Starting off in ibanking-getting your foot in?

Career Opportunities & Internships Investment Banking
1

<p>I just recently decided on investment banking.</p>

<p>I did try searching for the record, but I feel like I might be a unique case?</p>

<p>How do people usually start off in investment banking? I eventually wanna end up at a BB, just like everyone else, but not everyone gets a chance to start off/end up that high right?</p>

<p>I'm a sophomore in college right now and I'm in the process of transferring(coming from a JC).</p>

<p>Realistically speaking, I will probably end up at either UCSD or UCLA. But I'm trying to be as optimistic as I can for UCB, Cornell, and Columbia. I'm majoring in Econ if that matters.</p>

<p>This summer I want to get some experience in the field, but I don't really know where to start. A teller? Marketing company summer intern? What do you guys think? I know coming from a JC(community college) is a disadvantage.</p>

<p>So to sum it up, I have a few questions. Excuse my ignorance:
1) Let's just say that I end up going to UCSD, I hear getting into ibanking stems from networking and such, but how great of a network can one form from going to UCSD? It's on the other side of the country where all the "big things" happen</p>

<p>2) What about people that end up enlisting in the military to pursue a dream and then finish up and start job hunting for i banking/eventually getting an mba?</p>

<p>3) What does it take if you don't graduate from a top 25 school as a undergrad?</p>

<p>4) As a sophomore currently, what can I do in terms of job/working experience to make myself more competitive when I try to get interviews for ibanking later on?</p>

<p>Thanks in advance
(I'm doing my own research too, but I'd like to hear people's opinions or words or wisdom if they have already been down this path)</p>

<p>(You might have seen this post in the internship forum, I just realized I could have posted in the ibanking forum...)</p>

2

<p>As stated before, since you are a sophomore, utilizing your campus recruitment and career services is generally the best way to go. Just ‘IBanking’ is very broad and you should know what you want to focus in and to do in the long run.</p>

<p>1) IBanking doesn’t just come from 1 side of the country. You can easily work in a small boutique regardless of where it is and learn everything you need to know.</p>

<p>2)If you enlist in the military, you will need to get your MBA before trying to enter the banking world. It is very rare to leave college and after a few years, want to enter banking without your MBA, and actually get in. Unless you have friends in the banking industry who can vouche for you, it probably won’t happen. Getting your MBA gives you a clean slate.</p>

<p>3) The advantages of graduating from a top 25 school is the networking and who comes to your campus to recruit. Not graduating from upper tier school means you will not have the same opportunities to meet certain recruiters and managers. Therefore you need to work harder and network more efficiently.</p>

<p>4) Since you are a sophomore, just work in any job related to your major and keep your GPA as high as possible. Very few sophomores have ‘stellar’ banking resumes. It is more about work ethics, your GPA, and how well you will fit with the company.</p>

3

<p>Thanks comment, I really appreciate it.</p>

4

<p>I’m in a similar situation: i started my first semester at a JC, i graduated from high school two years early, and I ve heard that getting an internship in the PWM field is good for freshman summer, but how would I go about doing that?</p>

5

<p>I’m just a CC student but I’ve talked to a hedge fund manager here in LA for a little bit, and he gave me some good info. I’ll just parrot what he told me:</p>

<p>How do people usually start off in investment banking? </p>

<p>The position you want to shoot for is financial analyst in a big investment bank like Goldman Sachs. Financial analysts is run like a boot camp, it’s meant to put you through the paces and to weed out people who aren’t cut out for high finance. It’s usually 2 years long, but after you complete it, your given an immediate promotion and schedule is a bit better but only slightly. After the FA thing, the firm will try to keep you by promotions but other banks, hedge funds, and private equities will try to offer you a job at their firm, because now that you’re “trained” and proven your cut out for finance there isn’t too much liability over hiring a fresh grad that hasn’t worked yet.</p>

<p>Most people that get the FA job are students who interned during the summer and did well. These internships are usually held for juniors and seniors. 3rd and 4th years are committed to their majors and a safer bet to take full advantage of the internship over the freshman who hasn’t decided yet.</p>

<p>Other side is through family connections. The guy told me he has never seen a sophomore intern in his office except for sons of such and such or nephew of whoever.</p>

<p>I’ve asked about UCLA and how students from that school does in the mix with others. He put it bluntly, UCLA students will have a real hard time finding a job in “high finance”. He told me to picture a recruiter for USB had a stack of 100 resumes. The guy has only 5 slots open, he will look for reasons to toss resumes into the trash. Out of 20 he liked most likely UCLA won’t be one of them. He said if I ended up in UCLA, best bet was to get an MBA from a “better” school then apply to banks.</p>

<p>1) It’s on the other side of the country where all the “big things” happen</p>

<p>There are Ibanks all over. New York might house a lot of the headquarters, but branches and headquarters are all over the world. London, Australia, Los Angeles, Atlanta, San Fransisco, etc. I don’t know about UCSD, I’ve heard they have a great econ department. I’m curious about that question as well.</p>

<p>2) What about people that end up enlisting in the military to pursue a dream and then finish up and start job hunting for i banking/eventually getting an mba?</p>

<p>Out of the military straight into “wall st” I think would be too tough. Best to use the military background to get into prestigious school for MBA. If you’ve seen CNBC’s “THE MONEY CHASE: INSIDE HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL”, there was one guy who was from the military got accepted into Harvard because he had incredible experience on the battlefield and showed that he was a leader.</p>

<p>3) What does it take if you don’t graduate from a top 25 school as a undergrad?</p>

<p>Networking and luck. But even if you graduated from top 25 it’s still very tough. Just remember the top 1-3 students from the top 25 schools in the world get these jobs.</p>

<p>4) As a sophomore currently, what can I do in terms of job/working experience to make myself more competitive when I try to get interviews for ibanking later on?</p>

<p>Internships are the most important at this point I think. But most internships are available to juniors and seniors for banking. You’ve got to make sure the school you’ll attend will have some connection with that field. Like if you made it to NYU, they’re right next to the industry so you know that will be a great place to try for internships. As far as teller and stuff for a job, I think it’s best to separate commercial banking and investment banking. They are two completely different things.</p>

<p>Just to say again, I really have no idea on what I wrote. Just parroted what I’ve been told. I’m in the same shoes as you are(in a cc), so I’d like to hear what everyone else thinks.</p>

<p>Links I think might be helpful:</p>

<p>This link is a database of all the employees of Black Stone. It talks about where they work so you can get an idea on all the different places these firms are and also their education background. I saw Harvard, NYU, San Fransisco, Virginia, Georgia, etc. So the comment on top 25 only doesn’t always apply.
[Our</a> People](<a href=“http://www.blackstone.com/cps/rde/xchg/bxcom/hs/firm_ourpeople.htm?chunksize=20000&chunk=1&fgroup=&flocation=&;sortorder=]Our”>http://www.blackstone.com/cps/rde/xchg/bxcom/hs/firm_ourpeople.htm?chunksize=20000&chunk=1&fgroup=&flocation=&;sortorder=)</p>

<p>This is an awesome page from Berkeley. It’s from one school, but you can choose a major and see what company the students work and their position. If you look at the business admin and the econ, it looks pretty similar which I thought was interesting.
<a href=“https://career.berkeley.edu/Major/Major.stm[/url]”>https://career.berkeley.edu/Major/Major.stm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

6

<p>Read mergersandinquisitions.com. Everything you will ever have to know, from the perspective of an undergrad, about investment banking and how to get in.</p>