give me some good, good potential advice of how to how to frame it potentially differently, but I think before we do that. Let me go through it and I'll leave comments and ask more detailed questions to try and pull out a little bit more of the OK of the nuance because how you tell a story is actually really an art. Mm hmm. And it's a real skill that can make your interview a lot more memorable and make it really feel like you're the right person.
Grace: [00:14:21] Mm hmm.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:14:22] Ok. Ok, great. So it's good to see you did that. You are on top of your stuff. You're diligent. So, OK. So I guess going into this winter break, you said you were. I looked at your updates. You said you were doing some networking and stuff. Can you tell me how that's going?
Grace: [00:14:40] That's been good. So I updated the LinkedIn, as you recommended with the sales navigator for the more detailed searches, and that's been really helpful. So I've been reaching out to a lot of people that way. And yeah, I mean nothing.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:14:57] Are you focusing mostly on like boutiques?
Grace: [00:14:59] They're mostly smaller firms right now. And then some people that are originally from Baltimore to and now work in New York and kind of finding that connection. So I've there's been a lot of people that way, too.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:15:16] Yeah, I'm sure you're going to get some great now that you're especially once you get your resume updated as you do, which is good, you're doing work like that means by this summer, even before you start full time, you're going to have a resume with banking experience on it already. Mm hmm. And so as you approach and you let them know I'm working, I'm currently working through four a.m. Blah. Are they paying you, by the way?
Grace: [00:15:39] Yes.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:15:39] Ok, good. So as you're working through that networking, as you're working towards the before even the full time, you're going to start actually being able to send out resume with stuff on there, which is going to make the hit rate even higher. Mm hmm. And so really, then I think you can get more aggressive in terms of who you're reaching out to the how senior they are and not. I mean, you can do that now, but I think almost better to just try and keep the hit rate high and keep your network growing. What are you up to now on connections on,
Grace: [00:16:16] I think, around 370
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:16:18] 370. Ok. So I mean, I think you can get a lot more aggressive. You have the sales nav. Don't be afraid to like just connect with anyone and everything.
Grace: [00:16:28] Yeah, I mean, I have a lot of people who I'm going to be sending messages to. I didn't want to be sending messages like the day after Christmas, though.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:16:35] Yeah. So I think you can do up to one hundred a day. Ok. I'm not saying you have to do one hundred a day, but there are several thousand bankers, 10000 20000 bankers in Manhattan alone, probably, right? So I'm not saying you need to be connected to all those people, but. You know, several thousand of them would be great, okay, before the end of this year, before the end of 2020, because by that point, you're going to be going into your sophomore summer. And then like I said, like, that's that could be the people you're connected to from that outreach could be one of those people could be that the connection that bridges you to your full time offer.
Grace: [00:17:19] So. But looking into some of the freshmen insight programs, most of them are the diversity type programs that a few banks have. So if I can get into a few of those for the spring, that would be helpful too.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:17:34] And remind me on those, it's like a two or three day program, like where you go.
Grace: [00:17:39] They're usually two or three days and you just go in and you get to meet a lot of the people there.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:17:43] Yeah, it's a great way. It's to accelerate your networking into a specific bank. But yeah, they get pretty aggressive. They get if they like you and you're in one of those sessions, they can get pretty aggressive and quickly, like, offer you an internship. You may be surprised. They may try to actually get you for freshman summer or like, already offer you a sophomore summer.
Grace: [00:18:04] I know several people, Fordham, people who have done it their freshman year at Goldman, and then they enter in sophomore summer junior summer and got the full time
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:18:13] All three years. Yeah, so we never know that might actually come to play, so we'll cross that bridge if it comes to it, but I think that would be a no brainer for you
Grace: [00:18:28] To take out. So waiting to hear back like the golden one I applied to a while ago?
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:18:33] Yeah, once you got your April in terms of diversity, recruiting in early recruiting. Is it just being a female? Is that enough to kind of allow you to apply to those,
Grace: [00:18:44] Some of them? So there's more of the racial ethnicity based ones, but there are certainly Goldman's women. I think RBC does one for women. Ok. Standard Chartered UBS.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:18:58] Perfect. Ok. Very cool. Well, yeah. Use any leverage. You can any change yet to try and get that internship right? But I'm super excited for you. Either way, you're on a great track, I think. Any questions in terms of I think now is kind of a quiet time and everything. So it doesn't have to be a long session, but any questions you have from me in terms of how I can help or be helpful.
Grace: [00:19:23] I think I don't think so at this point.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:19:25] I think the I think really we can do a lot of work. I think you should definitely be being more aggressive on LinkedIn right now. Hmm. So I'll tell you, I'll keep pushing you to kind of keep your connections there and reach because there's nothing stopping you from at least making that initial connection. And then and then after that, because then if you do that, when you have something to update people, you have a larger set of people to update. So instead of it being one hundred people or 300 people, you're updating five hundred people, seven hundred people. Right? Sounds crazy, but they can make a big difference in terms of. The operative name out there, yeah. The opportunities available to you. Oh yeah, well, we have an opening and we'd love to have you and all of a sudden you have like four or five offers. Trying to think what else, so yeah, in terms of just networking, I would say just keep focusing on that and be more aggressive in terms of the number of people you're connecting with. Ok. Yeah, and it doesn't have to be like, I mean, especially now that you have a sales navigator, you can kind of have a template connection form so you reach out to you, do a certain filter and you know, kind of what the connection is, whether it's Maryland, OK? And so then you're like, Hey, I noticed your friendship from Maryland now you're in New York or you're working thinking it'd be great to connect and potentially chat down the line. So doesn't have to even be like trying to get a conversation right then and there, it's more about establishing that connection now. Ok? And then maybe reaching out when you have more time. Ok, in the summer, maybe. And then maybe we can meet up in the summer. Know?
Grace: [00:21:06] Yeah, that's what I've been doing a lot of break, too is reaching out over emails to the people that I connected with. Maybe a month or two ago. Perfect.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:21:12] That's awesome. Yes, so I mean, that's good, you've gotten it up to three seven. I think when we started, it was one hundred something or
Grace: [00:21:19] It was pretty low. Yeah, just around one hundred.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:21:21] Yeah, so that's great. I'm not trying not to say you're not doing a great job. You are. I just think. It's literally the most important thing to do. It's like the one thing that can determine where you like, where you end up is just who you know. It's it. Because if you if you have all the other stuff, which is very, very much in your control in terms of interview skills and all that, it's just who you know, determines where you are. So, right, so it's good. Great. Anything else that I can be helpful within terms of, I'll look through this, these stories you have for the interviews to see how they sound and then maybe next time if you can remind me, let's do a call where we actually like almost like a little more. Can you tell me your story? Ok? Go through it. Does that sound like a plan? That sounds good. I know you'll be back in school. Yeah, you'll be a little busier, but you don't have to do a lot of prep, maybe just the hour before the call. Like, just go through them in your head so that you're you feel fresh and then we'll just walk through them. And then I'll give you some feedback after because I think if we can do that once now and then, once before the summer to do it early February, then we'd do it again, maybe early May or early June. Right before you have all these coffee chats, right? I think it'll be really good.
Grace: [00:22:48] Ok.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:22:50] And to help make sure you're completely polished for the many serious interviews. Right? Ok, sounds good. Yes. Sounds good. Ok, well, enjoy your winter break. And if anything comes up in between now and next, next month or whatever. Just shoot me an email or a chat. Ok, we'll get on the phone. Great. Thanks so much. Thanks, Chris. Talk soon.
Grace: [00:23:14] Bye.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:23:16] And thanks to you, my listeners at Wall Street Oasis. If you have any suggestions whatsoever, please don't hesitate to send them my way. Patrick at Wall Street Oasis. And till next time.
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