Let’s quickly go through the basics and then hit what appears to be a nerve for many students. I know that there are many interesting courses in marketing, english and the sciences (biology, physics, etc) and while the skills learned in those courses might very well be applicable to banking, they are not relevant to banking as far as bankers are concerned. When I ask for relevant coursework, I am looking for accounting and finance courses first and foremost. Next on the totem pole, I am searching for math courses (including stats), since those will at least show me that you are quantitatively inclined and economics courses. Finally, I am looking for an occasional management course – something displaying some form of decision making, strategy or leadership as a means of potentially expressing your ability to see the big picture, analyze situations, etc. Outside of these types of courses, there is very little extra that I am terribly interested in seeing.

Moving past that, we get into the slightly more painful aspect of this section – the other side of what not to include. While, for example, many students like to include micro and macro economics courses on their resumes, you should not. Intro courses, excluding, perhaps an intro accounting or finance course (if you are not a finance or account major) should not be included on your resume. Showcase more advanced relevant coursework to separate yourself, rather than taking up space with courses every econ/business major has to take.

Moving past coursework, there are a few general resume faux pas that I recommend staying away from and/or correcting before considering adding them to your resume:

Mixing dates: Although there is nothing technically wrong with writing “Summer 2008” for one experience, “Jan. 2009 to May 2009” for another and “August 2009 to December 2009” for a third, simply put, it looks sloppy. Keep your dates consistent – if you want to use “Summer 2008,” then cite each experience as “Season Year.” If you want to write out the dates (which is my preference), then simply write them out – “August 2009 to December 2009” for example. At the risk of being a bit nit-picky, date abbreviations is my least favorite simply because months like May, June and July are rarely abbreviated, while December becomes Dec. – again, it’s just a matter of consistency.

GPAs: There are two quick issues that I have encountered with student GPAs (here’s a few more pointers on reporting your GPAs) that should be avoided. First, unless you are from another country where schools do not typically grade on a 4.0 scale, you do NOT need to include the “/4.0” after your GPA – it will be implied.

Second, and more importantly, there are two types of GPAs that are acceptable on a resume – the cumulative GPA (of course) and the major/concentration GPA. Breaking GPAs down to a more granular level than major GPA – whether that means citing specific courses, excluding certain courses (for whatever silly reason) and making up your own GPA – such as major GPA (plus courses X, Y and Z) – should not be done. The more specific you break down your GPA, the more red flags you will raise in terms of why you needed to break down your GPA in this manner and just how bad is your cumulative GPA. In short, if neither your major nor your cumulative GPAs (and you can list one or the other, not necessarily both) are at least above a 3.0, then don’t even bother listing your GPA at all – just leave it off.

Work Experience Positions: While there are certainly a number of position titles in the professional world, you don’t want to make up a title that is completely off the wall or deceiving. When it comes to listing your function/title for your position on your resume, it is usually best to go with the most basic, albeit descriptive title. For example, if you work in investment banking for a M&A boutique as an intern, then simply put “Investment Banking Intern” or “Investment Banking Intern – Mergers and Acquisitions” – you don’t need to call yourself an analyst (even if they refer to you in that manner), nor do you need to break it down further into industries you work on. Your title should briefly cite your position or your position and function; that’s it. Remember, even if your group refers to you as an analyst, you should still include the word intern in your position. Including the word intern will not hurt you and it will definitely clear up any small confusion that could occur.

Stay tuned for future posts on a Day in the Life, interviews with past bankers and much more! Comments go below and emails can be sent Here.

Although along the same line as many of the GPA questions, I encounter a large amount of questions related to, most commonly, these 3 standardized tests: the SAT, GMAT and LSAT. For those of you that don’t know, the GMAT is the test individuals take when preparing for business school, the LSAT for law school and the SAT, of course, is for undergrads (nothing terribly earth-shattering here, I know). Definitions aside, the most common questions regarding these exams involve their impact on bankers, which scores are high enough and not, and when you should list one, the other, both, all 3, etc.

Let me start off with the LSAT and let me be the first to shout that achieving a 170+ on the LSAT is impressive and well-done without question. Now, let me also be the first to tell you that bankers don’t give a damn. Yes a 170+ is great, but the LSAT, for those of you that forgot what you read a few sentences ago, is for law school, not business school and certainly not undergrad (the 2 places where IB recruits). While the score clearly shows that at the very least you are a good test taker, it also shows that you have an interest in law school, or at least are not certain if you want to go to law school (which also probably would lead them to believe that you don’t know if IB is for you). As a general rule of thumb, I would not include the LSAT in your resume, since it will open up way too many questions without any benefit.

Now let’s move on to the GMAT. With the GMAT, there are two sides to the coin or two situations to consider before we even consider schools. The first situation involves a current business school student (or alum). In this case, the GMAT is perfectly acceptable to put on your resume (provided you’ve got a score good enough to include) and I would definitely advise you to do so.

The second situation is a little stickier in that you have not yet attended business school. In this scenario, you might have taken the GMAT as a backup, with the intention of going next year, or with the intention of going in 3 years. In any case, if that GMAT is on your resume, you will often be asked “well are you planning to go to business school soon” during your interview. Remember, if you are applying for jobs after (or during) your initial post-U grad position, many employers will be looking to bring you on for longer than a year or 2 – therefore, you probably don’t want to outright say that you are gunning for business school, even if you are. You will need to develop an answer that puts their fears to rest (even if valid) if you want to have a good shot at landing the position (check this and this out for more help with nailing the interview. That said, if your SAT score is not that great, and/or if your GMAT score is really pretty strong (and you’ve crafted a good answer to the aforementioned question), then you should really consider including your GMAT on your resume in the education section as it will definitely help you to check off that ever-looming standardized test question (SAT or GMAT), especially if you are a few years out of U grad and with a less than top notch SAT score.

Now that you should be able to figure out when to include your GMAT, you need to know whether you should include it. Although you can get into business school with a wide range of scores, and a 650 is a very respectable score, generally speaking, I would recommend that you only include your score if it is a 700 or better (for investment banking – for other fields, I think a 660-670+ would definitely suffice). Don’t get me wrong, I’ve seen strong resumes with a 680 GMAT listed, but as a general rule of thumb, the 700 is that magic check-the-box number, where, if a recruiter sees that, they won’t question it – it’s a really good score, check, and move on. As a side note, if you’ve got a 690 GMAT and a weaker SAT, it might not be a bad idea to include the GMAT score since the 690 is more current and still a very good score.

Next, when listing your GMAT score, don’t break out any additional details outside of your AWA IF, and only if, it is a 5.5 or better (personally I don’t think anything lower than a 6 should be listed, but I’ve seen enough 5.5s to know that it isn’t a terribly big deal). By breaking out details I am referring to your individual verbal and math scores. Listing a 720 is good enough – you do not have to go into your 49 in math, since you will be only calling attention to your verbal score that is a bit weaker – instead, just give me the great combined score and if the interviewer has additional questions, let him/her ask them.

Finally, we come to the ever-popular SAT. Where including the GMAT can result in questions, NOT including the SAT can also bring up questions. For students in business school, outside of U grad for several years, or who have taken the GMAT (outside of U grad, that is) and have a strong GMAT score, not including the SAT is not a big deal – occasionally a recruiter will want to know, but it is so long ago that it isn’t going to be a big deal breaker either way, even if you don’t remember. For undergrads, however, the SAT is often a recruiter’s easiest way to weed out several candidates in one push. While many recruiters won’t care about your SAT, many will and not including will raise a flag of “well how bad did he/she do” even if you did not do badly at all and just forgot to include it. That said, including a score that isn’t great for a recruiter that isn’t really looking might provide him/her an easy way to drop a quick ding. Therefore, knowing whether to include your resume is important.

As a general of thumb, scores less than a combined 2100 (1400 or so for those that took the old exam) do not need to be highlighted/included in your resume. In general, these scores are considered the “start” of the highly competitive scores and at this point and above, it would be silly to not include your score, since it will be seen as a positive or at worst a neutral (rather than no score, which could, on occasion, be seen as an implication of a negative). Scores below this threshold do not need to be included in your resume, although borderline scores (mid 2000s or high 1300s) can be included provided that the weaker aspect is not in your math section. Once you dip into the low 2000s (1300s) and below, you are no longer really helping your candidacy much by including your score and could be hurting it. What I mean by hurting it is not that your score is necessarily bad, but it isn’t great either and by giving it up outside of the interview or when they specifically request it, you are giving away non-beneficial information without providing them with as much beneficial information (interview skills, etc) first. In short, a 2100+ can and should be kept on, and anything lower than the low 2000s can be cut from your resume to keep the focus on your, hopefully, strong GPA.

Stay tuned for my next post on what exactly constitutes relevant coursework and titling your summer analyst and FT banking positions, a fresh product on the way and much more! Comments go below and emails can be sent Here!

It’s Only A Summer, Right?

Starting with the second, better scenario first, if you get stuck in a bad group (whether for the future placement, deal flow, hours/balance, team, etc) as a SA you are definitely not screwed here. The big objective in this case is to do your job, do it well and essentially tough it out with a smile on your face for those 2-3 months. Remember the SA position is exactly that, a position for the summer and as long as you stay in everyone’s good graces, you should have a decent enough experience and be able to leverage that into an opportunity with a better group – whether with your SA employer or a different IB.

As a SA, especially if you want to stay at the firm you are currently at, you will need to work hard and land that FT offer. Landing the offer, however, does not usually mean that you HAVE TO stay with your current group – as with most BBs, landing the offer means that you have a FT offer with the bank, not definitely and specifically within your SA group. Yes, if your group likes you and you wanted to stay in your group, you’d definitely have a great shot at that, but for the sake of this article, we will assume that you prefer another group. In order to make this group switch into not just any group, but your group of choice, you should definitely use your time as a SA to not only build experience, but also to build a network or at least network with a few bankers in your top groups of choice. This will definitely help you to land in the group you prefer come the following summer, when you begin your FT analyst career.

It’s Not A Lifetime, But It Can Certainly Feel Like One

Moving past the SA scenario, the other case involves getting place in your less than ideal group as a FT analyst. While in this case you do not have the ability to work a summer and then move on as part of a structured SA program, you are definitely not screwed and doomed to this particular group or industry for all eternity (yes, the exaggeration is completely necessary). In this case you’ve got a few options as to re-branding yourself in a new group/industry, but before I go into those, we need to quickly discuss how to prepare yourself for those options.

Regardless of the group you are placed in, in order to highlight yourself in a proper fashion when preparing to make your move, you need to be a star in that group while you are there. Essentially, treat the group as if it were your top choice by pushing for the big projects, getting more work on your current projects, offering to help out on other assignments, doing additional research and generally showcasing yourself as a team player and strong analyst. Yes, it is often hard to motivate yourself for something your heart isn’t in, but remember, it’s still valuable experience and will you to build your candidacy when making a push, especially if pushing for another group within the bank (good news travels fast, but bad news, as in you’re lazy and useless, will travel faster). Additionally, make sure to meet your whole team – this again follows the being a good team member path – and you definitely want to meet analysts, associates and senior bankers of other groups – use deal team contacts and your analyst class as a means of networking both for immediate opportunities and opportunities going forward.

Once you’ve shown yourself as a strong analyst, you can definitely begin to think about your next move. One way you can always go about re-branding yourself is by pursuing an MBA. While this path will definitely require the most time in your current position (as you probably won’t get into a strong business school until you’ve completed the 2-3 year analyst program), it will also open many doors for you in terms of on-campus recruiting, alumni network, as well as provide you with a fresh start as an associate. Additionally, since you’ve demonstrated your ability as a strong analyst, you should be able to land some strong letters of recommendation and ideally have at least one or two interesting deals to discuss.

Since business school is obviously not everyone, or at least not for everyone at one specific time, you might want an additional option. Along the same lines, 2-3 years in your bottom group choice might very be a nightmare for you, regardless of how well you perform during that time. With that in mind, we move onto the most popular alternative –the opportunity to make the Group Switch. Essentially, making the group switch within your bank will require all of the above preparation and work, with an emphasis on, of course, networking. Remember, moving to a new group within your bank is always easier than getting into a new bank – so use that to your advantage. Once you’ve established some sort of a reputation within your bank, it will be easier and preferable for the new group to satisfy its hiring needs internally, rather than by looking outside to a completely new person. Also, generally speaking your current team won’t have much hard feelings, especially since you can talk to them about it when you know you have an opportunity to move into the new group rather than just springing this on them last minute – you can give them a heads up and put in the time to make a smooth transition for everyone involved, even if it requires a little extra work for a few weeks (it’s better than burning bridges).

Finally, you can make the push to move to a new bank through utilizing your network. Of course the key here will be in maintaining discretion in your networking efforts. You don’t want to shout from the roof tops that you are leaving bank X until you know you’ve got something definite (and even then, a little tact still goes a long way in terms of maintaining good relationships). This avenue is most appealing for someone who likes their group/industry, but doesn’t particularly care for their team’s deal flow, work/life balance or doesn’t really get along with a member(s) of their team. In this case, you would love to stay in your industry, just move elsewhere, where you find a better fit. The reason why I say this option is best is because 1) you want to stay in your industry/group, just move to another employer and 2) other banks will have a much easier time taking on an analyst from another bank if they want to stay in the same group, rather than start completely fresh. For example, I knew an analyst who wanted to make a move to another bank that had a stronger footprint in the M&A space after his first year. That analyst was highly ranked and working in leveraged finance space currently. When this person interviewed with 2 or 3 other potential employers (with a bit of network help), the other employers were interested in bringing him on, but not as an M&A analyst, but rather as a leveraged finance analyst. While it is definitely possible to make a fresh start, it is easier to move within your bank.

While two years can definitely feel like a lifetime in IB, remember that you are only starting your career. As an analyst, you definitely have avenues to make a fresh start in a different group or industry. However, just because you have opportunities to make a switch, it does not mean that you should spit all over your current opportunity and just expect something new to come along. Be smart, be tactful, work hard, and keep your eyes open – you’ll find a new opportunity or, at the end of the day, you might actually decide to stay in what was once your bottom group choice.

Comments go below and emails can, as always, be sent Here!

First thing is first; since you already landed the offer, the meeting will NOT be like your Superday Gauntlet and you will NOT be expected to rattle off Technical Question Answers like a finance textbook. This meeting, fortunately (I am assuming most of you find this to be a fortunate point), will be entirely about fit – in other words, whether you like the type of people in their team and whether they think you are a good fit for the group. Essentially, you can expect it to be pretty casual (in terms of conversation, not attire – unless you are specifically told NOT to wear a suit, definitely wear a suit), while touching on many of the common points such as background, what interests you about group X, your hobbies, school, clubs, sports and so forth – depending on the person with whom you meet. No, you probably won’t be grilled on failures, strengths, weaknesses, etc, but you will still want to be confident and vocal in your conversation without coming off as cocky – remember, you are not really trying to impress them as much as you are trying to show them that you are likeable and a good fit with the team.

Be prepared to sell yourself as hard working and both interesting (as a person) and interested (in the team), but don’t be a phony – be genuine and true to who you are – it’ll make a much better impression and give both of you the opportunity to know if there is a good match there. Remember, while the group is checking you out, in a sense, to learn whether you are a good fit for the team, you should be evaluating the group to find out if you feel you would fit in and, more importantly, enjoy your time there – remember, it is work, but it is also going to be a BIG part of your life for the next few years (or at least months for a SA – although, of course, this is a much bigger deal to FT than SA since SA can change groups, etc after their internship).

Regarding what types of questions to ask the bankers, I would go with questions pertaining to the person him/herself – such as his/her interests, what brought him/her to the field and group, his/her school, etc. From there, I’d move into the general group dynamic. In other words, ask about the groups common interests – are they social (in other words, do they do anything as a group – whether that be outings, evening drinks, etc), is the group more casual or professional on the floor (in terms of not only attire, but banter, different banker level interaction, etc). While this is definitely a field of interest to you, this is also the field in which you need to exercise the most tact when posing the questions. Specifically, you need to make sure not to ask questions with judgmental tones in your voice essentially leading the banker to believe you feeling one way or another as opposed to simply trying to learn about the team. From there, you can go into analyst responsibilities – will you get modeling exposure, construct pitch books, draft and revise offering materials, etc. Additionally, will you get exposure to senior bankers or is it pretty structured (a vertical structure) meaning analyst goes to associate, and associate goes to senior bankers or even VP and only the VP goes further up the chain. Lastly, you’ll want to touch on the group as a product of the bank. In other words, ask about deal flow, hot products or industries right now (depending on whether you are talking to an industry or product group), whether the group is keeping busy and looking to some live deals (essentially you are showing an interest in becoming a part of the team while in reality you are trying to gauge just what level of experience you can expect).

While there are definitely other questions to ask, this should provide a solid foundation and a more complete picture of the pre-sellday networking process as a whole. If used properly the pre-sellday networking channel can be extremely valuable in terms of landing in your target group. Just as with anything that can give you an advantage, however, it can also give you a disadvantage if used improperly. Remember about all else to put your best foot forward and be genuine in your conversations – this will not only impress the group, but also help you to learn whether you would honestly be happy in that particular group going forward.

Keep an eye out for a new product coming soon, the kickoff article of the Lighter Side…of banking…and Much More! As always, comments go below and emails can be sent Here.

Should I try to meet with bankers in each group before the sellday?

This is a question that I get pretty regularly, and let me provide a clear answer: definitely. Meeting with a banker or 2 in your group(s) of interest is a great way to get on their radar ahead of the sellday, when, essentially, everyone will be fighting to make an impression on their top choices. While you will definitely be meeting many new bankers during your sellday and, honestly, might not even see your contact within group A during the sellday (perhaps he/she is not a presenter), you should still try to meet with at least a banker or two in a group you are really interested in. In short, you’ve got 2 big reasons here even if you do not see your contact at the event: 1) it gives you a great opening topic to break into conversation with all of the bankers in the group and 2) shows the bankers or at least provides a great avenue for the group’s representative bankers to look into your fit and check with someone already on their team. Don’t underestimate the power of networking and for having an “in” within a group even if that person is not a sellday decision maker. Finally, if you have some sort of an alumni connection (or interview connection – they interviewed you during one of your previous rounds, for example), that is even more of a reason to jump on the opportunity and will provide for an even stronger contact (alumni has the common bond and the interviewer can definitely talk to your fit and intellectual aptitudes).

Should I try to meet with more than one senior banker or analyst? Which is preferable: senior bankers or analysts/associates?

Before we focus on who is the best person to meet with, focus on actually finding someone to network with. In other words, don’t overlook analysts because you only want to talk to senior bankers or vice versa – if you are pressed for contacts, take what you can get and utilize as best you can to both cultivate that relationship and leverage it into additional contacts. Again, generally speaking, alumni connections and past interviewers are best since you’ve already got the connection established and those contacts can often speak to your skill set, fit, etc best (or better than other contacts such as acquaintances of acquaintances, LinkedIn contacts, etc). Now, if you have access to senior bankers, especially VPs and Ds as they are often a little more accessible and open to junior bankers than MDs who often have more on their plates, you should absolutely seize that opportunity. If, however, you can’t get a hold of any senior bankers, make your way down to the associate and analyst level as they will still be able to help you more than you might think (if you make a good impression) and, at the end of the day, making a good impression on someone in the group is much better than not knowing anyone. Finally, if you have several senior and junior level contacts within the group of your choice: 1) consider yourself VERY lucky and in with the crowd as long as you play it cool and calm, and 2) when reaching out to your contacts, don’t flood everyone’s email – instead, reach out to your closest contact; a junior and a senior banker is acceptable in this case (but not multiple bankers of the same category) since they will provide you with different insight into the group, the work, the atmosphere, etc.

Should I try to meet with as many people as possible or will this annoy them?

As I started to go into in the previous response, do not try to meet with everyone in a group. Assuming you are trying to branch out and meet new people within the group, you should not try to meet and open contact with EVERYONE – frankly, you won’t gain more information and will become a bit of a nuisance since you will be asking each banker the same questions and getting, usually, similar answer most of those stock questions. Meeting with 1 or 2 people in the group (especially if they are in different categories – 1 senior and 1 junior banker) is a great way to make the connection and possibly meet other people – as one of these bankers might invite you to meet a few others knowing that you’ve got a sellday coming and already have an offer – without imposing on the team or becoming a nuisance.

Should I go through HR and ask for contact info or just contacts I’ve built over the last year or so?

Generally speaking (and generally is an understatement here), I would go with contacts – alumni, past interviewers, friends/acquaintances, and acquaintances of friends LONG before I try to go through HR. I would only use HR as a last resort as you will not find the reception, help and contacts in general nearly as pronounced or even available as when you have a connection established already. Go with your contacts – even if in another group, they might know bankers in a group you like and give you a name – the reception will be far more welcoming and engaging.

Should I call, email, call and email to get the bankers’ attention?

The easy response here is to say that you should go with the email. Email is more convenient for the banker and more understanding and courteous of their schedule. That said, let me take this a step further and give a full answer in that it really depends on the relationship that you have with the banker. If you talk on the phone regularly or occasionally to catch up and don’t find yourself exchanging emails with him/her nearly as often, then you should honestly just give him/her a call. If, however, email is your method of conversation, updates, inquiries, etc, then stick with what works. In either case, what you don’t want to do is start calling and emailing frantically (and it doesn’t take many messages to come off as frantic or at least obnoxious) as if it were a fire drill though – pick a method, go with it, and BE PATIENT. If you email and the banker expresses and interest in having a phone call or meeting in person, that’s great, but don’t email, wait an hour, then call, then wait 2 hours and email again, then 3 hours more and call again, etc – yes I’m exaggerating a bit, but stranger things have happened and similar things happen quite routinely – in short don’t be a pain in backside.

Should I ask them to meet for coffee, out to lunch, or go to their office so they can introduce me to other bankers? Also, should I set everything up or sit back?

This is another situation where it depends. If the banker asks you for your availability and what you prefer then be decisive (although still flexible) and make some suggestions. As a general starting position, I also suggest that you let them set it up. If they want to grab coffee, do that, meet in a conference room, do that, introduce you to their team, do that. Make it easy for them and be flexible – essentially putting the ball in their court makes it easy for them to fit it into their schedule (within reason of course). If you are out of town, be sure to give them some notice as to when you are coming in and let them run with the agenda/plan from there. As an additional note, don’t accept the first date and time they suggest even if it doesn’t work at all for you. If you’ve got your appointment with them in NYC at their office at 1:30pm, and already have an appointment that you cannot break or reschedule (such as a class final in a course you need an “A” in to pass and without passing will not graduate – an extreme example, I know) at 2:00pm 40 blocks away, don’t take that meeting time. In other words, give yourself time to meet and don’t be afraid to pass on one time if it REALLY doesn’t work for you so that you are more comfortable and not pressured to rush everything. The impression you leave will be much better if you are comfortable and relaxed – not stressing about a big final.

Should I outright say that their group is my absolute top choice – even if it isn’t?

Banking across the banks is a small world – banking within a bank is an even smaller one. While an incoming analyst or associate is not a HUGE topic of conversation among bankers, you never know what might come up ahead of, during or after the sellday and you don’t want their lasting impression of you to be a phony and a liar. In short, don’t lie, but at the same time, if you are meeting with someone in a particular group you definitely want to show strong interest and make them feel like they are at the top of your list – hell, no one likes to feel 2nd best, let alone 12th. Remember, the sellday will provide you more than enough opportunity to meet bankers in each group, get a feel for the team and the group as a product/industry – therefore, don’t meet just to meet – only meet bankers in a group ahead of the sellday if you have a real interest in the team.

That about covers it for this post – if there are any other sellday networking question questions or comments, feel free to post them below or send me an email HERE. The sellday is huge and your big chance to make the impression necessary to get into your group of choice – you definitely want to do what you can to enhance your chances and appeal.

Stay tuned for posts, a fresh product and an great NEW aspect of the site, specifically my products – I am really excited about the decision and I hope my readers and supporters will be as well.

The Luck of it

One of the big components of your rank is in what you’ve done for the team – fortunately, or unfortunately (depending on which side of the spectrum you are on), that means the projects you work on and played a role in count. In other words, if you ended up being staffed on a big deal that went live, required a lot of work, a ton of hours, and some concrete thought on your part, the case made for you to earn a higher rank (4 or 5) will be easier to strengthen than the smart analyst who wasn’t staffed on a noteworthy live deal and didn’t end up doing much more than a ton of pitch work over the past several months/year.

Yes, there are certainly analysts who don’t get staffed on the big live deals who earn 4s and 5s, and there are of course analysts who do get on those types of deals who end up getting 2s and low 3s, but apples to apples, it is easier for a strong analyst to shine when he/she lands a few big deals and has the opportunity to “show the goods.” When I 1st started, I knew an analyst (not a 1st year) who was an all-star – ranked a 5, everyone wanted him on their deals, had a great reputation for delivering great low-error, really high quality work in short periods of time, helped other analysts, etc. This analyst was staffed on several deals – unfortunately, after his 1st 2 years, he didn’t have 1 closed deal to show for it – not one closed deal for his personal league table. I bring this up because it is possible to shine without closed deals – making this point, however, does not negate the fact that it is much easier to shine with the big deals under your belt. Great or crappy, nice or nasty, this business is about what you have done for me in general and what have you done for me lately – getting your name out there and on some big deals matters to your reviewers, to headhunters and to your prospective employers (if you’re looking to other avenues after your 1st, 2nd, 3rd year, etc) – but I can spend all day talking about what prospective employers and headhunters want to see (or at least another article).

Back to the point at hand – besides the deal flow you see, the luck of your ranking is also based on exactly that – the luck of the process. When it comes right down to it, there is a bonus pool and for analysts your ranking dictates what slice of the pool you receive. With that in mind, every analyst cannot get a 4 or 5 (and frankly, not every analyst deserves it). Landing a 4 or 5 means that you are (or should mean that you are – politics and such aside) better than average – sometimes much better than average (since many systems have a 3 for average and a 3+ for above average) – and in the case of a 5 definitely much stronger than the average analyst. Since that is the spoken rationale behind the ranking, a benchmark needs to be made and with every cutoff or bucket for placement, there are only so many people that can land in each – especially in flat or down periods. This also ties into why it is harder for those analysts who don’t land the big or at least live deals of any size to receive the best ranking – with only so many 4s and far fewer 5s to be given out, it is easiest for senior bankers to justify high ranks for those analysts that have made the most visible marks on their teams – and those visible marks can readily come from the live and recently closed deals. Remember, by the time the ranking process and bonus talk gets down to the analyst level, the MDs at the top often need to bring in lower senior bankers (Ds and VPs) to help with the decision and inject some real insight into the caliber of the analyst. If the VP can point to specific input, it becomes much easier to support his or her ranking – not to mention the fact that the VP would like to have a reason for picking a ranking himself and not just – well it seems like he’s a hard worker or that he thinks he remembers you working hard on that project 9.5 months ago – again, it’s what you’ve done for me in general and what you’ve done for me lately.

The Work of it

Yes, there’s definitely some luck behind your ranking in some form or another, but just because luck can be a factor or play a role in your ranking, it does not mean that you can or should rely solely on luck to carry you. It also does not mean that you are powerless against the forces of luck or that you cannot absolutely boost your rank without the big deals or a host of live deals. First and foremost, you need to step up and become the Go-To Analyst. You need to create a name for yourself and show that you are smart, capable, detail-oriented, analytically inclined and an overall strong analyst with or without a live deal going on. Tackling your projects with intensity is definitely worth a gold star, and being able to tackle any project – whether for a big deal, or a pitch on a small deal bound to go dead – with a strong level of intensity and commitment will definitely help to highlight you as a talented and above-average-level analyst.

Yes, you need to keep your spirits up and yes you need to keep that strong focus and intensity. All of that, however, either won’t mean much of anything to senior bankers or won’t mean much for very long if you can’t turn projects around quickly and maintain a high level of accuracy (little errors and when errors are made, you correct them quickly). The quick turnaround time is essential in banking, just as in any high-intensity/stressful/demanding job out there. A quick turnaround time is important, but coupling that with an ability to minimize errors and consistently improve upon your work is the “magic formula” when it comes to impressing colleagues and earning better projects and assignments. As a former superior once put it, “I don’t expect everything that you hand to me to be 100% perfect, if for no other reason than we are going to change a lot of it anyway by the second turn. I do, however, expect it to be at least 85% right and immediately corrected.” In other words, mistakes are going to happen, but you want to avoid the repetitive and silly mistakes (spelling, simple formatting, etc) as much as you can and then correct them as quickly as you can when they occur. Additionally, while it is important to minimize errors, it is possible even MORE important to eliminate or minimize repetitive errors – in other words, making the same errors time and time again.

So you’re bringing your “A” game to the table – you’ve got drive and a strong skill set, you make minimal errors (even less repetitive errors) and you are on the ball when it comes to correcting your oversights – what else can you do? Next on the list comes one of the most basic things that an analyst can do, but often fails to do, forget to do, or just doesn’t pay any attention to – knowing the deals, the calendar, and the team’s products. As an analyst it is very easy to become an Excel machine, a PowerPoint zombie, or something just as mechanical. While you are certainly expected to know these programs in your sleep and be ready to reformat a pitch or crunch a model at the drop of a hat, you also need to see the bigger picture. By knowing the team’s calendar, knowing which deals are hot and cool and knowing which products work best on various types of transactions you are showing that you are more than just a typical analyst – you are showing an interest in the team and the profession. You are showing that you are capable of seeing more than just formulas and slides and that you understand the bigger picture, the greater importance in the system. Furthermore, harnessing and using this knowledge will allow you to play a more valuable role in your team – you will be able to anticipate some requests and be able to offer insight during meetings – you will not have to wait to be told do something all of the time – and those tools not only showcase you as a talented analyst, but also allow you to take more initiative. Know what’s going on around you and get out of that analyst assembly-line type of mentality.

Finally, we come to the last, but certainly not least big point – one that belongs in both the luck of it and the work of it – your personality and connecting with your team. I know that I’ve said it before and I hate to run the risk of beating a dead horse, but I need to say it again – personality counts big. Fitting in with your team and being a part of the group is definitely a great way to improve your rank. Yes, rank should be based on work and talent, not how much someone likes you – but let’s be honest and cut the crap – this is banking – yes your work and talent of course count for a lot, but if you think you are going to land a 4 or 5 without being liked by anyone or worse, being a bit of an ass, you are usually quite mistaken. Now I’m not saying that you want to completely follow the herd, but you certainly want to get along with your team and show an interest in what they do (at least when they talk to you about it) – especially senior bankers. It doesn’t require much work to have a conversation of a few minutes and chat about something of interest to another party – so do it. You want to be the analyst who gets along with the majority if not the whole team – you want to be the analyst that people enjoy talking to on walks to get lunch, during dinner, when grabbing a drink occasionally, etc. At the end of the day, banking is a networking business, a social business, and a people business – isolating yourself might be fine in some professions, but banking is definitely not anywhere near the top of that list. In short, be a social butterfly both in terms of networking and carrying yourself (don’t be annoying or tactless) – it might not get you a 5, but it will definitely help you to stay in the good graces of senior bankers and probably land you a deal opportunity or two as well (especially if you work in a smaller group).

Stay tuned for future posts on a host of topics, a BRAND NEW PRODUCT coming soon and MUCH more!

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Boutique IB/Advisory

Before anyone attacks me for listing IB as my top option when I just got finished bracing everyone for being prepared to not get into IB, I am not talking about BB, or even MM IB, I am talking about smaller and no-name investment banking and advisory shops (typically focusing on deals <$500mm, often less than $250mm). While these shops don’t carry the prestige or hallmark of far more reputable and larger shops, it is still investment banking and regardless of deal size, the work will be the same, and skill set you acquire can be very strong. These boutiques often allow their interns and junior analysts to play larger roles on transactions and delve into a lot of modeling and analysis considering the absence of experiences resources and necessity for every member of the team to be involved. As a result of this, you will often find yourself gaining solid resume-building/enhancing experience particularly with regards to modeling and active transaction involvement. Therefore, while your shop might not be impressive by name alone, the experience that you can gain (if you work for it, of course), can definitely help your resume to be impressive.

Additionally, unlike when you strictly focus on the top shops, you are now targeting a far wider array of employers and giving yourself many new avenues to pursue – the trick is in how you pursue them. Although there are many shops of this caliber out there, unlike the BB, top boutiques and MM shops, most of these firms won’t actively post for interns on college boards, or, for that matter, even actively search for interns in general. Therefore, you will need to do your own homework and actively pursue them. In other words, get online and start hunting down these shops. Go through their websites, find contact information, recent deals, conversation points and points of interest about the shop. Additionally, you will have to be ready to showcase your talents and your skill set – essentially sell yourself with each conversation. Don’t expect it to be easy and be prepared to be told “no” many times before finding a bit of interest. With internships especially, you will need to be persistent as interns are often seen as an extravagance, or, worse, as a burden – considering they often need to teach interns everything and just when they start to be useful, they go back to school and pursue a better shop with their new skill set and experience – show them that you won’t be a burden and that you are ready to hit the ground running and interested in contributing to the team, while learning about the business. Finally, be prepared to take a hit in salary as opposed to the prorated BB SA salaries you all probably know about – remember, it’s just a few months, but the payoff can be huge for the next few years – plus, some money and strong experience is better than no money or relevant experience if you end up finding nothing of quality.

Boutique P/E

So, you weren’t able to find a solid internship opportunity anywhere in IB – where to go now. While many people assume that finding something in P/E would be harder than landing anything in IB, that’s not always the case. You need to explore all of your options and I know of at least a few people that found P/E internships, but couldn’t land IB internships. It’s all about finding the opportunities, and since P/E is often the next step after IB, the skill set you will acquire as a P/E intern will definitely be applicable to IB – so don’t simply jump to back office opportunities just yet.

Consulting and Corporate Development

While IB and P/E go hand-in-hand, there are other opportunities that call on the same skill sets, are very competitive, and will definitely help to enhance your resume ahead of FT IB recruiting. Among these opportunities you will find two very solid avenues in consulting and corporate development. Both of these opportunities are seen as front office roles and are quite competitive in nature. Furthermore, the analytical aspects of the position and attention to detail required definitely stand out as interesting and relevant to investment bankers. With either of these positions, the biggest challenge here will be in convincing IB interviewers (next year, when applying for FT positions) that you are indeed interested in IB and not one of the other two fields (whichever field you land the internship in, that is). Essentially, you will be undoubtedly faced with the “why banking and not consulting/corp development” question during your interview and will be expected to have an answer that highlights your interest in banking without: 1) disparaging the previous position or 2) stating that you pretty much had no other options.

Sales and Trading

On a similar level to Consulting and Corporate Development (as it relates to the level of appeal the position has to bankers) is Sales and Trading. By sales and trading I am not referring to dime-a-dozen prop shops in NYC, but rather S&T internships with BBs and the like – often rotational programs and opportunities to work on S&T desks generally running some simple modeling and working on pitch books. Since S&T requires an analytical skill set, interest in the markets, attention to detail and is highly competitive in terms of earning an opportunity, S&T is often the internship chosen among students who do not land IB internships their junior year, and those who ultimately pursue IB FT the following year. Furthermore, although IB and S&T are quite different, many people often see them as quite similar (for a variety of reasons) and pursue S&T as an intern to test the waters, only to decide that IB is indeed the path for them (or at least that S&T is not the path for them).

The BIG issue here will be in convincing interviewers next year, when applying for FT IB, that you are interested in IB only, or at least much more so than S&T. Since S&T and IB go hand-in-hand (at least in terms of eager and aspiring student BB applications), it is essential that you are prepared to answer not only why IB, but also why not S&T – again, without attacking S&T in the process. If you can do this and do it well, S&T can definitely be a solid internship to keep you on the competitive footing for FT IB recruiting. That said, S&T is also very competitive, so don’t assume that you will be able to walk in an S&T interview and land the job much easier than an IB internship position – in short, always bring your “A” game.

Operations/Mid Office

While mid and back office often get the short end of the stuck and take a fair share of abuse, the opportunities can still be very solid and can definitely offer resume-building experience (especially when the alternative is no experience at all – being a waiter or salesperson at a shopping mall doesn’t count as relevant experience). Depending on whether you are working back office at a BB or at an independent corporation (a F500 company, for example), will determine what kind of experience you get. One of my first internships was a back office role with a F500 company and although I spent a lot of my time doing accounting work, checking budgets, etc, I also spent some time on more interesting projects including a few cannibalization studies and promotional event analyses – not earth-shattering by any means, but definitely looked decent on the resume, gave me an opportunity to work in both excel and powerpoint and was more interesting than most of my other work. In short – don’t assume that a BO position will be completely useless and that you will not learn anything or do anything even remotely interesting. There are definitely worse opportunities to take on than an operations/control position for a summer. Any internship is what you make of it, and just as with any other opportunity, work towards taking on as much responsibility and interesting projects as you can and try to meet as many people as possible – especially if working in a BB.

The one caveat, just as with S&T and consulting, is that you will need to prove that you are interested in operations (or at least fake it well). Although back office isn’t as competitive as front office, back office as a whole is known to have a bit of a chip on their shoulder when it comes to very talented young individuals who do have exposure to IB and S&T opportunities. They know that they are often the back-up and don’t like it. So while you might know that IB is for you, you definitely don’t want the interviewers to get that same impression. Learn about the position and sell your interest in it – again, an operations internship is definitely better than nothing.

Stay tuned for future posts on not breaking into IB, what an analyst really does and more! As always, comments go below and questions can be sent Here!

Make the most out of a resume

Without a strong support network and a lot of closer friends on the inside, without a well-designed and well-articulated resume, you will have a very difficult time getting to the second stage of the process, the interviews, where, yes, the importance of the resume will diminish. As a SA candidate you are not expected to have a wealth of internship experience, nor are you expected to have banking experience – if you do, you will clearly stand above the rest and have an initial advantage over the competition (I say initial since, as I mentioned before, the resume diminishes in importance once you begin the interview process – here your experience will still absolutely help, but you’ll need the interview skills as well to keep your edge).

If you happen to have some highly relevant experience, if not actual banking experience, then the job of putting together your resume becomes more a matter of expressing your internship responsibilities well, highlighting select other aspects of your candidacy (such as involvement in a club or two) and making sure there are no obvious/grammatical errors throughout. This is not a problem that most SA candidates face – most SA candidates face the opposite problem – not having the clearly relevant or actual banking internship experience and need to overcome that issue.

As I mentioned before, you don’t need to have clearly relevant experience to get into a SA program – it helps, but you can do it without it as well. With some work experience, your best bet will be to first and foremost sell your school’s brand, your GPA, relevant coursework – essentially some relevant and impressive factors from your educational background. From there, you will want to craft your limited work experience bullet points to be as relevant to banking as you can – working in operations/accounting can sound relevant if you focus on some analysis and even number crunching, even non-profit work or tutoring can sound relevant. If you have little-to-no work experience (and for those with some work experience after they’ve highlighted said work experience) after highlighting your school, GPA, coursework and so forth, you will absolutely need to sell your undergraduate club/organization involvement as both interesting and relevant to recruiters. Holding officer positions in clubs and having a visible impact on the organization can be a selling point as strong as most work experience, especially when it comes to SA recruiting. The key with selling club involvement on your resume is in selling the relevance of your work as it pertains to banking, while demonstrating how you’ve stepped up as a leader, whether of the club, a sub committee or just of the tasks your office is responsible for. Leadership, coupled with a relevant experience base is definitely going to impress recruiters, especially when lacking directly relevant work experience.

Working the interview

Everything is looking up and after all of the networking, resume editing, applying and hoping (if you’ve done any of this), you’ve made it – you’ve received the first round interview invitation. Walking into that first round interview is a welcome sight for many since the interview is now the focal point of the application (not the resume, background, etc – although they all still matter) and fate, in a matter of speaking, is once again in your hands – for a little while. Once you get past the excitement of getting the interview call/email, it’s time to start your preparation. While the SA and FT interviews are similar, especially for those SA candidates that have past internship experience or are finance/accounting majors, there are still some differences that need to be touched on.

Exceptions aside, the SA interview will often rely heavily on fit given the lack of a technical background in the applicant pool – meaning a lack of strong internship experience (that requires a comparable skill set to IB, if not IB) and/or a lack of technical coursework in Finance and Accounting. For many candidates, this internship would be their first “real” finance/technical internship – they may have had club involvement or other unrelated internships, but nothing of this caliber – not the worst internship to lead off with – that’s for sure.

SA candidates need to be prepared for all of the behavioral questions (check out my interview guide for more on the types of the questions and, of course, explanations) from background to goals, from strengths to failures and everything in between. Although the manner in which you respond to these questions will generally be similar to FT applicants, SA candidates need to be especially prepared for them since interviewers are going to rely heavily on these responses when assessing your candidacy.

One fit question in particular that a SA candidate should pay attention to is the goals question – whether phrased in the form of intermediate (3-5 year) goals, next step (post SA goals), or something else entirely. For FT candidates this question is usually not as dangerous since FT analysts need only to express an interest in IB and can then have various longer/intermediate-term goals – whether move to a boutique, buy side, etc. FT associate candidates on the other hand need to show an interest in growing with the firm (or at least they should since the associate position is essentially used to shape the next VPs). SA candidates need to think of the goals question more as associates do than analysts. Specifically, going for a SA position, you should know that next year you plan to accept a FT position with the bank and in the next few years you will be working towards completing the FT analyst program. Remember, the SA program is a grooming and interview tool used by banks to gauge who they want to become a part of their next incoming FT analyst class and if that’s not what you at least say you want, you’ll definitely be in a bit of trouble – no bank wants to hear that you are going to use them for their SA program to land at a better bank – or that you are only accepting this SA position because the better bank you applied to dinged you.

Getting beyond the fit questions, some applicants will be faced with technical questions. Some candidates will be faced with the highest level questions such as “what are the 3 financial statements,” while others will be asked more complex questions on transaction impact on the statements, discounted cash flow, and so on – depending, of course, on your level of aptitude in these fields. Additionally, due to a common gap in technical knowledge, brain teasers can often become a headline of the SA interview (especially for more quant-inclined candidates such as math, stat, econ, etc majors). Brain teasers come in 2 main types – those questions that have a specific answer (degrees between the two hands on a clock at time X) and those questions that do not have a definitive answer (bowling bowls in a large building). In either case, the more important aspect of your response is in how you arrive at your answer, not the answer itself. In other words, candidates need to be comfortable enough to walk the interview through their thought process even if they arrive at the wrong answer – showing an articulate and lucid thought process will carry much more weight than just sitting quietly, or with your head buried in a piece of paper and delivering an answer (whether correct or incorrect). It’s fine to take a few moments and think, or write down some steps, but just remember to keep the interviewer engaged and aware of your thought process and the way in which you are working out your problem – these questions are to test how you think and solve problems (as well as your confidence and ability to communicate) – use these questions to sell your candidacy, not shoot it in the foot.

Forward-Looking Thoughts

Well thank heavens! You earned the interviews, nailed them and managed to land yourself a SA position – congratulations! Instead of being excited, however, you’re wondering if you should hold out for another opportunity and look for something better (such as a better name brand bank or if you are hired into 1 group but wanted another) – maybe push a few other contacts, keep networking, prep for a few more interviews, etc. The answer is: unless you are really close to landing another position and will find out before this deadline passes, absolutely not!

If you have to “settle” for your second or third choice of bank for IB, that’s not a problem at all. Remember, the SA program is nothing more than an opportunity to build experience/your resume for a few months and then earn a FT offer and/or leverage that experience into an offer with a better bank. Utilize your expanded list of contacts for the FT employment search in a few months with a much stronger resume. Additionally, you might find that you really like the bank you interned with over the summer and want to stay – in this case, if you’ve earned the FT return offer, you can relax during your senior year and not go through all of the stress of recruiting, interviewing, planning and praying all over again. Finally, keep in mind that landing a SA position with this bank, does not mean you will have the same fortune with a better bank, or even a lower-ranked bank – this bank liked you, you might not interview as well, a different reviewer might not like your resume as well, etc – you never know – for a 3-month program, take the experience and then worry about your next move – you do not want to end up accepting an offer with a lesser company, let alone in a lesser or even unrelated group because you held out for a better IB SA internship – IB SA is better than Operations SA (and most things in between) when it comes to FT IB recruiting.

On a similar note, if you have to “settle” for a group outside of your main group(s) of interest, that is alright as well. Again, it is only a summer position, and at the end of the program, if you are offered FT employment, you can then discuss other group opportunities. Throughout your SA internship, you will also want to network with as many bankers as you can in your favorite groups – this will certainly give you an upper hand when it comes time to request the move for FT. Connect with the bankers in your favorite groups, find out about FT opportunities, etc – they will be your best allies when it comes to your pitch to make the move. Remember, it is much easier to change groups once you are in, have a capable reputation and have networked with some of the group, than if you are applying blind, with no connections from another bank, school, etc.

Stay tuned for future posts, products and much more! If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, drop them below or send me an email HERE!

Generally speaking, a sell-day is your opportunity to impress the other teams and, ideally, join the team of your choosing. Up to this point you have been fighting for a position within the investment banking unit, but now that you’ve landed the position, both you and the bank itself need to figure out exactly where to place you within the investment bank – in other words product or industry, and more specifically, which product group or which industry group. In order to do this, the bank will throw a sell-day for their incoming analysts – usually more than 1, depending on the size of the class – where the analysts have the opportunity to meet the different teams and, perhaps more importantly, the teams have the opportunity to meet the analysts.

During the sell-day, you will usually sit for several short presentations, by each hiring group, each concluding with a chance to network with each individual group for a few minutes. This last part is the part that you want to pay strict attention to and make the most of – but we’ll come back to that in a minute. Doubling back for just a second, the reason why I mentioned each “hiring” group, as opposed to every, or each group within the investment bank is that as a FT incoming analyst, you will have been hired either as a new candidate or received an offer from the SA position. If the latter is the case, and you were, in fact, a SA who received a FT offer, you will only usually be at a sell-day if you expressed an interest in joining a different group and didn’t find a new home or didn’t want to decide until the sell-day. Those SAs that have accepted positions within their SA groups will fill seats in those respected groups. Therefore, if there were only a handful of seats open in, for example, Technology, and all of the SAs kept their seats, then Technology might very well not be at the sell-day, or on the ranking sheet, since they do not have any openings for new analysts and will therefore not accept any incoming FT analysts. It’s not a big deal by any means, but just wanted to clarify that point as incoming analysts often wonder why a particular group or 2 isn’t available or isn’t on a ranking sheet or didn’t set up a presentation, etc.

Before getting to the final leg of the presentation, the chance to network with the bankers, let’s get into the presentation aspect of the day. Essentially, each group will have several bankers representing the team and set up in a conference room to introduce you to the team in attendance, the group, what the group does, impressive league table stats, deal closing figures, noteworthy deals, interesting aspects and capabilities of the group and anything else that they can think of to pull you in – I’ve even seen bankers pull out charts showcasing their record of getting analysts into top business schools and strong P/E shops 2-3 years down the line. In case you haven’t realized, all of this is done to attract as many incoming analysts as they can to their group so that the group, essentially, has their choice of the best of the incoming analysts. The presentation will certainly resemble that of a capabilities pitch delivered to clients introducing the group because, basically, you are clients and the group is trying to pitch to you their team, and get you to rank them number one. Now remember, just because the presentation is the group’s big opportunity to “sell” you their product/industry, no aspect of this sell-day process is one-sided.

Just as the presentation is the group’s opportunity to pitch you on them, it is also your opportunity to express your first big interest in the field and in joining the team. Use this presentation as a chance to ask some questions based on the group’s discussions and make your presence known ahead of the networking opportunity – this will help you to get on the team’s radar and even make the team a bit more receptive to you when it comes time to network at the end of the presentation. The key here, however, as is the case in every aspect of this day, is to keep the questions and comments relaxed and within the limits of moderation. If you are firing out questions every 30 seconds you will come off as more of a distraction than interested applicant, and you will definitely run the risk of establishing a reputation or displaying personality traits not of interest to rest of the team or that do not fit with the group dynamic. Don’t isolate yourself by getting too eager and don’t show yourself as a suck-up, trying to upstage everyone else. Just relax, ask a few questions when they are asked for and when the questions are relevant and value-additive – don’t ask questions just for the sake of asking them. If you can do this, you’ll definitely be in good shape.

Now, getting back to my previous point – paying strict attention to the short networking opportunity at the end of each presentation – let’s briefly move into why that is the case. Essentially, once you get past the presentation, you will have an opportunity to network with the group – but by network with the group, I really mean that you have an opportunity to connect with some of the group members, make a good impression, roughly figure out if this could be a fit, and evaluate whether this is a group, based on some of the teammates’ personalities, is a good match for you. First and foremost, some students are going to want to work in M&A, financial sponsors, leveraged finance, energy and power, etc, and while they’d be alright with working in an alternative group, they really want to land a seat in their group of choice. So, how do you do this? The answer: by nailing the networking opportunity at the end of that particular group’s presentation. The key here will be to make the time at the end of the session to go up and introduce yourself to the group’s panel participants, especially a group staffer (if present) and senior bankers, as they will ultimately be the decision makers. Additionally, you want to definitely briefly introduce yourself to the rest of the panel as well to further increase your chances.

By introduce yourself to the panel, I don’t mean state your name and conduct an interview, I mean that you should really be yourself. Express your interest in working for the group (but don’t be a suck-up or phony person – nor do I mean drop a few F-bombs and get your slang on – you’re still being judged, or, perhaps for lack of a better work, “interviewed” – do class is still key), be sincere in your interest in getting to know the teammates and ask questions about group dynamic, team activities, access to senior bankers, even questions on deal flow are fine as well – you really just want to show that you have an interest in the team, while maintaining those likable qualities that, presumably, got you hired in the first place. You want to fit in the bankers on the panel and be able to have a brief laugh or two while making your acquaintances – this will definitely help to set you apart from the rest of the candidates and help boost your appeal when it comes time for the teams to rank the analysts that they want. Additionally, make sure to get business cards from as many of the panel members as you can and definitely send follow-up emails later that day – it might not significantly boost your chances, but people have blackberries, and reaching out to keep your name fresh definitely doesn’t hurt. Remember, just as the group wants you to pick them as number 1 so that they have their pick of the analysts, you want the groups to pick you as number 1 so that you can have your pick of the groups, and the best way to do this is by making a great impression on the team.

After you’ve gone through each presentation it’s now time for the final stage of the process – the selection forms. At this point, if you haven’t received it already, you will be asked to take and fill out a selection card with the name of each hiring group listed along with a blank space next to it. You will then rank the groups in order of appeal to you from number 1 to whatever number of groups there are. Once you’ve done this, you drop the card off and there you have it – your selections are in and the fun for HR begins. The groups will essentially go through a similar ranking process, with the end goal being to get the majority of the incoming analysts into one of their top 3 or 4 groups. In other words, if there are 12 groups on the ranking form, the goal is to get you into one of your top 3 or 4 choices as opposed to your bottom 5 through 12.

Good luck on all of your sell-days and as always, if you have any questions, send them HERE and leave your comments below! Stay tuned for future posts on what an analyst really does, missing the 3rd year/associate offer, and much more!

Getting that SA 1st Round Interview

For the SA position, since applicants will generally have a far lighter resume in terms of work experience given their age and the natural path of these opportunities (junior year is usually the first year of strong opportunity), work experience does not often matter all that much. Tackling this list in order, school brand would be most important, followed by an applicant’s GPA, followed by leadership and extracurricular experience and then, on the same level as EC experience, would be one’s work experience.

School brand, first and foremost, is absolutely a key to earning the SA interview for two reasons: 1) given the lack of work experience and the banker’s love of the school pedigree, applicants generally don’t have the tools to offset the lack of that pedigree, and 2) target school students will have a far more effective and better-represented alumni base, which they can and should utilize to build their network and candidacy support. At the end of the day, bankers love to see that target school name on your resume, and while it doesn’t get you the job or the interview by itself (no single factor will), it definitely keeps you on their radar and opens their eyes to the rest of the resume. Furthermore, while attending a target does not guarantee you an interview, attending a non-target will definitely make at least a few of the resume reviewers either immediately drop your resume, or move dangerously close to that action (this, of course, does not take into account the networking avenue).

Next on the list is GPA and before anyone asks, you do not need a 3.95 or even a 3.75 to work in banking. Sure, a high GPA definitely helps and supports the strength of your candidacy, but a GPA of 3.94 is not by any means vastly superior to a GPA of 3.54, and that GPA of 3.94 will not carry your candidacy and guarantee you an interview despite a poor overall resume. That said, the GPA is definitely an important aspect of your resume, and I see it as second most important behind school brand for landing the SA 1st round interview. First, the GPA is often used to create a hard cutoff to weed out candidates right off the bat before considering the appeal of any other aspect of one’s candidacy including school brand – that hard cut off is usually between a 3.0 and a 3.3. Next, in addition to the hard cut off, bankers use the GPA to 1) compare the performance of target students who are often not majoring in a business discipline as a further measure of whether they can handle the IB position, and 2) separate stronger non- and semi-target students, who are often held to higher GPA standards, from those students that fall more towards the middle of the spectrum – think “good, not great.” Without a strong GPA, you will definitely be fighting more of an uphill battle, and if you are attending a non-target, you will definitely be faced with a difficult path ahead (again, this ignores the advantages gained by networking if utilized effectively).

Beyond the school brand and the GPA we get to your experiences, both extracurricular/leadership and work experiences. Since as a summer analyst it is almost expected for students to not have impressive work experience, the previous two categories are generally weighted much heavier. That said, there are exceptions to every rule and since the expectation is for very little in this case, having some solid work experience or strong leadership experience will definitely strengthen your candidacy and significantly improve your chances of that 1st round interview. Generally speaking, however, applicants usually have decent work experience including non-IB related busy-work, small firm ops, administrative or university/campus experience, which will not have a big impact on the reviewers. Extracurricular and leadership experience is definitely helpful as well, but again, to a lesser degree than the previous two categories. Having a collegiate sports background, especially in a leadership position (captain, for example) for example, will help to provide that fit and interest aspect of your profile that is truly so important to bankers. Holding a leadership position in a professional club such as a Wall St. club will help you on two fronts: 1) you will be seen by bankers as someone with a bit more knowledge and passion for the job and 2) the network you can build in that position through the club’s reach will definitely help your candidacy. Bankers want leaders, and bankers want to see that you are more than a 3.83 econ major – get out there and make an impact.

Regarding the 5th topic of relevant coursework and knowledge base, this varies from shop to shop, but generally, BBs won’t care much about this at all, while small boutiques, especially small no-name shops, might put at least a fair share of emphasis on this category since, given their lack of a formal training program, they will prefer interns that are able to hit the ground running, meaning those that don’t need to be taught the basics of finance and accounting, and ideally know more than simply the basics. Regarding relevant coursework, there is no need to list strictly introductory courses – such as microeconomics and intro to probability. Although colleges have different names for introductory accounting and finance courses, listing those on your resume is usually acceptable since financial accounting courses, for example, will be extremely beneficial to banking even on an introductory level. Finally, do not list courses that are not important to banking – advanced math and econ courses are acceptable, and finance and accounting courses are always welcome – beyond that, there isn’t much of a need.

Getting that FT 1st Round Interview

FT recruiting is a bit different than SA recruiting in that bankers know FT recruiting is not a small 2-3 month interview, it is the real deal and, as such, bankers will stress each aspect of the resume to a greater degree. Additionally, FT applicants are often expected to bring relevant experience to the table given the opportunity juniors have to land SA and other internship opportunities. Tackling the ranking list for FT recruiting you’ll notice that a few categories moved, although most is still the same: most important are both work experience and school brand (as opposed to just school brand for SA slots given the lack of available professional experience), followed by GPA, then leadership and extracurricular experience as a standalone, and, finally, relevant coursework rounds out the list.

As mentioned above, for FT recruiting, unlike SA recruiting, bankers would not be surprised by some strong work experience and will look for it when assessing your candidacy. No, work experience will not offset everything else, but it is definitely one of the two most important aspects of your candidacy regarding FT recruitment. The other, just as before, is your school brand. I know; all of the non-target applicants out there are wondering whether they will ever get away from school pedigree and, unfortunately, the short answer is no. Will school brand make a huge difference ten years down the line, no, but remember, conversation and fit will always play a role and a great opening talking point with someone in a business meeting, interview, etc, is always, “hey! I didn’t know that you graduated from Harvard, what class were you?” or something like that – common points of importance and/or interest are always helpful and useful. Anyway, I got sidetracked for a second, so let’s get back to it. For FT recruiting, strong IB work experience can definitely help to offset a poor school brand, a strong school brand can offset lackluster work experience, and, finally, a strong school brand plus IB work experience makes for one hell of a strong candidate. In other words, because the opportunities for SA and internship positions are there for juniors, FT recruiters will look for these aspects on your resume and are ready to give credit where credit is due. In short, FT recruiting really looks for that balanced resume, and those will the balance of work experience and school brand have the best chances (although that should be pretty obvious). The big difference here is that although FT recruiting is still heavily about school brand it is also about work experience, and when something can be weighted about as heavily as school brand for IB, it is worth mentioning and analyzing.

Moving right along, coming in just behind work experience and school brand is, again, the applicant’s cumulative GPA. The same GPA rankings, requirements, and preferences still hold true as for SA positions, and, as always, you should try to keep your GPA as high as possible and finish with a strong GPA – in other words, don’t let it plummet. If you need a bit more on GPA, make your way HERE. Beyond the basics we’ve already covered, GPA is that hard number that bankers look to, just as we’ve discussed for SA positions, when assessing your ability to handle the workload and manage the analytical requirements of the job. A strong GPA can only help you both for FT recruiting and down the line if you plan to transition to buyside, boutique IB, etc, so don’t let it fall apart on you in the final stretch.

Leadership and EC experience, although fairly far down the list of importance to bankers, still makes a difference and should be played up as much as possible on your resume. Leadership experience for FT recruiting is important to bankers since although analysts won’t generally be in any position to “lead,” bankers still see the qualities necessary to command these positions as important to the position – in other words, being able to analyze situations, voice opinions, lead teams, communicate effectively, hold yourself to a high level of expectation, etc. Bankers see themselves as Type A, for the most part, and, as such, want to believe that leaders are good bankers (unfortunately many true leaders would highly disagree). Furthermore, just as with SA recruiting, leadership experience in professional clubs will often open doors in terms of networking events and expanding your contact base. EC experience in general, although not as impressive as leadership experience, can still be helpful as it provides both points of interest to your candidacy (shows that you are more than just a GPA and school), and talking points during your interview – think of the sports example I used from before. Playing collegiate sports, volunteering with an organization you are interested in, etc are all talking points and really help the reviewer, and, eventually, interviewer, find out who you are and whether he/she would be able to and, ideally, want to work with you.

Finally, we come to relevant coursework. Although it is ranked lowest for both SA and FT recruiting efforts in terms of resume importance, I still believe that it is worth mentioning as it can definitely help your candidacy, especially with small boutiques. Just as with the SA recruiting efforts, the FT recruiters will generally not put much importance on relevant coursework and knowledge base. Again, small boutiques, especially small no-name shops, might put much more emphasis on this category, especially on the FT level for the same reasons as listed above, and for the simple reason that an intern in these shops might be given a lot of busy work, while FT analysts will definitely be given real projects and experience (even if mixed with some HR work) Again, for relevant coursework, especially for FT recruiting, don’t bother with any introductory courses, excluding introductory accounting and finance courses. For FT recruiting especially, I would really look towards advanced coursework in all fields including finance and accounting, since it will be expected of you if you list this highlight on your resume.

If you have any questions regarding this article, any others or in general, feel free, as always, to drop me an email HERE. Comments go below – you know the drill.