tips consulting/ibanking

Career Opportunities & Internships
1

<p>So I go to a top LAC known for its placement of students into ibanking/management consulting. However, it seems like all the people I know who go down that route after college did consulting/ibanking/finance internships during college.</p>

<p>Throughout college, I thought I'd be going into law, public policy, or academia. But now, I'm thinking of possibly doing finance for a couple of years. Unfortunately, (1) I'm a political science major who hasn't taken a single math class and only 3 economics classes (up through intermediate macro) (2) My GPA's only about 3.6ish (3) I have no finance/ibanking/consulting internship experience. </p>

<p>So here are my questions:</p>

<p>Is it possible to get a job at a hedge fund/consulting firm/ibank with no relevant internship experience? </p>

<p>If not (which is the answer I'm assuming) how can I get that internship experience now as a rising senior? It seems all the places I'm looking at only accept juniors' applications for internships.</p>

<p>With a year left of school, no econ major, no math courses, no internship experience, and a 3.6 gpa, can I get a job in finance after school? And what can I do in the next year to get such a job?</p>

<p>It seems like the kids who go to Bain, Lehman Brothers, Credit Suisse, etc after school all had 3.8+ gpas, relevant internship experience, and some quantitative academic coursework (even if they weren't econ majors). I'm looking at the firms interviewing at my school early next fall. They are: Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, Fidelity, Lazard, Keefe Bruyette and Woods, and Simon-Kucher. I'd imagine the first three would be too competitive for me given my predicament. What about the latter 3? Could a 3.6 GPA poli sci major w/ no relevant internship experience get jobs there? Would the reputation of my school be enough?</p>

<p>Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.</p>

2

<p>What internship experience do you have?</p>

<p>I will be honest with you not having any relevant internship experience puts you at an extreme disadvantage as most of the firms interviewing in the fall have filled up a portion of their analyst class for the coming year and have spots left for a few individuals, typically people who have had prior investment banking internships.</p>

<p>There are individuals who get investment banking offers without prior investment banking experience. I met a few from my school during my summer analyst program, but I am not sure if they had any relevant finance experience. Nevertheless, it is still rather difficult, since you are competing with students with relevant experience.</p>

<p>Generally speaking, your major means very little in the investment banking industry. There were individuals in my summer analyst class (Lehman Brothers) who majored in English, Sociology, Political Science, Economics and Engineering -- its is a very wide spectrum. Some of them (non-econ majors) had only taken a few economics courses like you. Investment banking firms teach you everything you need to know during training, so they recruit individuals who they think are smart enough to pick up things quickly. </p>

<p>The minimum GPA desired by firms is a 3.5, so no a 3.6 does not put you at a disadvantage.</p>

<p>In reference to your concerns about the selectivity of particular firms, Lazard is not a bulge bracket firm, but it is one of -- if not the premier -- investment banking boutique, and many individuals turn down bulge bracket offers to go to Lazard (same and even better exit opportunities than some BB firms). Having said that, it would be extremely difficult to get an offer from this firm without any prior experience.</p>

<p>In order to provide more help, I think I need to get a gauge for what you have done over the years at the LAC. Activities-wise, work-wise, etc... The name of your school alone will not get you an offer given the competition.</p>

3

<p>What is a bulge bracket offer?</p>

4

<p>Bulge bracket refers to the most profitable investment banks </p>

<p>Currently the firms considered the U.S. BB by most individuals are</p>

<p>Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan, Lehman Brothers, Citigroup and Bear Stearns (These are typically the most profitable in the US)</p>

<p>It is sometimes a subjective term...I dont consider UBS, Barclays and Deutsche to be U.S. bulge bracket, but some may argue differently. The aforementioned three are particularly strong in Europe and are trying to make inroads into the U.S. market.</p>

5

<p>Credit Suisse is a Bulge Bracket</p>

6

<p>Thanks for the replies. Majayiduke, my internship experience for the past 3 summers has been as follows: 2 summers at a school teaching socioeconomically disadvantaged students in a variety of topics. This summer I'm doing IT work but nothing to brag about on a resume. I use HTML editor and Photoshop, but no programming is involved. </p>

<p>As for your other question, what I've done at the LAC work/activity-wise, I've run a magazine, helped lower-income high school students with college counseling services, done research for a political science professor (primarily creating bibliographical databases using EndNote software), and worked in the campus dining hall. </p>

<p>So in other words, I have no relevant work/internship experience. Now that I'm a senior, what can I do to make myself competitive?</p>

<p>Thanks again.</p>

7

<p>I know UBS, which is I guess not bulge bracket since its investment bank is not that big, has a training program for new people regardless what they studied in college. I think it takes a year or two. But if your set to go into iBanking thats the easiest way, it would seem right now since it would be pretty difficult to go to one of the large iBanks in the states. You could also may like WM & BB because UBS is the largest Asset manager in the world + UBS makes more mulah than all the other US iBanks. If you havnt done much in finance are you sure that is what you want to do. Because I am an intern at UBS and its a lot of work.</p>

8

<p>To OP,</p>

<p>You might have an easier time getting a full-time offer from a consulting firm than a investment banking firm. I have been told that to some degree in consulting an FT offer is easier to get than a summer internship offer -- I am not sure how accurate that is.</p>

<p>For Consulting: At this point, with FT recruitment in the fall, I am not sure how much you can do besides network (extremely important this may very well be your ticket) and carefully craft your resume so that it emphasizes the skills/qualities desired by consulting firms. Your work teaching socio-economically disadvantaged students could be particularly interesting, if you can show it exemplifies your problem-solving skills and ability to work in teams. Yadadya</p>

9

<p>Consulting (especially at top firms like Bain, McKinsey, BCG, etc) is actually extremely competitive and a 3.6 BARELY makes cutoff for first round interviews at my school for their summer programs (Bain's cut off for interviews was a 3.5, McKinsey's was apparently around a 3.8). But, it's really attractive to kids of your backgrounds (hell, I know English majors and Poli Sci majors working at Bain and BCG later in the fall). </p>

<p>The thing that's "easier" about getting a FT offer this fall through consulting is that these firms have offices throughout the country, so you can be working in a city that's your last choice, but there seems to possibly be "more" slots. </p>

<p>I think the hardest to get would be a hedge fund since there's not really analyst classes, and the more powerful hedge funds seem to exclusively recruit those econ BS degree / math major types, everything else is a toss up.</p>

<p>Tip for consulting -- work on case study interviews. The companies have practice case studies on their sites under recruitment sections.</p>

10

<p>i got a FT offer from a top boutique IB w/o an ibanking internship. the number one thing you have to do in order to get into IB is NETWORK. know people, show that you know your stuff, and you have a much easier chance.</p>

11

<p>how do you get an internship in consulting? What would a case study interview consist of?</p>

<p>I'm a junior social science major with some research experience and a 3.7. Firms recruit really heavily here, but I feel disadvantaged because of the sheer amount of impressive buisness school kids here.</p>

12

<p>hey guys...im a finance major and have a solid 3.8....in the top 15b schools...and trust me internships in investment banking are incredibly difficult...people without financial backgrounds make it through the resume screening process but are less successful in the interview due to lack of financial knowledge....your best bet to get into a bb is to network...talk to people and push as much as u can....i had my father hook me up with the heads of ibanking departments at several bb bracket firms and president and ceos of private equity firms and thats how i went to abt trying to secure an internship</p>

13

<p>-Lazard may be more difficult to get than the first three.</p>

<p>-GPA is, of course, a relative measure. If you are at Swat (seen as the most difficult LAC), then a lower GPA shouldn't hurt you that much.</p>

14

<p>^^^CesareBorgia is right...Lazard is considered on par with Goldman in terms of selectivity</p>

15

<p>Terribly sorry to bring a dead post back from the dead but I had a question of my own. How would you even begin networking for things like specific types of jobs such as what the topic creator was talking about? </p>

<p>I myself am a Poli Sci major that would love to get into consulting. I have also only taken a few econ classes and a few other quantitative classes such as accounting. However, I just don't have the same experience that other candidates will have. </p>

<p>My internship experience consists of working with a non-profit that specializes in helping start up small businesses and aiding refugees. My time there was spent mostly preparing an annual fair, setting up process manuals for refugee intakes, and auditing and accounting the company for the fiscal year. My other experience is case managing at a personal injury law firm talking to adjusters.</p>