Bank on Banking

I have a 2.8X cumulative GPA. The reason for the poor GPA is that I was interning and decided to take an extra class that I didn’t need, ultimately messing up in that very class. Should I mention this to my interviewer and explain exactly what happened?>

I wouldn’t bring it up unless they specifically ask about your GPA and what happened. Otherwise, you are calling attention to something that doesn’t need any attention brought to it, and appearing as though you are making excuses/seeking validity for your sub par performance in the class. Simple put, the hard truth is that is no one forced you to take the class and you weren’t truly wronged; you just got overloaded and messed up – it happens, but you don’t want to call attention to it since, at the end of the day, banking is a job that regularly “overloads” its junior resources.

Help! I attend a semi-target (but my school is only a semi-target in its business school) and want to break into IB, but I don’t really want to major in finance. If I transfer to a target school that does not have a B school, will I still have to major in math or econ?

First, you could always double major in something business and something humanities at your semi-target. That said, since you might not want to or be able to double major while maintaining a high GPA – understandable – I’ll move on to your question. So, given that your school’s b school is the semi-target, you are definitely much better off in the b school – being that it is a strong business school, if you don’t want to take on a business major, it will be tough to compete with the b school students and you probably won’t get nearly as much recognition, if any, with on-campus recruiting and such (just as with students of NYU vs NYU Stern). Furthermore, you’d really have to prove your interest in IB considering you opted to stay away from the B school.

To your last issue, at another school that does not offer a b school, you would NOT need to major in econ or math. Majoring in econ or math helps, but it is not essential if you attend a school like princeton, harvard or yale. You will, however, still need to prove that you are analytically inclined and be able to defend your interest in IB – especially if you are pursuing a major that is not quantitatively and/or analytically demanding.

I am a math major in a strong semi-target school with a 3.9 GPA. I am a rising junior and want to how I can break into IB as a SA next summer.

You’ve definitely got a good GPA, have a quantitatively demanding major and attend a good school. You’re in pretty good shape on the surface, but I would recommend, first and foremost that you start networking ahead of the resume drops for your upcoming junior year. Having some support from alumni at the IBs will definitely help you to get your foot in the door (on that same note, you will also want to make sure that your resume in looking very good and error free).

Moving past networking, you will want to make sure your interview skills are good and that you are ready to tackle the fit questions FOR SURE. You will wan to know why IB, why that bank, why your school, why your major, how your major has prepared you for banking, leadership, strengths, weaknesses and all of the rest (check this out for more interview help). Additionally, as a math major, you will want to be prepared for brain teaser questions testing your reasoning and analytical problem solving skills – such as the how many bowling balls in the Chrysler building question.

Finally, although you are not a finance/accounting major, you should not think you are exempt from finance/accounting questions. No, you probably won’t be grilled on accretion/dilution or weighted average cost of capital, but you should know the basics – the 3 financial statements, what each tells and what each is composed of would definitely help – at the very least.

What is the order of importance: school brand vs. GPA vs. majors (whether single, double, etc)?

School brand is most important, followed by GPA. Last is your major (and your number of majors – see Here for help with majors). If you attend a target school, then school brand and GPA far outweigh chosen major. If you attend a non-target, choosing to double major in finance and accounting, for example, will definitely make your candidacy more appealing to IB than majoring in English. Therefore, if you attend a non-target, your GPA and major(s) become quite important as a means of separating yourself from the other non-target students and showing that you are interested in the field and that you will be capable of hitting the ground running in terms of technical knowledge (which will at the very least make you more appealing to those small boutique shops that don’t have structured training programs).

Would it be weird to contact people on LinkedIn who share group affiliation but are not alumni?

As long as there is some common ground/point to make contact, it is fine to reach out to the person. That said, alumni and friends of friends are your best bets on LinkedIn and reaching out to someone simply because they are a member of a common group (especially if the group has 250, 500+ people) will lead to far more dead ends than the previous 2 avenues.

That said, it is definitely an avenue that you can pursue, and as long as you don’t repeatedly message the person (in other words, messaging and messaging the person when he/she doesn’t respond), you should be fine.

How plausible is it for a History and Government major from a non-HYP ivy to get offers in IB? I just internally transferred from a business-type major at an ivy to a more liberal arts type program within the university and will probably double major in history and gov’t. Also, how much does a minor/relevant coursework matter?

A minor helps a bit and relevant coursework, especially in a non-finance/accounting major helps as well. That said, you are not being completely clear with your school description. I understand the need to keep your school confidential, but if you are talking about Stanford, then your major would be fine. If, however, you are talking about U Penn, or NYU, for example, you really want to be in the business school (assuming you are talking about a business school and not just an Econ major), as the business school is the target for IB.

If you are in the second category, you are definitely better off majoring in business (or doubling) for 2 reasons: 1) your school could very well be a target for the B school and not necessarily a strong target (or target at all) for the univ as a whole, and 2) if you mention that you previously majored in finance/accounting, the question will come up as to why you dropped the major even though you want to break into IB (and even if you don’t mention the dropped major, you will need a very good answer as to why you chose your major(s), yet want to apply them to IB).

Can you include live deals that you were working on in your resume even if they’re not yet closed?

If you are working on a live transaction you really want to tread softly in terms of detail. It is definitely fine to put down deals that are in process, just don’t state that the deal is closed, instead write something like “pending $XXX million transaction…” for example.

In terms of content – I would write what type of transaction, how much $ and industry – in terms of general industry vs. being a bit more specific in terms of type or niche or actual function/product within the industry, you want to use your best judgment. A very public deal in process should demand a bit more ambiguity than a small deal that hasn’t picked up any press/attention.

Do employers care about minors at all? For example, is there a difference between taking lots of finance classes and earning a minor or between being fluent in Spanish and getting a minor in Spanish?

For Spanish, it depends on the firms you are looking at. If you are interested in working with Spanish speaking firms, countries, or those firms that deal with a predominantly Spanish speaking clientele, then the Spanish fluency will definitely help. If not, then it really won’t matter.

Regarding the Finance/Accounting/Business minor, relevant coursework is more useful than stating a minor. While relevant coursework isn’t the most important factor by any means, having a few relevant courses can definitely help, especially with smaller shops. That said, a finance/accounting minor won’t hurt you by any means either, and if you have or are planning to take the coursework necessary anyway, then why not minor.

Between the 2 options, unless the very first scenario I described applies to you, I would go for the Finance minor/coursework over the Spanish (besides, if you are fluent in Spanish already, you can absolutely include it in your resume without a minor).