r/breakingintoIB

A few months into my full time analyst gig at a PE megafund in London straight out of uni, I wanna share some tips/anecdotes that I think could be useful to a lot of people. 

Disclaimer: yes, I went to a target school for both undergrad and masters (scholarships). No, I’m not a nepo kid. Nobody in my family ever worked in finance/business and when I started I didn’t even know what a summer internship was.

 What follows is probably gonna have no specific order and will just be a messy dump of thoughts.

1. Your undergrad is how you set the tone. There are no shortcuts. Whoever tells you grades don’t matter is talking out of their ass. If you wanna have a shot at passing the screening for a bulge bracket bank, you need to be top 5 or 10%. In the first two years grades matter. At the end of the day during your bachelor’s, getting good grades is the student’s only job, and it’s the best way to signal to recruiters that you’re sharp and ambitious.
2. Surround yourself with sharp people. For the first two years of uni, even though I had great grades, I hung out with people who had no ambition and no clue what they wanted. No doubt they were great friends who made the experience fun, but I think if I’d surrounded myself with people who had their shit together and knew more about finance than me, I would’ve saved myself a ton of time researching and struggling to figure out how to navigate the finance world.
3. Have the balls to put yourself out there. Always. Doesn’t mean being arrogant. It means don’t be shy, don’t be embarrassed. Bad news for introverts (which I was): you gotta wake up. For every one of you there are 5 British hardo kids at the networking event sucking up to some Goldman associate about his tie. Get in the mix, don’t be afraid to ask questions. At first you’ll come off stiff and awkward, but it’s a skill you build with time. Join online communities or students associations to do so.
4. Don’t be a doormat. “Dear John, I know you’re incredibly busy and that your schedule looks like hell, but I would be willing to sell my soul and a kidney to have the chance to hop on a 5 minute chat with you even at 5AM if necessary.” There’s no worse way to approach someone on LinkedIn. Never put yourself below the person you’re talking to. Just show you’re not a weirdo. “Hi John, I see you work in X. I’m a student at Y and would love to have a chat about your job.” More than enough and you don’t look like a fucking slave. These people are often 3 years older than you at most.
5. Find mentors. Like I said, especially if you don’t know shit about finance at the start, it’s crucial someone takes you under their wing. You can find a mentor in tons of ways: older students at uni, alumni, friends. There are also structured programs (WSO, WSP, M&I).
6. Apply fast. In my second year of uni people told me applying within a few hours of the application going live was crucial. I thought it was bullshit. Result? Didn’t get a single interview. There are various resources to track applications. In Europe the most famous is the Trackr.
7. Don’t be picky. At the start I thought I wanted to do S&T. Didn’t apply to anything else. Result? 0 interviews. Apply to everything. If you land an internship in markets when you wanna do IB it’s not the end of the world. Pivoting or getting another internship with a solid brand on your CV is 100x easier than landing your dream internship with zero experience. Don’t be picky.
8. Don’t be fucking socially awkward. A lot of people think this is an innate skill. It’s fucking not. When you do coffee chats, try not to look like you’ve got a pole shoved up your ass. Be friendly, laid back, relaxed. Whenever I grab coffee with people who asked me for a chat and they’re all stiff and rigid I’m like: bro wtf I’m 2 years older than you, chill out. There’s no way for me to connect with you if it looks like you’re sweating talking to me. Also, I personally wouldn’t wanna work alongside someone I can’t vibe with.
9. Prepare before applications open. When you get an interview, you’ll have like 1 week of notice on average. Not enough time to master a topic from scratch. Go through the red book, 400 IB questions and other mainstream guides. They’ll give you a head start.
10. Connect with people who’ve done the interview before once you land one. Goes without saying, you can be as good as you want but you’ll be the best if you have the questions in advance. Again, can be done through any community, mentoring, or just by reaching out to people directly.

These are just some of my thoughts. Getting these jobs is a full time job, guys. You’re gonna have to make some sacrifices. Sometimes you’ll have to choose between friends, family and free time. It is what it is. I’m not here to tell you whether it’s worth it or not.

Feel free to ask any questions (please do not use my DMs).