Bank on Banking

Since I am not a business major, what would be the best way for me to apply to positions that ask for business majors as a prerequisite? Could career fairs and networking events help?

That will be a bit trickier – applying through networking events, alumni, recruiting events, career center, etc, will definitely help you to skirt this issue. However, in the event that you happen to find something online, if you’re school is a target school, you should be fine whether or not it asks for a business major, but if you’re school is not a target school, you will have a more difficult time. In those cases, I would say that you should pick and choose the opportunities you apply to – don’t send your resume to everything, but rather target those groups that sound like they are a good fit for you and then sell yourself through club involvement, your interest in the field, relevant skill sets and any finance/accounting coursework you’ve taken.

This past summer I interviewed for an IT position with a major BB. After my interviews this past January I sent many of my interviewers thank you notes as well as the people who recruited me so I have all their email addresses. I am interested in Investment Banking and would like to land an interview/internship in that field next summer. How would I go about leveraging these contacts I have and professionally asking for their help?

This is actually a bit of a difficult predicament. Normally, I would tell you to reach back out, remind them where you met, and then ask them if it would be alright to ask them a few questions ahead of the recruiting season – just some general help. From there, if they are receptive, you can ask them some questions on recruiting, etc and then hope that they offer to drop your resume, or ask if they would (after some questions, a few emails, and asking the always-helpful question: “what would be the best way to get my resume into the hands of the recruiters – I know the online system isn’t always the best” or something like that to hopefully lead them to offering some assistance).

While this is a great way to utilize and connect with contacts, your situation is different since you aren’t talking to traders or bankers, but rather, IT guys. While these contacts will be able to help you on the IT path, they won’t be able to offer nearly as much help on the IB/S&T path. Therefore, if you want to try to utilize them, I say go for it, BUT, don’t email them asking for IB help. Instead, email them asking for IT help and if they are receptive to this, then start slowly seeking info on other paths as well. After you’ve gotten a bit of help on the IT front (not lengthy, just an email or 2), then you can take the next step and mention your interest in, perhaps, S&T, and ask them if they have any knowledge of that. It is definitely a bit more of a stretch, but it is possible and worth a shot as long as you don’t come off as just wanting to target IB and the hell with IT – no one wants to feel used.

I was told my career services alumni database is ONLY for mentoring, NOT for helping with getting interviews, etc – am I screwed?

Saying the alumni network is “for mentoring and advisory purposes only” is a great way to keep idiots from mass emailing everyone to say “I need an interview or a job, can you help me” and essentially spamming their inboxes. You need to know that every good recommendation comes from an advisory/mentoring/help/conversation background – then it can eventually become a “well I could pass your resume on for you,” or “I’ve heard of an opening here, send me your resume and I’ll see what I can do” type of thing. If not, then you’ve still got a good contact and some advice. Essentially, start it as a mentoring and advice exchange and let it mature from there.

Bottom line: be smart, be tactful and be patient when it comes to networking.

Basically, I received an offer from my internship at a MM shop. I signed the offer and accepted, but the members of the group put a lot of pressure on me to sign and made it seem like the offer could be taken away. Unfortunately, I now have accelerated interviews with multiple bulge brackets and would definitely renege to go work for one of them. My question is whether I am actually reneging if pressured? I am also worried because I told my group I signed the offer, and one of the very senior MDs used to be head of a group at one of the bulge brackets I will be interviewing at. I am really unsure of what to do and would appreciate some advice.

First let me state that this is indeed a difficult issue and a delicate situation. Now that I’ve stated the obvious, let’s move into how to actually handle it.

1) Since you signed the offer letter (whether pressured or not, it is irrelevant – no one held a gun to your head), you have accepted the offer and will be reneging on your acceptance if you pursue another opportunity. That said, you won’t have any legal issues with reneging if you decide to pursue that course – legal issues aside, you could still absolutely burn a few bridges.

2) On the burning the bridges note, you definitely don’t want to burn every bridge, nor do you want to completely scorch the hell out of any bridges that you unfortunately burn – essentially you want to do as little damage as possible (and to as few as possible) to your contacts. Now in order to do this, (a) you will have to not say anything until you have locked down another position – in other words, don’t give any heads up in the event you don’t end up getting another offer (or decide you want to stay at the MM), and (b) when you receive an offer and decide to move on, before letting anyone else know, first and foremost you want to go to that MD (who has contacts, etc) and speak to him man to man and explain the situation. It is not a matter of disliking the current MM, but rather trying to build the greatest skill set you can and set yourself up for the future to have as many options as possible by pursuing this opportunity with a strong BB. From there, and ideally the MD isn’t TERRIBLY upset (and often, you will find that handling it in this manner reduces a lot of the damage/ill feelings), you will contact HR and let them know you’ve decided to pursue another opportunity – with HR, less info is more – just tell them you’ve decided to take another opportunity and end sentence. Finally, you can begin to tell the team, just so no one feels left out or in the dark and everyone can take it in before you leave and, ideally, you can still have a bit of a relationship with at least a few of them going forward.

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