Investment Banking Help

college47
Wed, 04 Jan 2012 02:10:15 +0000

I came across this thread doing a google search and wanted to weigh in. I am one of the people whose profile was posted in a prior thread, a Pomona alumni who went into investment banking upon graduation. Here are a few pieces of information:

The recruiting for IB is common across all claremont colleges. There is no difference in access, ability to get interviews, etc. There is not a priority for CMC or even Pomona for that matter (a Pitzer student has the same access). With that said, there is a slight bias in the actual employer community for CMC grads. However, this bias is easily overcome by a Pomona student with much higher GPA, assuming they are an econ major. All of this is key to securing an interview. Once the interview is secured, school matters less. You need to demonstrate knowledge and passion for IB – part of this is certainly showing awareness of what IB is really about, and CMC would arguably prep you better for this, although you can overcome this easily.

the claremont colleges as a whole have suffered for IB recruiting since the financial crisis. Other schools (as another poster suggestion, such as Amherst/Williams) are almost certainly better bets for IB (ignoring other considerations)

the claremonts are generally stronger as regional IB focus schools — LA banks and, to a lesser extent, SF banks. Even in these regions, I would say that Pomona/Claremont are 3rd or 4th on west coast behind (in order) Stanford, Haas and (maybe) UCLA.

Don’t overly focus on IB. When you get to IB, you’ll realize that all the young IBers want to leave IB for greener pastures of private equity, venture capital and hedge funds. The poster who pointed out that many of the sample Pomona alumni are not currently in IB are missing this point – many of us have moved beyond IB to PE et al. To underscore the ongoing CMC vs Pomona debate, KKR (2 founders are CMC grads and prolific donors) has hired more Pomona guys than CMC guys.
*The most important factors for you to get an IB job, assuming you’re selecting from any top tier school, are your major, GPA, internship/resume and knowledge/passion about IB (including acctg/finance knowhow)

Enjoy!