I'm going into BB non-ibd SA role this summer and already started contacting alumni from different banks.
I realize that finance is a small world and am worried that the people I'm contacting might go and tell my employers for the summer that "so and so is looking for different job positions even before they started their internship stint with you." The problem is that when I cold-email, I attach my resume and send them out - even to strangers who have no zero connections with me.

It just dawned on me that this might be a problem.
How dinged am I?

Verbal offer accepted. Employment application has been sent. I marked no to the question asking "can we reach out to your current employer before post hire?" Talked to Hr and they said due to the holiday, you will find out the result of the employment application end of next week or early week after next. What's to expected after that? Written offer? drug test? start date is June 26th

thanks guys!

Not sure if anyone posted this yet but I noticed this article today on the front page of Yahoo Finance and I started laughing my ass off once I realized they were quoting a bunch of WSO'ers... here's the article, congrats to everyone who pitched in and trolled the whole world now.

Here's the link: Want a Job on Wall Street? 'Let Me Sleep With Your Girlfriend', followed by the article:

Want This Job? 'Let Me Sleep With Your Girlfriend'
By Cindy Perman | CNBC - 29 minutes ago.. .@cnbc on Twitter..

Wall Street is rude, it's crude and it will eat you alive. So interviewing for a job on Wall Street is no different.

It's not a meet-and-greet tell-me-about this job or that experience. It's more like a punch in the face. They'll ask you hard questions, maybe inappropriate questions - all to see if you're going to be able to run with the big dogs - or if you need to get your behind back on the porch.

"They're looking for how you handle pressure. How you think on your feet. Are you the brightest of the bright? Are you a natural leader?" said Jeanne Branthover, head of global financial services at Boyden Global Executive Search.

[More From CNBC: Wall Street's Secret Weapon - Testosterone]

Wall Street Oasis, a job-search site for financial careers, recently pinged readers for the hardest questions they were ever asked on an interview for Wall Street. The answers included such zingers as:

*"You're going to be working 110 hours a week here. Can you even handle that?"
*Why don't you have any offers yet? What's wrong with you?"
*"What single word would you use to describe yourself so I don't walk out of here and forget you?" (Good answer: Unforgettable!)
*"What line on your resume is the most bull****?"
*"Do you view this as your dream career?" If you answer yes, "If in two years, you receive an offer for more money on the buyside, will you turn it down because this is your dream career?"
*In an interview for a Goldman Sachs (GS) analyst position, the interviewer asked: "If you were shrunk to the size of a pencil and put in a blender, how would you get out?"
*"What's your outlook for cucumber prices over the course of 2012?"
*In an interview where there were two interviewers, the one who was supposed to be the silent No. 2 asked just one question: "Are you trying to f*** us over?" The kid froze, the interviewer wrote in a comment on WallStreetOasis.com. The No. 1 interviewer jumped in: "Why didn't you just say no?!"
*"If I told you that the only way you were going to get this job is if you let me sleep with your girlfriend, would you accept?"

When it comes to analytical questions like "What's your outlook for cucumber prices?" or "How many tennis balls could you fit in this room?," it's not about the answer.

"It doesn't mean you have the right answer - they're trying to see how your thought process works," Branthover said.

[More From CNBC: How to Spot a Liar - The Clues That Give Them Away]

The kiss-of-death answer to any of these questions is "I don't know."

"You answer 'I don't know' and that will get you out the door!" Branthover said.

Some of the other questions she said her clients have been asked include:
*If you could choose, what brand would you like to be and why?
*How many balls would it take to fill Central Park?
*Have you ever cheated on your partner?
*Did you ever tell a secret you promised to keep?
*What is the biggest lie you've told - to whom and why?
*Tell me, how would you go about killing a crocodile?

Questions for Wall Street jobs have always been tougher than those for most jobs, Branthover said, but they've gotten even tougher since the financial crisis.

"They want to know if you can really be a leader in tough times," Branthover said. A lot of these leaders hadn't been tested on that before the financial crisis. They survived and now they want to know - can you?

So, they may ask you questions like "What was one of the toughest decisions you had to make?" or "What was the hardest environment you've ever worked in?" Then, they'll want to know what you did to solve the problem, get through the tough situation - and what you might do differently today.

Plus, with all the layoffs on Wall Street, there are fewer people to do all the work, meaning they really want the best of the best, the brightest of the bright.

[More From CNBC: Porn Stars & Tote Bags - How to Raise Money for a Project]

When it comes to the inappropriate questions like sleeping with your girlfriend and cheating on your partner - the kind that would get the red light flashing in human resources at most companies - it's about seeing if you can handle how brutal Wall Street can be.

"They're trying to divide the men from the boys and the girls from the women," Branthover said. "If you have soft skin, you're not cut out for investment banking."

They're going to poke you with a stick and see how you react.

"They want to see that you're not rattled by rudeness; that you stay on your feet and don't look shocked," Branthover said.

You don't have to answer "Yes, you can sleep with my girlfriend" - you just have to not look shocked and have a quick comeback.

A good answer one person posted on Wall Street Oasis was: I've been with my girlfriend a long time and plan to marry her. If you so much as kiss her neck, I'd [bleeping] knock you out. That being said, I have a beautiful sister I'd be happy to hook you up with ...

And that, my friend, is a lesson in how deals get done on Wall Street!

Mod Note (Andy): Throwback Thursday - this originally went up 7/19/12

Great news. I finally landed a spot in DCM for the leveraged finance team of a very prestigious BB on the street. I literally started from the bottom, working my way up, and have been working at a mid-size to small boutique firm for the past year and a half.

My old firm was super short on staff, so I am already use to working 100+ hour work weeks, working multiple assignments with tight deadlines.

My question is what should I expect job/work wise going from a smaller shop to a top tier BB? What are some of the big differences that I should prepare myself for? I want to prepare as much as possible so I can hit the ground running.

A little back track. I was working at a regional office compared to being on the floor at the HQ. My new job is at the HQ in NYC, which I automatically know will be different.

P.S. I am sorry if this has been discussed before, but I am new to WSO and wanted to post as I am both extremely excited as well as anxious at the same time.

Thanks for all the help.

J.

I joined WSO a little less than two days ago. I want to post my in depth detailed story of how I made it to the BB I am at now. Hopefully this will help inspire a few people or at least show them that you can in fact make it to a great firm coming from basically nothing.

I grew up in a decent household, my father was a high school maths teacher, and my mother was a nurse. Neither one made great money living in southern California, especially with having three other brothers. Needless to say, I lived in a rather small one story house in a decent neighborhood. I worked incredibly hard in high school with all of the extra curricular activities and completing essays to get a full ride scholarship. I was not interested in graduating undergrad with tons of debt, as I knew I wanted to go to grad school, which was going to rack up a mountain of debt for me.

I ended up going to San Jose State University for both mathematics and statistics degrees. I worked my ass off through undergrad, also adding in extra curricular activities, joining a fraternity, as well as a couple of different clubs. I knew that I wanted to attend the great UC Berkeley for graduate school, and I also knew that I needed an awesome resume, grades, and network connections. I ended up getting accepted to UC - Berkeley for their Mathematics Graduate Program.

During my time in undergrad and part of my time at grad school, I did not truly know what I wanted to do upon graduation. During the summers, I interned at various different tech companies mostly doing computer programming and software design type work. My first internship during junior year of undergrad was the worst, two and a half months of nothing but data mining. Fun stuff right? I realized after my senior year of undergrad starting my second internship that upon graduating from UCB, I was definitely NOT going to go into any type of software programming.

It wasn't until near year two of grad school, when I found my passion for finance. My interest in maths had always been in game theory as well as optimization problems, which I had taken many courses given my applied maths background. I then took a course on financial econometrics, which I loved. The professor was a really cool person, and was able to talk with him a good bit. He use to work on the street doing risk analysis, before coming back to his alma mater to teach. I took several more classes with him over the next year and a half including financial mathematics and risk analysis courses.

Upon graduating I got my first job at mid to smaller size firm (~500 -1000 people) at one of their offices in San Francisco. This was not their main HQ offices, so it was a pretty small shop, only around 20-25 people. The position was as a generalist IB analyst. I was part of a two year program there. I knew that I wanted to move to a BB within a year or two so I set goals/objectives and ways to go about achieving them. I stayed in contact with different friends I had made over the years who had gone into banking. Since I worked for a smaller firm, we generally put on as co-managers on the bottom end, but I did not care about that. This in a sense actually helped me. I was able to reach out, and ended up becoming great friends with people from larger and BB firms on the street. Almost two years into my firm, a friend of mine who I met on my first transaction was promoted internally as a VP for the Lev Fin team he worked on. Within a couple of weeks he reached out and said that they needed to fill an analyst position for their group, and he would love to try and bring me on board.

I polished up my old CV and sent it over to him, which he turned into his manager. I had two calls with various people of the team, and then flew out to NYC to meet with everyone. This process took around a month and a half simply since I had a lot going on as well as everyone in their group. It was the perfect fit as I knew I wanted to go into the DCM side for Lev Fin. I love working on complex problems coming from a quant background, and this was the perfect fit for my skills. Everyone on the team was really supportive and friendly, and I fit within the group dynamic perfectly, so everything worked out in the end.

I met a lot of great people from all different firms, both large an small, working on co-managed deals and stayed in touch with a good bit of them for references/contacts. A couple of them, I became really good friends with who I would Bloomberg IB through out the day. Always be respectful and friendly to the people you work with both inside and outside of your firm, as this can help you in the long run if trying to make a lateral or forward move.

Anyways that is my story. A kid who grew up in a small town in a lower middle class family, who fought my way up until I reached the point that I want to be at.

P.S. I promise to get back to everyone who messaged me within the next few days. I am new to WSO and must wait the couple of days in order to reply back.

TL;DR: Shoot out any questions you may have regarding any topics over here - the job, MF PE interviews, consulting interviews, ibd interviews, unstructured recruiting, start-up dramas, networking, nerd culture, anything. I've got a couple of weeks off, and usually hang around the forums frequently, so I'll try to answer your questions to the maximum possible extent I am knowledgeable/ am allowed to. And apologies for the long post, and the noticeable incoherence in my writing style : it's a bad habit that has only grown over the years.

So folks, I've been wanting to do this for some time now, but really haven't had the opportunity to sit down and answer questions for the community. IMO, as I've mentioned before, this community has given me more than a boatload of knowledge for getting me where I am, so I really want to give back to this awesome forum. But thanks to popular demand - and a surgery I'll be having tomorrow - I'll be free for the most part of the next two weeks (using up my annual leave). Although there's a shit ton of online gaming to do, one can only play so much.

I've been referring to this site since I joined here, so I've a lot of appreciation to hand out. Maybe later, I'll make a bookmarked list of all the useful topics on this site, for a guy in my position. Made quite a few enemies it seems, but mainly a bunch of cool folks. Special shoutout to @aspiringchimp here - we argued acerbically sometime back, but now I think he's a pretty cool guy. Especially considering his useful advice for consulting wannabes (he has one of the highest SB/MS ratios too from what I've seen).

As most of you know, I'm not the real Frank Quattrone, but just a broke-ass low-level analyst. Just so that's cleared up.

For my background (chronologically):

- spent most of my childhood in the Middle East, learnt a bunch of languages including Arabic, Farsi (thanks to my crazy Iranian ex) and broken Hindi - hence the semi-liberal views most people see from me

- started working on some cool drone shit during high school (to be more specific, b/n freshman and soph) with 2 other friends. Got serendipitously partnered with an aerospace firm, which in turn partnered with a behemoth, and hired a cool bunch of guys. Dealt head-on with rejections from potential VCs (including a top VC from a top firm who poked fun at us for a valid reason).

- then girlfriend passed away unexpectedly, between junior year and senior year of HS. Heartbroken, overworked, under immense pressure and misery. Nothing more. Also, got accepted to some of my desired schools in the US, but didn't get schols to cover up the tuition. My dad isn't rich, and getting a loan is hard when your family has to pay up a home loan too, so that went out the window too. But s/o to UCB and Georgetown for offering me partial funding.

- Attended a top-tier school in my country with an engineering major a year back (5 yrs). Effectively disregarded my major and shot for opportunities in finance. Took up projects with professors from top universities during the school year, and covered the rest with internships and experience, hence a shit GPA. Had a crush too in uni - that didn't help much.

- interned at a major bank in developed Asian economy in AM, where I dipped my toes into finance; loved the kind of work, hated the culture of the firm (I think we know which one), but love the country. Amazing place. Got this intern by networking with a friend of a son-in-law of my dad's boss. Yeah, kinda went full retard networking.

- went full retard sometime afterwards, and began working on a couple of cool engineering projects in Machine Learning, since I thought my mediocre GPA would not help for consulting or finance, so thought about the MS option. Couldn't handle working on my company, studying and these projects, not to mention ECs and student orgs, so GPA went down further. As a note for guys who want to try this, I was practically sleeping 4-6 hours thanks to a phone perpetually buzzing about. It didn't help that part of my company's team was many timezones away.

- went desperately retarded and began emailing a bunch of star bankers for career and generic advice, after guessing email addresses (mailtester yo!). Only one replied. Kept in touch for a long time.

- next year's intern, due to crap uni rules, I had to stick to an engineering intern. Interned at a conglomerate, where I realized that engineering was not what I wanted to do, thanks to the dozens of dull individuals who like to call themselves "engineers" (though they were more like technicians). Oh, and rejected from a possible McKinsey internship also (though I didn't know what I was doing).

- Meanwhile, decided to chuck the VC route and opt for a huge investor and his son, a referral we got via a well-positioned amazing board member we had. Formally established ourselves as a company only around three years back though.

- the finance project I was working with an amazing professor from a top West Coast school (I should give a donation to those liberal fuckers) ended up as part of a white paper for a BB the prof consulted with. Prof offered to recommend me, even though I was miles away. Did not get the offer (it was in S&T).

- About to graduate without a good job, but I had the startup option to fall back to. But as time passed, I realized that working with defence behemoths sucks considering the number of demands they had for us. So I was thinking about getting out of the aerospace startup. Buddies weren't. Company had achieved steady state (to some extent), so I was able to focus on other things.

- the engineering project I worked on goes really well, I got a pretty solid publication out of it

- Decided to extend my school year, and to have a couple of networking chats to obtain an INTERN (yes, I wasn't looking for a job now). The story that stands out most is here (from some previous comments):

I once connected with an MD at a megafund simply because I waited outside his office everytime he got off work. Ended up giving me an off-cycle internship (it was unpaid, at one of the smaller offices, and in what this forum might consider a BO role).

I waited outside the office building for maybe a week and a half, with a bunch of models I had built in my hand. Guy was chill enough to give me a chance to have a coffee chat. Literally put his saucer and tea cup on my resume, and asked me to explain my models and my assumptions. Ended up offering me an unpaid intern, since SA recruiting was long past, and that office traditionally didn't hire interns.

The decision to approach him was pretty stochastic though - I just scoured linkedin and the company team profiles, scoured them for anything I could talk about, then coldcalled and got rejected. Then decided to wait outside, since I had nothing better to do anyways. After all, as a student, one has nothing to lose.

That being said, I think this would only work if you worked in a smaller office in a city that had a similar finance culture to NYC or LDN, but without the usual high number of firms. That was what I banked upon when I contacted this guy,

Great story, extremely retarded now that I think about it, but not as retarded as emailing Ken Moelis and Frank Quattrone. Definitely not recommended, unless you have nothing to lose. Note, I was working in a combination of a "BO role" (not necessarily) and an AM role - kind of like that extra hand in the office. Learnt as much as I could, even though I was told head on that the intern was inconvertible.

- Towards the end of the intern, had an accident. Kneecap damaged permanently to some extent, and put on a morphine drip

- MDs seemed to have liked me. 3 MDs referred me for an interview at the MF. Story's somewhere out there, but basically I screwed up midway, but it didn't really matter since I could bounce back. Also, it seemed I wasn't competing with others, but a minimum (really high) threshold they had put up for me. This was for a specific, lean team at the fund with a great title for the business card, and quite close to a PE team. GOT THE OFFER!!! London beckons for the summer.

- Last (extended) semester, just focused on completing the little backlog that was left, and began networking extensively for advice from anywhere I could get. Offered an interview at McKinsey via referral. NAILED!!! Thanks to months of previous failed prep (for non-existent interviews). Though this was in an Asian office, so much easier. And rejected it (since the MF offered up first), though I doubt they really cared tbh. Still in touch with those folks though. Couple of other interviews, including at an IB, which I quit midway. Remember, all this with a shit GPA.

- Also got slightly addicted to the morphine (drip) so had to attend therapy sessions, which were just a slight bother. Not called by BCG or Bain, even after letting them know I made final round - seems McK values entrepreneurial experience more. Finally graduated around this time. And diagnosed with a chronic condition, for which I'm regularly undergoing treatment (like right now).

- In the gap time between school and job during spring, I helped my dad manage his restaurant. I guess I did a number of auxiliary tasks that helped, because business boomed by 200% over 3 months, from unprofitability. Maybe I should have been a consultant. Basically anything to pass the time.

- Decided to sell the startup and bagged a few dollars in the process - behemoth was getting too bossy over us. Spent the rest of the time till start date partying with my rich buddy and hanging out with a lot of models and fashion designers. Basically the artsy liberal types who make us all cringe.

- All my contacts (including partners and MDs and startup CEOs) began telling me that I was retarded to continue working in finance (or consulting) after that. I decided to join my MF job only because my dad told me to work in a real job for some time and learn what it's like to work in a formal setting. Also, the credibility helps to some extent.

- Planning on doing another startup maybe in a few years. Definitely not making MF PE a career for me. Decided against B-school too, since I'm likely going to be rejected by HSW (yes, I'm kind of a prestige whore to some extent).

- Landed in the hospital recently, thanks to my never ending troubles with my condition. Not to worry, it's a regular thing.

So there you go, my life's story. Bottomline: networking works, GPA sucks but you have to maintain it, else life gets really hard, have as diverse an experience in college as possible since you'll never get such a chance ever again. And don't go full retard and desperado like I did.

TL;DR: Shoot out any questions you may have regarding any topics over here - the job, MF PE interviews, consulting interviews, ibd interviews, unstructured recruiting, start-up dramas, networking, nerd culture, anything. I've got a couple of weeks off, and usually hang around the forums frequently, so I'll try to answer your questions to the maximum possible extent I am knowledgeable/ am allowed to. And apologies for the long post, and the noticeable incoherence in my writing style : it's a bad habit that has only grown over the years.

And apologies to many guys for trolling around for a long time here and for my acerbic behaviour at times. Sometimes the job does get to you, in a nasty way.

Note:- I can speak for mainly recruiting in non-US countries, since recruiting in the US is IMO completely retarded. Also I can provide only what may seem like reused advice for the structured PE process, since my process was highly unstructured. That being said, I would also like to point out how much networking actually helps in PE recruiting.

Thank you to everyone on WSO for giving me the tools and courage to pursue this huge career change. After 6 months of slowly decaying in a middle office role, I was finally able to land a FO Coverage role at a BB (think Deutsche/BMO/UBS). Here is my story:

My Background:

I came from an extreme non-target with a horrible GPA (~2.5). I was a shithead in HS and most of college and partied almost everyday. During my junior year, I became really interested in challenging myself with a career in IB and other sophisticated financial services. So I busted my ass to land a bunch of internships in various fields of finance, but was still unable to close on any IB Analyst roles. During full-time recruiting, I snagged a backup MO offer at a multi-national IB on the West Coast.

Getting out of Middle Office Hell:

I was somewhat comfortable with it because I was able to negotiate an all in salary of ~80k, and thought I could try to lateral internally. However after the first couple weeks, I knew immediately that it would never happen and that I needed to GTFO of living hell. The combination of mind-numbing work and a clash with the MO culture was not the best place to be in. It definitely took a toll on me, led to depression and unfortunately went back to my old partying ways. Lost my girlfriend of a few years and fell into a deep spiral, but the hope of a better career/life kept me pushing on.

Interview for a Front Office role:

After months of networking and cold-calling, a dozen phone screens and two superdays with no offer, I started to get discouraged. However, I kept at it and kept finely tuning my resume and deal-experience. Then one day as I was looking through online job boards, I fired off a blind application online that turned into a superday. Due to my lack of FO experience, I was heavily grilled on technicals and behavior, but was able to successfully navigate it with ease because of the interview guides from WSO. In the end, I believe my understanding and passion for the business of banking really sold me as a candidate. As I was being walked out by an MD, he basically hinted at a verbal offer. Got the written today.

Success!

I credit my success to never giving up and being relentless. Being in the right place and the right time was crucial, as well as having an immaculate, well-formatted resume. Coming from a BO role with little FO experience, utilizing the WSO interview guide (http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/guide/investment-ba...) was crucial to giving me a basic outline on how to prepare for technicals. I'm happy to answer any questions, give out any advice to anyone else who is in my shoes, whether it be a life-draining BO job or a poor GPA.

Happy fucking new year everyone.

Afternoon,

I am posting my success story for a few reasons. First, to (hopefully) inspire someone in a situation that I was in. And second, to thank members of high finance and this website specifically.

I will try to keep this as brief as possible.

I had aspirations to be on Wall Street at about age 15. Keep in mind, for all the wrong reasons. Then early in college I decided that I wanted to become a financial advisor, as I had a great role model who thought I would be very successful in that field. Then during my junior year in the fall, I began reading wall street oasis. I was reintroduced to the idea of becoming (to quote the book Straight to Hell) "A big dick swinging banker."

Now being very late on the recruiting chain, and under qualified compared to most in high finance, I had limited options. I began networking HARD. Every day over winter vacation was spent on my laptop emailing, cold calling, on linked in, reaching out to alum, friends, friends parents, etc. For about 10 hours a day I sat on my couch, in front of my laptop, trying to connect with anyone who could help me out. Fortunately for me, I had a few alumni who sent me in the right direction, and helped me immensely.

After reading several articles, I realized that many of my hours were wasted. My resume, cover letter, and other methods of reaching out were not up to par. Rather than dwell on my mistakes, I learned from them. I reached back out to previous contacts, and continued pushing. If you take anything away from this post, lesson one is do not dwell on mistakes. Reach back out to people, learn from the mistakes, and continue to grind it out.

During my entire life I really never faced constant rejection. If I was rejected from something, I would usually bounce back and be ok. I received a scholarship to play my sport of choice for college, I had internships at high school in a law firm and a congressman's office, and I had early success in my life. During Sophomore year I received three summer internships for Financial advising, a nonprofit, and a political office, but did not pursue any of them due to family reasons. Applying for high finance internships I was rejected, a lot. In a big way, this rejection was one of the best things that ever happened to me. I firmly believe that rejection can really help people. Rejection is not failing, which is something I have just recently understood. Being rejected means you tried, and though you did not ultimately get what you wanted, you gained feedback, you maybe had a chance to practice, and you are more prepared for the next chance you may receive. Rejection for me really helped me evaluate my position in life, where I was, where I wanted to go, and the most effective and efficient route I could take to get there.

During my networking, one important contact I made via a cold email. He had been an athlete in the past, and agreed to speak with me about his career in IB. He and I spoke a few times, emailed back and fourth, but ultimately his small firm did not hire a summer intern. I offered to work unpaid, and they were still not interested. This was the lowest I had felt during my search. To work for free, and still not be wanted, was not a great feeling. However I understood, as the time it would take them to train me, and my minimal, if any, contributions would not be worth the time it would take to get me there. But what was lesson one? press on. This would become a theme almost in my search, getting close, interviewing, connecting well with people and feeling like I could win the offer, to not be hired. Whether it was them not hiring, or selecting other people, I just wasn't landing offers. Ultimately I was rejected well over 100 times in a four month span. Some random company applications, some final round interviews where I had contacts on the inside, and some in the middle of those two.

This is right about the time (March) where I had exhausted contacts, and almost felt like my search for an internship was futile. I really considered going to the city my girlfriend was going for the summer, working at Starbucks, and meeting everyone in the area that I could who worked in high finance to network. However right as I started to feel down, I connected with an alum who was a consultant. I had never really considered consulting, I always wanted to be a banker, but I gladly scheduled a phone call to learn more about him, and ask for guidance and or help. (Something I have noticed with people in general, not specifically bankers, but people as a whole are they are unwilling to ask for help. Why? to quote Don't Eat Alone"Everyone you meet is a chance to either be helped, or help them" So please ask for help. Don't be afraid to ask for things, everyone in their life has been helped by someone else, and the best thing you can do is either help that person in return, or pay it forward and help someone else when you can.)

During the phone call, I realized that I had never really considered consulting, and furthermore, had no idea what a consultant really did. Another key note here is to KEEP YOUR OPTIONS OPEN. Do not assume that you are meant for something based off of a book that you read, a quiz you took online, etc. Always keep options open, and do not talk down about career fields that you may not know about. I see this all the time on this website about private wealth management or financial advising. Just because it may not take a niche skill, does not make it a bad field to go into. If you want to purse that career, do not let anyone judge you. The only person you have to accept the outcomes of the decisions made in the past, is the person you see in the mirror.

To continue, I had interviews in the alums consulting office, I felt great about the interviews, how I connected with the people I met, and I felt great about the case study, and that I was finally about to land the internship I was desperately seeking. I got rejected after the final round. In a state of shock, I emailed my alum and thanked him for the opportunity, and asked for some feedback. I was told that I did great, and that I was highly considered, but not chosen. (I was given reasons, and these helped me in my next interview) I do not know if this was BS or sincere, but I felt deflated. My alum then told me that he would reach out to some other friends in consulting, and get back to me. But during this process I learned a lot about consulting, a lot about myself, and most importantly how consulting interviews and banking interviews differ, and how to spin previous experiences just a little differently to be more appealing. Expecting to never hear from him again, I started looking over other options. I then received an email from the alum, with a CC to one of his consulting friends. After a few emails and a phone call with a random consultant I was told to speak with, I had an interview. I made it through to the final round, and of course had the flu during my last round. After struggling through it, I ultimately landed a high paying summer internship, in a great city, for a well respected firm that I am very excited about.

Also, to the people who have helped me out along the way, I am extremely thankful. And if I am in any position to help you out in the future, I will. However the main thing I can do is pay it forward, and always attempt to help someone who reaches out to me, not matter how irrelevant they may seem. For example, I have started helping freshman in my fraternity build a plan to pursue high finance, even though I certainly do not have it all figured out, I just want to help them start that initial research on what jobs they might want, and how to put yourself in the best possible position to get them

Thank you again to all members of this community, I love discussions on here and am very fortunate to have found this website. Great members, and I hope this post will inspire a few people who currently feel a little lost, like I was.

Thanks again everyone! Sorry it was so long!

How long it took you? How much you make in a year? Do you spend a lot of it? Or you're saving it for a start-up of your own? Please don't troll (serious).

Facetious, obviously. Hate to be a call out guy but can someone explain this kid to me?

Legit worst person on WSO, in my opinion. Can't tell if he's trolling but if not, good god.

What a joke.

Hello WSO troop, this is my story...

A few months ago, I didn't know what I was going to do with my life. I knew I was going towards Business/Commerce/Finance area. I had an empty mind. I knew nothing. The only idea I had was that I wanted to be some rich guy who makes +$300K a year.

This was Dangerous. I had no IDEA what is the pathway was. I never knew about IB, AM, VC, BB, etc. Just imagine choosing to do something without knowing what to do in it. I was confused what to take as my bachelor's and what to major in. I didn't even know that I had to do internships. Walking blindfolded through a think fog, I aimlessly did a lot of useless things. I even had a wasted year gap that I couldn't capitalize.

Then, with great luck, I stumbled onto this website. I learnt a lot. I looked at various paths, what each person does and doesn't. I learnt about the industries, it's positions and its workings. I soaked the knowledge shared amongst this community. I read various blog posts and even created a second anon account to post and talk.
I have spent over 15 hrs here and I learnt more than any website could provide. The value WSO gives is IMMENSE. Then, I chose what I wanted to do.

I have made up my mind. And now, I want to do whatever it takes to achieve my goals.

I just cannot stress enough where I would be without WSO. If I ignored this website in google search, I can't even imagine where I would be right now.

Now, I am a prospective undergraduate student in a "target - semi target" University studying business and majoring Finance.

Now, I want to take up the blogging internship here so I can give you all my first-hand experience from 1st day of University till the end of it. I will blog in detail 2 or more times every week, record my experience and share it with all of you. I will provide you with as much value I can.

Thank you so much! I just can't thank you enough.

There's this small Hedge Fund I have a phone call at, and I'm not really sure what to do about it. It's about "career path information" but I'm curious as to whether or not I can work my way into a junior year summer internship. I guess my questions are

1) Is it common/possible?

2) Would it be better for me to take a small HF internship over say a MM IB internship? Especially if HFs are the end goal

Guys, So I finally cut it 3 years after graduating from undergrad, and I would like to share my story to you guys as this forum has been staying with me along the way and indeed the break-in cases here keep on pumping gas into me whenever I got rejected.

A bit about my background:

I was an international student studying in a regional business school in New England. Before I went in, I thought it was at least a semi-target school until I learnt the cruel truth that it's considered non-target after going through some of the posts on this forum. I was a total idiot back at school, didn't work hard enough to get a 3.5+ GPA, not networking enough with all the possible alumni connections in the banks, too hurry to graduate (I finished the college within 3 years taking summer and winter sessions), and not having decent internships experience.

Interviews:

Until the last few months of my college life, a relative worked in a BB in Hong Kong doing ECM called up asking me what I was up to after college. Literally I got no idea at the moment and he helped with everything including scratching my CV from ground up and made the reference to the bank. And yea, I got several rounds of interviews; however, it didn't turn out to produce an offer as I wasn't technically competent to get the offer. Knowing what I know now, I wish I had invested in the WSO IB Interview Prep Pack...especially the technical portion.

Attempt at consulting:

Then I tried to find a job in the states as I think I might got more finance opportunities open there, but at the same time my Visa status restricted me from being hired by smaller shops, as most of them would not want to sponsor a foreign student. Roughly after 9 months unemployed, I decided to go back to my home country, and my mom's connection hooked me up with a job doing consulting in Big 4.

Excited at the beginning, but soon I find it boring and I realized that I might still wanna do finance so I thought moving to Hong Kong would be the shot I gotta take as it's more flourished with the opportunities. Then I quit after a year in consulting joining a one of the big 3 reinsurance brokers (where they also hired me and promised a lot) in Hong Kong.

After a year there, I picked up most of technical knowledge and dealt with both sides of the markets, and I became bored again. Everyone in the company said that I did a great job but very limited exposure and upward mobility were given due to the size of the industry (Reinsurance is very undeveloped in China, as the company's focus is China though based in Hong Kong).

ER Analyst Job:

I started to look again and find an ER analyst job in a local MM brokerage House online. Sent in the CV, got the phone interview asked me to prepare for a case, I met the head of research dept and told him the story straight. I was lucky enough that he was rebuilding the department and wanted to take on some new kids from other industries while beared the basic accounting and finance concepts. After the interview he asked me to write a ER report and sent to him within 2 days, which I spent all the rest of the spare time working on it and telling myself don't miss the shot this time. A week after, I was offered a position.

Conclusion:

I'm currently serving my notice period, and will join the new firm in two weeks. Words can't express how excited I am right now then I finally made it to this industry and I think I will really treasure the opportunity. I just hope my post will keep on inspiring the other fellows that don't give up your hope on breaking in.

At the same time, I want to remind the kids that still in college (I think most of the readers here are still in college) that don't waste your time there fooling around as it's gonna be a lot harder to get in after graduate. It costs me another 3 years after school just to get a job here. And I'm considered lucky.

Please provide me any career advice and feel free to ask questions

Best,
skw910824

While taking the time to clean and organize my desk after a hectic 4-6 weeks engaged in a deal, I came across my old WSO IB interview materials I used in the past. Seeing these old packets of paper made me realize how grateful I should be instead of being annoyed about how I put in hours of work on a deal that ultimately fell through the cracks. Fueled by my reminiscing, I wanted to take this time to share my story and open the floor for any Q&A.

I am currently a PE analyst at a fairly well-known industry-specific buyout shop and here is my story...

My Story:

I attended a fairly well known private high school where most of the students ended up in ivy universities. However, due to my own undoing, I ended up at a non-target university in a remote part of the country. There I set myself up to go to med school. But like most students who start off with the dream of being a doctor, I realized that it wasn't my cup of tea. I eventually switched gears and decided to go with a liberal arts degree. Fortunately, the new major I ended up with had a significant quant focus, which helped tremendously in getting me to where I am now. But more importantly, my first full-time summer job was what really change my life.

First full time job:

My first full time job during the summer was nowhere near as glamorous as one might expect from an Ivy League student. My first job was in the pits of a restaurant. I dealt with the grimiest and nastiest things you could ever imagine at a crappy restaurant. Despite being paid minimum wage for working past midnight and smelling like garbage after work, I learned more about myself than I would elsewhere. I realized how much I loved money. Coming from a lower-income family, I never really had the luxury of having nice things. So when I got my tiny paychecks every two weeks, it was the best feeling ever. I also learned that I never wanted to end up working with my hands doing manual labor ever. I wanted to sit in a nice air conditioned room and work an office job. While I didn't realize this then, these two realizations about my own self would propel me into the situation I am in now.

Consulting Internship:

Returning to school after my time at the restaurant, I made it a priority to find an internship in an office. Luckily, I was able to spin off my quant knowledge from my classes to a consulting internship. This was not your MBB but rather a small start up that assisted clients in developing marketing strategies based on data driven science. While the work there was most similar to what I did in school, I realized that real-life application wasn't all that exciting. I was putting together decks to recommend X, Y and Z but the client would never execute it without having a financial or strategic reason to do so. This is where I discovered the career path of finance. Most decisions are never made without a financial reason. So I set off to try and break into some finance role in the hopes to drive the decision making processes at a firm. This was fairly daunting since I was not in the business school at my university and not one of my relatives could provide insight (the closest to finance would be an uncle who is a public accountant).

F500 Internship:

Heading back to school this time around, I tried to put together a strategy on how to get a finance internship. Whenever I tried to apply through my school's careers page or online job sites, I couldn't even apply since most finance internships required that you have a major in a business-related study. Luckily, I was able to close this gap by saying that I was "going to" get a second major in economics (close enough!). I took a few econ classes to back up my claim of grabbing an econ major and started to apply. While most firms rejected me outright, one F500 company hired me on as an intern in their capital planning group. At that point I was so excited that I finally broke in.

Enter the first day of my finance internship. I rode my way up to the top floor of the building where all the finance people worked. I felt like a king going to the top floor. Doors open and what I saw wasn't that glamorous. The office floor was lit by a dim soft yellow fluorescent light and it was so quiet that you could almost hear the guy at the furthest cubicle chew his gum. Not to mention the tall cube walls. To keep thing short, it was fun at first but soon got boring. I wanted something with a faster pace with more interaction between folks.

Networking to PE:

So I networked my way trying to find the job that fit my wants. Enter private equity. I met a guy who worked as a portfolio company manager who worked for a PE shop. He gave me the quick n dirty 30 minute run down of what PE was. Most of what he said blew over my head but when I went back home, I research the shit out of it to get a general understanding of what it was about. After keeping in touch with this guy, I eventually landed an interview with the PE shop in their investment team group. I got the spot along with someone from an M7 B-school. The experience was great. Got to build models from scratch, read CIMS, see how investment professionals screen investments, put together memos and do their diligence. In the end I didn't get a full time offer. Neither did the B-school kid. I was now a senior without a full time job lined up. I panicked. I had to go back out and find a job.

Delayed graduation / Networking:

But with three solid internships on my resume it became fairly easy to land interviews for back/middle-office finance roles. But I wanted something more exciting. So after I got a full time offer at a firm and job I settle for, I went ahead and delayed my graduation my senior year. This way, my expected graduation date would suggest that I was still a junior. With a robust resume in hand, I started to network with all the bankers I interacted with during my PE internship. I'd say 80% responded but it only took one guy at a BB to go out of his way to pull me in the loop. He got my interviews. Since we've worked on a deal together at that point, he just asked me the generic why iBanking questions and after 2-3 phone calls with VPs and Directors, I made it to my superday late December my senior year. After acing the interviews, I was on my way to the coveted summer analyst gig later that summer. At that point, I called HR at the firm I signed a full time gig with and reneged. I then delayed graduation by a semester to make it official (didn't sign up for any classes so didn't have to pay extra in tuition).

Summer Analyst experience:

The summer analyst opportunity was fantastic. I met a bunch of people who I could relate with. Ambitious young folks who just wanted to do their best to be the best. Many of whom I'd consider good friends were met there. We stayed up late, stayed out late, and held our breath together when the day came for full time offers to be handed out. Having had more experience and direct working experience with the IB team from my previous PE internship, I had it a little easier. The work was a bit easier and I caught on quicker but that's really because I had an extra year of practice. I ultimately got the full time offer and was wined and dined by the associates and VPs to get me to sign ASAP. After negotiating an earlier start date, I was ready to sign.

Back to PE...

The day I was ready to sign the paper, I got a call from the PE firm I interned for. They essentially wanted me back as a full time analyst. They knew I had an offer with the BB (they supported me and even pulled a few strings). What was a straight forward answer of "do I want to do IB full time" became more complicated... "IB or PE?" I ultimately chose PE for a variety of reasons - 1) more intellectually challenging, 2) better pay, 3) better work-life balance and 4) personal reasons. So here I am as an analyst at a private equity firm looking back at what got me to where I am now. While I worked hard, thoughtfully planned things out and hustled, many have helped me get to where I am now. So that being said, I am open to answering any questions you fellow monkeys have for me. I'll try to respond as best as I can.

Cheers~

So I have been around here for about a year and half now, and have to say thank you to the community. Really learned a lot and got my foot in door based on the advice on these forums.

The Non-Target School

Now for my story, I attended a large (20,000+ students) non-target school. We were in proximity to a banking center but for the most part had no recruiting for any positions related to IBD. To be truthful, I didn't even know what IBD was until about 2 years ago. Met a kid in a bar, told me about the career path and sounded like something I would like.

Rough Start

Nonetheless, I messed up horribly throughout college due to my mother passing away the summer before my Freshman year. This led to non-stop drinking throughout my career. First day I came to campus, decided I wanted to pledge and that was the best/worst decision I made. Love the people the friends and the camaraderie, but it did heavily influence my substance abuse. I finished up my freshman year and worked at a small accounting firm in the college town, just taking summer classes and bullshitting around.

...That Just Got Worse

During this time I dated a girl lets call her L, who severely hemorrhaged my ability to make logical decisions. She would often use my emotional attachment to her, which came from my lack of family support, to her advantage. This culminated in us getting messed up every night. Ended up breaking up with her because I found out she cheated on me which left me devastated but not done.

Started my sophomore year, and at this point my father was in the process of getting remarried, whilst my sister was busy getting a masters degree at an ivy-league institution. I had been left a large sum of money which I used to pay for school/support a drinking and drug habit. This began to dwindle quickly as I overspent without any regard to how difficult it is to actually earn money.

Therefore based on my social circle, I decided to sell various exotic substances we will call them to support my habit and get me through school. I will let you be creative enough to think of which ones. While I did make a a lot of money doing so, I also used and abused. Began dating a new girl during this time that enjoyed similar habits as I did at the time. This really led to us just attending a bunch of music festivals and having sex as a reason to miss class. I was lucky that school was fairly easy still and my grades never really slipped.

I was on scholarship as well so I never wanted to lose it. This made me always keep my grades in check think I never got below a 3.5 for the most part.

The Bottom

Nevertheless, the lifestyle was unhealthy and it began to unravel towards the end of my sophomore year. I ended up failing my first class and had to retake it during the summer. I did so, but did the stupidest thing I ever could have and decided to try and cheat instead of study. I ended up getting caught and this led to me being dismissed from school for 1 year. I was lost distraught I did not know what to do. I thought my life was over, thinking as a 20 year old that I will never be successful. I ended up losing the girlfriend who I adored, friends abandoned me and well all of my life went to shit per se.

3 Random Jobs & Getting Back Up

During this year is when everything changed in my life. I picked up 3 random jobs from bar tending, to hosting, and even picked and packed boxes at warehouse. All of the most meaningless and repetitive tasks known to man. It did indeed build a respect now for the average working American. It really in essence got my ego in check which was my biggest dilemma.

I quit selling/drinking so much and finally got the help I needed during this time as well. My family began to give me the support I needed which quickly healed a lot of old wounds. Also, remember how I had mentioned earlier I met a friend who was very interested in IBD? He was one of the few people to stick by me as he "saw potential" in me. Funny enough he was right in the end. I worked my ass off this entire year and saved up enough to put myself back into school.

People Came Back

Many people began to return to my life during this time as well who had abandoned me earlier. Began to realize the whole actions speak louder than words mantra really does hold true. I spent the summer which puts me at the beginning of my junior year academic wise but I should be a senior at this point. I buckled down when I returned to school and never got anything less than a 4.0 the rest of the way. I had no idea how to get into IBD and began reading these very forums to figure out what the hell I needed to do.

Networking and Tools to Make It

I started networking very late and didn't get an analyst role in the summer, but did find a BO/MO role at a BB bank. I loved every minute of that internship, and was hooked on working in banking.

As a competitive person though, I wanted to premier role and that led me to really spend the last year making sure I networked in. During the summer at my BB internship, we had the xxxx.xxx@xxxx.com email handle. Got a lot of response to this handle as compared with an @gmail.com. Probably was not supposed to do this, but as an intern they didn't look after us very much.

I used this along with Linkedin to seek out any alumni I could speak with. I ended up getting a pretty high response rate because I emailed them constantly and professionally. There are probably 100-150 alumni i found and spoke with probably 70 of them.

I Sent Over 400 Emails

Being a non-target the people who were involved really enjoyed speaking with students sharing a similar interest. It led me to a PE shop position I was able to take on for my fall semester as well as numerous interviews with MM/BB banks. I think I sent probably 400+email, 200+phone calls, self-financed a trip to Chicago, NYC and Houston. These along with being presentable and having a good story have taken me the farthest.

Then I Bombed My Interviews...At first.

After doing all my networking, I began interviewing and sucked the first 2 or 3 times. I mean I was the worst candidate in the group because I was nervous. Eventually, I found my balls and began to understand the process and what qualities they were interested in. Also, working at a PE shop, I began to really understand the technical aspects that people dread. Honestly, besides one particular boutique/MM shop I never got really ridiculous technical.

The investment banking interview course from WSO was fantastic and the models were easy to follow. After perfecting my story, I still kept ending up short handed. I was pretty discouraged until I had a VP I had spoken with email me asking if I was still looking for a position. Fortunately I was, crazy enough an analyst from a different group at the same bank emailed me asking if I wanted to interview for an analyst role for them as well.

Super Days!

I ended up getting past the gate keepers and did a double super-day at the office going from 1 group to the next. This time, I was prepared and felt awesome about everything I had done. I probably got 3 blocks from the office until that beautiful area code popped up, received my first FT offer for an off-cycle hire as a BB IBD analyst.

After saying thank you, and barely getting back to my hotel, the second group called and extended an offer as well. This is right around the holiday time so you have to imagine I'm ear to ear grinning after all I had done to get there.

It Kept Getting Better...

But it kept getting better, a position I had interview for that I thought I had not gotten also made me an offer the same day. So there I was tired from endless interviews with 3 offers from BB/MM IBD groups. I was finally, in my experience happy as everything I knew I could do was finally going in my favor.

The countless risks I took were paying off. I now start in a couple weeks with a group I had been hoping to join up with from the beginning as a FT analyst. Felt that there are not enough true to the heart stories sometimes, but this is as honest as it comes.

2.5 Years...

I went from being kicked out of school, friendless and down on my luck to 2 and half years later taking a plane home to see my family with 3 IBD offer letters. Although, I am excited/nervous to start my new career, just felt I my story my inspire people who may feel down on their luck as well. I thought at 20 years old my life was over, now I realize it's just beginning. Keep chipping away my fellow monkeys opportunity awaits those who work for it.

If anyone wants any clarifications, feel free to post a response, not going to get very personal but will clarify any tactics I used and tid-bits I picked up if anyone is curious.

Thanks for the support everyone, really appreciate it. Look forward to an opportunity to give back in the future.

Mod Note: Throwback Thursday - This was originally posted 12/2014

I grew up in a pretty well off household. My dad is a VP at a boutique and my mom is a lawyer. But hard work was the key to my success. I attended elite private schools in New York growing up but I faced discrimination while applying to colleges to like HYPWD due because I never had any sob story to compete with. I was never poor. I dont have a bad family. I was never a transgendered refugee. I came from a well of family with lots of connections. So I was forced to go to CUNY Baruch. My eyes were never so sore and itchy in my life. I thought i hit a breaking point, but instead I grinded for that 4.0. you need to hustle, crying is not going to get you no where in life.I networked day in and day out using my father's and mother's connections. I was cold called, attended private dinners, go to basketball games, and play golf whenever I could. I waited outside of Goldman Sachs and Blackstone and try to market myself as the future of mergers and acquisitions. I was spending rent money with my father's amex doing this. I didn't received one call back. I had to work at jimmy jazz as a salesman to improve my marketing skills and make ends meet and pay my for my studio apartment in Upper East side. During my struggle I read many books on investment banking and watching movies like the "American Psycho" and it really inspired to go out there again and try harder for a job. I finally decided to give up and launch my own boutique, I asked my dad for some money and support and try to convince his friends to give me some capital so I can be the next Ray Olaid (sorry im dyslexic) then I got lucky when playing it big on the stock market via insider trading (where in brazil).

Love,
-MikeFromBaruch

Good afternoon monkeys,

There has been a question that has always lingered at the back of my mind while I have been a member on here. For all the talk there is about networking, has anyone successfully networked over WSO? And has that led to legitimate internship/full time opps? Either in IB/PE/HF/VC, etc.

Background:

Rewind back to October 2011. I was a Senior at a fairly prestigious state school, but it was a non-target university. I was graduating with a major in History, and I believed I wanted to go to Law School eventually. My father and mother both went to Law School and it seemed inevitable that I would do the same. However, in October of 2011, I opened an E-Trade account. I did some qualitative analysis on IMAX, and when the stock went up from beating projected earnings, the stock went straight up. I was hooked from that point forward.

I loved the idea of analyzing and investing in companies, but I didn't know shit at that point. If you asked me what a Balance Sheet was, I would've looked at you dumbfounded. I also didn't know even know how to put formulas into Excel at that point either. I knew there was a long and extremely difficult road ahead of me, but I knew being involved with investments is what I wanted to do.

Preparation:

I decided to build my knowledge by starting slow; I thought I would be able to digest the material easier at that point. I recorded all the shows about the market (e.g. Mad Money, Squawk on The Street, Bloomberg Rewind, and Closing Bell). From watching these shows, I got a good understanding of the markets but I still didn't know the fundamentals. I thought the next logical step would be to sign up for the CFA. I didn't even know I wanted to go into Asset Management at that point, but I decided I would be able to learn a lot regardless.

I spent thousands of dollars on the exam fee, Schweser videos, books, and secret sauce. All the sections were completely new to me, and I spent hours upon hours studying the material. In June of 2012, I took the CFA Level 1 exam. It was disastrous. I ended up getting a Band 4 aka I failed miserably.

Failed interviews...

While I was studying from the CFA, I also was able to secure a couple interviews but I failed at all of them too. One particular interview feedback from a large credit asset management firm stuck with me forever, and I still have it. In it he said, "However, what we look for in internship candidates are those that not only show a high motivation and specific interest, but those that also show very high potential to be successful long-term at XXX." Translation: We don't think you're good enough.

So there I was, I was graduating with no relevant experience, failed the CFA exam, and my overall GPA was about 2.9. Did I mention that? Yes, my GPA was really low too. I took it all in stride though; my ambitions wouldn't let me quit.

Running out of options

I knew I needed relevant education to even get a shot at securing a position. After graduating in June of 2012, I signed up for a certificate program for Investments. I was doing well in the program, but it was nowhere near where I wanted to be. I reached out to alumni of that university and my Alma mater alumni as well, but neither yielded any actionable results. I also cold-called hundreds of places, and got one interview. And guess what? I didn't secure that position either.

MSF Program:

I randomly was going through Wall Street Oasis one day, and saw there was a new MSF program that @TNA posted about and he also recommended it. I had just moved to the area too and it was a fairly good university. I thought what the hell, what do I have to lose? I figured if I didn't get in, I'd just take CAIA to see where that takes me. After waiting patiently several months, I got in! To this day, I have no idea how I got in, but I did. I'm going to take this opportunity and run with it.

I felt like I got a new lease on my career ambitions. When I first started the MSF program, a few classmates and I started an investment club. Though it never became official, we brought in investment professionals and presented in front of the finance board as to why we should invest endowment money. The next step was to secure an internship. I applied to a boutique investment bank, and was able to secure the position. However, it was full-time, unpaid and an hour commute each way. It was the best opportunity I had, so I took it. It was exhaustive to go to school full-time at night, work 40-50 hours per week, and drive an hour each way during the week, but I knew I could leverage it to my next gig, and that was most important.

MM PE Internship:

After I finished that internship, a new opportunity arose. It was at a large, well-known middle-market private equity firm. I was in the last few months of the MSF program, and I knew I wanted to be involved in Investment Banking or Private Equity. However, the private equity firm only recruited from a target school but I had access to the career postings because my undergraduate university was in the same university system. I ended up getting to schedule an interview, and crushed it. I got an offer, but it was unfortunately an internship too. It gave me an opportunity to learn more, and expand my network though.

Why you should intern at a PE Firm:

During the winding days of my internship, I called our Principal of Origination to set me up interviews in Investment Banking. IF YOU WANT TO GET INTO INVESTMENT BANKING, I RECOMMEND INTERNING AT A PRIVATE EQUITY FIRM FIRST. PE firms and IB firms go hand in hand, and the sourcing guys know all the Investment Bankers. You will have somebody vouching for who you are when your resume reaches the Bankers inbox. The hit rate is 100x higher than if you were cold calling or cold e-mailing.

MM IBD Offer!:

Low and behold, I was having coffee with one of middle-market bankers, and he loved me so much that he verbally offered me a job on the spot. And that's where I'm at now. I start my Analyst job in January. I guess I am good enough. Also, when you get in front of a banker, be on your shit. I recommend taking a look at Investment Banking Interview Course from WallStreetOasis.

Effort & Dedication:

If you come from a non-target, have a low GPA, and/or have liberal arts background, you can make it too. I had all three riding against me, but I still made it. All it takes effort and dedication to do what you believe you can achieve. Luck only plays a small factor, but when your opportunity comes, be sure to not miss it. I've missed numerous of opportunities, but I was able to finally grab one. People often said my dreams were unobtainable and I would be the last person they'd pick for a career in banking. Guess what? They were wrong. Believe in yourself and everything else will take care of itself.

Update:

I'm in VC now and love every minute of it.

Mod Note (Andy): Throwback Thursday - this originally went up 12/2014

July 19, 2017 (Wednesday)
After several months of trying to find employment and getting rejected by hundreds of firms, I broke into tears of joy after receiving an offer letter to intern at a private equity firm. I immediately called my parents who were at work, and they were extremely thrilled with the good news.

About two hours later, I notified my friends in a large group chat that I got the internship. There were many congratulations, but when it came to my closest two friends, only one of them called me up and started congratulating me and said we should celebrate.

July 20, 2017 (Thursday)
After one day, I noticed some of my friends stopped talking as much to me. The only one that remained the same was the best friend that called me. The other best friend, who would text me all day, started to limit contact drastically. Additionally, I witnessed a lot of passive aggression from my friends, including the terrible best friend mentioned earlier, who were on the same course as me but did not land anything. Of course, I was sad at first, but I'm happy that I went through this event. It really weeded out all of the friends that do not really care about me. Their envy of me getting the job made them dislike me -- who needs these kinds of friends?

Anyone else go through something similar?

"Success is a lonely road"

Hey guys,

Im very interested in the real estate private equity industry, but not sure where I can go to find a list of reputable firms. I am aware of the PERE Top 50 list, but I know there are more solid firms out there. How would I go about finding elite boutiques and even larger investment managers who may not crack the top 50?

Thanks