Chasing Consultants, Breaking Bankers
A Management Consulting and Investment Banking Guide for Undergraduates
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Get a head start on coffee chats and informational visits before summer internship recruiting starts...
If you're reading this, it means that you're committed to landing that summer internship at Goldman, Morgan, UBS, McKinsey, BCG, or another great firm.
Summer internship recruiting starts in about a month's time. However, do NOT leave your applications for the day before.
The cover letters and resumes that stand to get a first round interview reflect strong personal reasons for wanting to work at firm X in position Y.
Which begs the question: How do you convince someone who doesn't know you that you are not only highly qualified for the position, but that you are also the one they should hire?
One tried and true way of communicating your interest is by setting up coffee chats and informational visits with the firms that you want to apply to. Do these at least a week before your application is due!
You'll likely get a tour of the company, a brief overview of what a full time analyst/consultant does, and have at least 15 minutes to ask questions about whether this is the right company/role for you. It really doesn't get better than that...if you are an awful match, you'll know that too, so you can save yourself the time of writing an application to a job you don't really want.
So how do you set these up?
1. Look at linkedin for alums from your college/high school who work at those firms. First target junior to mid-junior people. Don't bother the MDs unless you have an existing personal connection (a good friend's parents)
2. Write a very succinct (no more than 4 sentence) email that describes who you are, any group that you were both a part of, and an open question of whether he'd have time to briefly talk to you about applying?
3. Expect to hear from 1 in 5 people (or even less...) Analysts and Associates are busy. Some are more willing to offer help than others. Once you get a response, reply saying thanks and being very specific about when you are free to talk (give them lots of options). Also, if you live close to where they work, offer to do it in person at the Starbucks across the street, for example.
4. Study the website and talk to your classmates/juniors/seniors who just worked there. Ask your friends how they did well and what they did to form a positive impression.
5. Have the coffee chat / info visit -- dress up, be professional, have a resume in hand, have at least 5 good questions to ask that you can't get answered elsewhere (The worst is to have boring questions like "what does a good analyst have to do.." that you can get answered from forums)
6. Follow up with a thank you note and mentioning that you'll be applying and hope to cross paths soon.
And that's it!! Get started sending emails this week and the first week of the new year. That will build in some time for you to get ready before school starts.
Best of luck and feel free to reach out with questions. Happy holidays to all our readers!
Sunday, May 8, 2011
A success story
- no personal connections
- no finance experience of any kind before recruiting
- no connections through school
Your critiquing team started the entire investment banking recruiting process for me last summer, and I would not have been able to achieve this without your service. Thank you so much for your help.
It has been quite the journey and one hell of an experience. I screwed up the few front-office interviews I did manage to get…things were looking very bleak. I was very pissed off and disappointed at myself after October went by without an offer. If I learned anything from my failures, it is to always hustle and to stay humble. I definitely lost sight of that and took many opportunities for granted. I decided to take some time off to reevaluate and didn’t try to recruit again seriously until early March.
This time around, I stepped up my networking game and began meeting random strangers in investment banking. If there was an email on the firm website, I’d send an email. If I saw someone interesting on LinkedIn, I’d add him. If I couldn’t get them to meet in person, I would try to get them on the phone. Probably ended up speaking with at least 20 professionals.
The position I landed all started through a cold-email to an MD and things just evolved from there. Three weeks later, I was signed.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Questions on MBB office changes
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Standing out through your cover letter
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Getting ready NOW for full-time management consulting positions
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Choosing a placement desk in sales & trading
- Has the trading desk hosted interns in past summers? If so, how many interns landed offers?
- Are there desk-specific projects that interns typically complete on those select desks?
- Is the culture of the desk that interns can easily approach the senior MDs and VPs, or do they tend to work with the other analysts and associates?
- For those people who end up leaving their full time jobs at the desk, where do they go - to other hedge funds that specialize in that product, or do they place at particular firms that do not have product specialization?