Asking Alex (about IB)

Probably one of the most insightful people in the net these days is this guy Alex Chu from mbaapply.com. Alex is also very active in the Businessweek forums that I mentioned in my earlier posts. Out of all the consultants giving free advice on those boards, I find Alex's opinions and insights the most grounded. Below, I have posted his response to TheLadiesChoice's inquiry regarding Investment Banking. I'm currently exploring post-MBA options and I'm afraid that I have fallen for the MBA bandwagon of consulting and investment banking (more on this in a future post). I've edited the school names to minimize debate, but you can still see how helpful Alex can be for people trying to get to b-school, studying in b-school, and graduating b-school. I'm quite sure we'd all appreciate an opportunity to have this guy over for a bottle or two.

From Alex Chu:

You won't have trouble getting an IB job out of SchoolXYZ. It's a core school for all the major banks.

Yes, SchoolXYZ doesn't send armies of people into IB, but it's simply because there's less people at SchoolXYZ who are interested in banking.

Here's how IB recruiting works. For the schools that a bank would consider a "core school", they have IB associates assigned as the primary recruiting contact for each core school. Usually, these associates are alums of the school. So the associate who is a SchoolXYZ alum would lead the SchoolXYZ effort, the SchoolABC alum would lead the SchoolABC effort, the SchoolDEF alum would lead the SchoolDEF effort and so on. They will interview most of the candidates from their school, but their primary job is to serve as the liaison between the bank and the school's career center to coordinate company presentations, shrimp cocktails, resume submissions, interview scheduling on campus, etc. However, even though they are primarily administrators/coordinators, they do have a say in who gets hired from their school. And even though SchoolXYZ doesn't send as many folks into banking as say SchoolABC, there's still enough XYZers who end up in IB that you'll have them at every bank.

So don't worry. The IB recruiting thing is set up at SchoolXYZ to make it as easy as possible for you to get the job. They will come to you - they have their presentations early on for 1st years (Oct onwards), some will schedule company visits or "day in the life" kinds of thingys, and then they will coordinate with the career center on resume submissions and interview scheduling on-campus. The banks wouldn't be spending this much effort and resources to send their junior and senior bankers to recruit and interview @ SchoolXYZ if they didn't think it was worth it.

As for your chances, land the summer internship and you'll be fine. Go to the company presentations, schmooze with the bankers who show up there (they'll usually try to bring as many SchoolXYZ alums from MDs down to associates, so they're on your side), submit your resume, and interview well.

And one last thing. Bankers don't care about prior experience or whether you're from New Jersey or Madagascar. They can't afford to. They need an army of people each and every year (it's a high employee turnover industry after all), and most ex-bankers in b-school aren't interested in banking anyhow.

When you go to a top school like SchoolXYZ, keep in mind that the investment banks and consulting firms set themeslves up in a way where both are the easiest jobs to get for students. They need an army of MBAs in good times and bad (the difference is in bad times, they will hire you, then renege on your offer in the summer after you've graduated, or fire you in the following Fall).

Alex Chu
www.mbaapply.com
alex@mbaapply.com
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