Happy to answer questions

<p>i'm a sophomore in college and it's time to declare. so, i was wondering. which major? economics or finance?</p>

<p>math or comp sci</p>

<p>I would major in finance or something quant-heavy, like the aforementioned math or computer science.</p>

<p>PA, did your boutique firm give you a full-time offer? And if so, did you have sufficient time to go through fall recruiting before it exploded, or did you reject it before knowing if you would get offers?</p>

<p>butcherer, I'm a bit confused by your question. I was never with a boutique, and I never went through fall recruiting. I'm currently a junior and I had an internship during my sophomore summer.</p>

<p>I see, I misread your post. Congrats on getting an internship this summer though!</p>

<p>I don't know if you are still doing this Pure Advisory, but if you are, I have a question.
I recently accepted a SA IBD offer at a regional BB. However, I really wanted the opportunity to work in NY (personal preferences, family, etc). Through your experience last year, did you see a lot (or at least some) individuals be able to make the move from regional to NY. Or is it pretty much going to be regional for me.</p>

<p>grandpabuzz, congratulations on getting an offer in this tough market. Personally, I have not seen anyone make a move from a regional office to NY. However, I have heard stories of people doing the opposite: getting an offer for NY but then transferring to a regional office full-time. I'm going to assume it'll be tough to go from a regional office to NY.</p>

<p>What I do recommend, of course, is to network as much as you can. Reach out to people in the NY office of your BB and let them know that you're thankful for your internship but would like to eventually make it out to NY for a full time position.</p>

<p>PureAdvisory,</p>

<p>If I may ask you some questions...</p>

<p>Is experience in startup companies valued by banks above/below/on par with corporate experience?</p>

<p>I chose to work for a startup out of school because I thought it would give me a ground-up business experience, which it has. I would not trade the last year for anything for the breadth of experience I have gained, and the responsibilities I executed in a relatively unsupervised environment. However, I can imagine downsides to my job as it could be perceived by a bank, in that I have gained no experience working within a corporate hierarchy and dealing with clients face-to-face.</p>

<p>Another reason I chose to work for a startup was to practice taking a calculated risk, in this case with the first stage of my career. Happily, I chose well (from among startups at least...) and we are now "started up". Unhappily, growth can euphemistically be termed "organic" and I have little chance of cashing my equity out for anything non-trivial any time soon. Is the calculated risk argument worth it?</p>

<p>I know now that I want to transfer out of software and into finance. (Ah, I should have heeded the warnings! But at least I gave my startup dream a shot.) So is it at all possible to transfer to finance directly from a tiny, anonymous startup? Is this unheard of? (I have some connections through which I can network, and I went to Northwestern, FWIW. I also interview well, but my resume is not blue-chip. I'm a techie, no finance exp.) Or is B-school the only real option for me, and thus probably some intermediary job in a more conventional corporate setting with a more business slant? Would I be well-served by working at a small yet reputable prop shop as a bridge?</p>

<p>wayward_son, I think entrepreneurial experience is an interesting case. It certainly differentiates you from the rest of the candidates applying for IB. The issue seems to be timing more so than anything else. From what I gather, you've already graduated and worked for a number of years. Thus, you'd be too old to come in as an analyst but you don't have the experience to come in as an associate. Lateral hires are generally only from other investment banks. If you're looking for an investment banking job right now, the fact that you don't come from a corporate finance background will hurt you. </p>

<p>I think your best bet would be shooting for a top business school, which seems to be well within your reach given the school you graduated from and your entrepreneurial experience. Once at business school, it becomes a bit easier for you to enter the trenches trough a traditional associate program. However, if you're not ready for business school yet, I would try to secure a corp fin position at a company.</p>

<p>Hey PureAdvisory, are you at one of the Ivy's undergrad B-Schools? How did you manage to land an analyst job your sophomore summer at a BB? I'm going to be at Wharton next year and I would really like to have some sort of internship related to business all four years in the summer... I don't want to go back to lifeguarding my freshman year, but is that too much to ask?</p>

<p>No, I am not at an undergraduate business school -- I've always subscribed to the notion that college is about enriching the mind, and not necessarily just about pursuing vocational interests. </p>

<p>I landed the summer analyst gig through luck, hard work, aggressive networking, and never taking "no" for an answer. I identified early on that banking was what I wanted to do, so I pursued every possible avenue to get a job. Hours on google, my school's alumni database, FT.com, etc. Wharton will no doubt open up a lot of doors for you -- do not be afraid to reach out to alums and start developing those relationships early. You will get a lot of rejections, but remember that you only need one person to say yes. That said, it's an incredibly tough market -- be very sensitive to the current times and be appreciative of all the people you reach out to. It may also be wise to temper your expectations a bit, and ditch the "BB or Bust!" motto. Value experience above everything else.</p>