How to get into an investment bank from a non-target university (part 1)
The article below is written by a UK student who's had second round interviews at UBS, Barcap, Goldman Sachs, and JP Morgan, and will be starting a job with one of them next year.. The advice is entirely his own, but we've edited it slightly.
What is a non target?
First things first, we need a definition. A non target is any school that is not targeted by any major bank, simple as that. If banks don't present on your campus, then you are unfortunately at a non target.
Take a long hard look in the mirror
Banks get hundreds of applications from Oxford, Cambridge, LSE etc, all with excellent academics, great extra-curriculars, and a stamp of approval on their forehead. To compete with this, you need to create a profile that makes you competitive with these applicants and makes someone go 'wow'.
Work Experience
It's never too early to get relevant work experience. Be open to anything that's relevant, be it private equity, investment banking, or corporate finance. I did a private equity internship the summer before I applied for my penultimate year and it was great for trading interviews- I could say that I'd experienced something else and didn't like it for a.b.c reasons.
How should you get this work experience? My favourite strategy is just to brute force it. Send out emails to as many firms as humanly possible seeing if they wont let you tag along for a couple of weeks. If they say they don't have the capacity to hire anyone, tell them you will work for free. It's worth it if it helps you land a sweet gig the next summer.
Extracurriculars
This is the crucial area for a non-target applicant. You need to cover these bases: leadership, teamwork, hard work.
I am proponent of having 1-2 EC's and then really focusing your energy on them. It shows commitment, and it is much more attractive than someone who joins 9 societies and does nothing.
Another point: joining a society is not an EC. Starting one and then running it is however, and if you have an idea to start one then go for it. Other good ideas are start-up businesses (have to be semi-successful otherwise you can come off as one of those kids who just starts a company and then calls himself CEO), high level sports, or anything that interests you and you can link to the three aforementioned qualities. Remember to not do anything that you aren't fully interested in though. Why waste university years doing something you hate?
CV/Resume
The perfect non-target resume will have high grades (first class in the UK, 3.8+ in the US), a significant piece of work experience at a finance related company, and two or three extracurriculars, where at least one is something that is very individual to you and will stand out to the recruiter.
This article was taken from 'ConvertyourBond, a trading website run by the anonymous UK student mentioned above/
