A number of college seniors have asked me, “What can I do to best position myself to get a job in banking one year from now”. I asked senior recruiting professionals from several investment banks to respond to the following suggestions:
1) Keep plugging away. Something may open up later in the year
2) Get a one year masters (e.g. masters in financial engineering
3) Get additional international experience
4) Work in any investment bank no matter the size
5) Work in any job within one of the big regional or national banks (e.g. treasury function or operations)
6) Get any type of financial or accounting job
7) Cut your losses and start looking at alternative careers
My contacts wanted to stay anonymous, so I answered on their behalf in the comments below.
First, however, I wanted to give you my opinion:
In general, if you have not received a full-time offer from one of the few large remaining investment banks (i.e. Goldman, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, Deutsche Bank, Cit, UBS and Bank of America), forget about it. The window is closed for this year. Goldman executives are not paying themselves bonuses; Citi has announced layoffs of 70,000+ in the last few weeks. Things are bad and they are not looking to hire anyone at this time. There may be a few opportunities at the smaller regional banks like William Blair and Friedman Billings, however, the full-time recruiting season is close to over, so you had better move fast.
The issue for longer term is that I do not believe that the market will pick up anytime soon. You won`t see as many analysts leaving for b-school (gotten tougher to get in) or other jobs (forget about hedge funds and private equity), and the firms won`t have to give them big salary jumps to keep them. This will make full-time recruiting next year very challenging. It will be especially difficult for people trying to transition after being out of school one year. So what should those folks that are die hard about i-banking be thinking about?
Here are my views on the list above.
1) Keep plugging away. Something may open up later in the year
Bad Plan. As mentioned above, you have a short window to pursue opportunities at regional banks. Don`t waste your time with the big boys.
2) Get a one year masters (e.g. masters in financial engineering)
Good Plan: I was somewhat surprised by the feedback from the recruiters that I spoke with. Most felt that this was an ok to bad strategy. I think it is worth pursuing, because even if it does not give you access to i-banking, it may open up other opportunities in finance, particularly the growing area of risk management
3) Get additional international experience
Good Plan: I think international exposure is key. If you can learn a language and learn how to do business in a different culture, it will give you a big leg up. Will it get you a job in banking, no; but it will give you more options for jobs b/c you can look at overseas offices which despite a global recession might recover before the U.S.
4) Work in any investment bank no matter the size
Great Plan: If you can get a job in a smaller bank, take it. Size does not matter. You want to get experience. The big I-Banks are know to scale of quickly when the market environment changes; those that have experience will benefit.
5) Work in any job within one of the big regional or national banks (e.g. treasury function or operations)
Bad Plan: It is rare that I see people in the operations area move into a front-office role. These jobs are good jobs, but if your ultimate goal is to be a banker or trader, then there are better ways. That being said, a job in finance will give you experience that you can use in other finance jobs down the line.
6) Get any type of financial or accounting job
Ok Plan: It really depends on which type of job it is. Accountants will always be in high demand relative to other professionals. One area that is typically a good training ground is the M&A area of a big operating company that does numerous acquisitions (e.g. Cisco, Orable, etc.) However, I don`t think these areas are growing now, b/c firms are not doing much M&A in this environment
7) Cut your losses and start looking at alternative careers
Great Plan: There are many other careers out there that are interesting. Look around for other opportunities. Frankly, in this market, any job offer is a good job offer. Try not to think about your career so rigidly. Careers evolve over time. If you are smart and motivated, you will find a job you like eventually and be very good at it.