Grad Student from Stanford breaking into Ibanking

<p>Going to start my graduate studies in Environmental Eng at Stanford this fall and was wondering if my background would be advantageous to apply for a summer internship 2010. I know there's quite a bit of Engineers, Physicists, and PhD that work for GS and other big banks. </p>

<p>I know each individual ibank has sectors, I guess my strength would be energy and oil. Any help or advice on breaking in? </p>

<p>Also do any ibank firms particularly recruit from Stanford? I'm excited to start this fall!!! =)</p>

<p>Stanford is one of the top schools in the world, and yes, BB banks recruit at Stanford, and even if one particular bank does not, it will not turn anyone away from Stanford because he/she goes to the school as they would not a non-target. Stanford is a top notch school. That said, it is a smaller school and on the west coast. If your goal is to break into BB IB, I would use the Stanford network to the fullest and reach out to those alum already in the business. In terms of specialty, you will definitely be an asset to the Energy and Power teams as well as the Project Finance teams of BB banks. At the associate level (where you’d enter), knowing about the industry before getting in will definitely give you a leg up, as you will be able to hit the ground running on projects, especially in Project Finance, which is a pretty difficult group in terms of project type and mechanics to those who have never seen it before.</p>

<p>I would definitely go for a summer internship, as it will provide validity to your interest in pursuing IB FT upon graduation. Be sure to shape your resume and past experiences in such a way as to focus on “banker-friendly” stats and projects, not engineering terminology, which is where many engineers often go astray. Bankers want to see analysis and valuation, soft skills (especially in Engineers, although going to Stanford helps with that stigma), and results/impact.</p>

<p>@Bankonbanking, well what if you don’t want to pursue IB, instead I would prefer trading. To me, I can care less about securing a deal or making presentations on a daily basis but trading on the other hand seems like something I want to do for sure. Do you have any insight at all? I know the hours aren’t as critical as IB and I don’t mind working in a noisy and dynamic environment.</p>

<p>Do you have ways for me to break into it with an Env Eng degree? Or should I switch to a major that’s heavily involved in Finance like the MS&E program at Stanford?</p>

<p>Thanks a lot.</p>

<p>It depends. S&T for BBs often care more about quant majors than business majors. If your degree is quant heavy, you shouldn’t have a problem in terms of applicable major. You will still have to network, but you are at a top target, and your major alone will not keep you out. If, however, your major is not quant intensive, then it wouldn’t be a bad idea to beef it up as S&T is often more impressed with quant majors than bankers - bankers just want to see Target - S&T likes to see quant aspects as well.</p>

<p>Hey there holycowbanana,</p>

<p>Stanford coterm here. :)</p>

<p>There are definitely a lot of masters/phd students in quantitative areas from Stanford working trading type jobs. MS&E, unless you are taking their most quantitative classes, is pretty fuzzy and I think more banking/consulting type kids use it.</p>

<p>the MS in Financial Math is certainly a great background for trading if you can handle that kind of math. It’s a pretty intense program though for sure. I imagine though that if you are interested in being a floor trading your current program is quantitative enough. If you want to be a quant trader, or high frequency trader or something like that you may way to consider something more directly applicable like CS, statistics, or the financial engineering track in MS&E.</p>

<p>Another thing to keep in mind is that you can do trading at non-BB firms. Check out Jump Trading, GETCO, SIG, Jane Street, D.E. Shaw, etc. they all do trading, in their own ways.</p>