Starting off in ibanking-getting your foot in?

MeStudyStuff
Wed, 03 Mar 2010 06:50:31 +0000

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:

How do people usually start off in investment banking?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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?

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.

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

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.

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?

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.

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.

Links I think might be helpful:

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 People](http://www.blackstone.com/cps/rde/xchg/bxcom/hs/firm_ourpeople.htm?chunksize=20000&chunk=1&fgroup=&flocation=&;sortorder=)

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.