5 Ways To Boost Your Recruiting Chances In A Tough Hiring Market
Lately one of my most common questions via email goes something like this:
“I’m a rising senior looking at investment banking recruiting in the fall. However, the market is really tough right now, there have been a lot of layoffs, bonuses were down 30%, and it seems like a lot of the bigger banks may not be hiring much. What can I do to break in?”
The market we’re in right now is definitely the toughest since 2002 or so, and even well-qualified students and professionals are faced with the same dilemma: how to get in when hiring is down.
How A Tough Market Affects You
The primary impact of a tough hiring market is to raise “the bar” of recruiting standards. Back in 2004-2006, friends got into investment banking without previous internships, in many cases without previous finance experience at all.
While it’s still possible to do this, a poor market makes it more difficult, especially at bulge bracket firms.
To have a good shot at getting in at the largest banks these days, you’d have to have previous finance experience or some kind of extremely influential connection (the CEO would be a good place to start).
But what should you do if you have neither of those?
1) Networking: Build It Before You Need It (If you Can)
This one is admittedly difficult to pull off at the last minute, but it is the most effective strategy for breaking in when hiring is down.
If you’re anything other than a rising senior in college, whether you’re a younger student or a working professional, the good news is that you have significantly more time to build up your list of industry contacts.
As I wrote in my original article on the basics of networking your way into investment banking, the two best places to start are your alumni network and friends in the field.
If this is last-minute recruiting (e.g. you are a rising senior), you will have to focus on relationships that actually lead to jobs, and you’ll likely have to do some cold-calling in the process.
2) Give Boutique And Middle-Market Firms Some Love
Back when I wrote about working at a bulge bracket vs. a boutique, I recommended that you go to the largest firm possible. Your experience at smaller places tends to be quite random – it could be fantastic or it could be awful, whereas a bulge bracket ensures that you’ll get at least a decent experience.
These rules go out the window in a tough job market. I don’t care if you have multiple degrees from Wharton or have interned at Goldman Sachs for the previous 3 summers, there’s no predicting what will happen in this market, and you want to spread your net as wide as possible.
The logic is simple: the lower end of the market is less affected by downturns than the mega-deals are, and many boutiques out there are still hiring.
A good place to get started is this thread on Wall Street Oasis on regional boutiques – there are some good names on there to review.
By the way, by “boutique” I don’t mean the likes of Lazard, Evercore or Moelis & Company – those are all smaller, M&A-focused firms with great names and reputations that are on par with the bulge brackets. I’m referring to true regional boutiques that are not “famous” and which don’t get much attention.
3) Consider Private Equity, Hedge Funds And Related Finance Jobs
This one might sound crazy – how can you possibly pursue the typical “exit opportunity” jobs when you have no experience yet?
Truthfully, it isn’t possible unless you’ve had a previous internship in one of these fields or have some other experience that makes you especially well-qualified.
Here are a few possibilities:
- You have a quantitative degree (math/engineering/science) with some financial knowledge – some hedge funds may hire you even without a previous finance internship.
- You worked at a private equity fund or hedge fund last summer – I’ve had friends who have gone directly to one of these following a summer internship.
- You’re a mid-level consultant or corporate development executive – rather than going to banking, consider private equity and venture capital, both of which will value your experience more than bankers would anyway.
4) Expand Your Geography – Go East, Young Man (Or Woman)
The topic of geography and working outside the US has been popular in recent reader Q&A sections, and with good reason – Europe, Asia and the rest of the world have not been hit nearly as hard by the credit crunch and recession as the US has.
If you have the appropriate language skills, you should definitely consider this one – everyone wants to start out in New York, but good luck getting hired at a large bank there with current market conditions.
Many banks have been sending some of their top talent to the Middle East and other regions, so they seem to have noticed the trend and adapted as well.
5) Make Your Resume Shine
This is an easy one that takes far less time than networking, cold calling banks, and learning additional languages so that you can work in other parts of the world, but it’s one that few people actually do.
Just from Mergers & Inquisitions alone, I’ve reviewed over 100 resumes since starting the site last year, and I’m always struck by the number of applicants with great experience and internships who don’t properly convey what they did in writing.
Having a great resume is the difference between getting noticed and not getting noticed – between getting a callback and never hearing back.
I’ve already given a lot of resume advice, from investment banking resumes to private equity resumes, and also have my resume review service for those interested in having a professional, line-by-line critique.
Why Try To Get Into Finance Right Now?
Reading about how tough it is to get hired in finance currently, you might wonder, “Why bother at all?” The answer goes back to what I wrote about in my review of 2008 analyst bonuses: it’s always better to “buy” into a market, whether real estate or the job market, when it’s at the bottom.
If you get in now, you could very easily ride the wave when the market recovers and be earning a much higher income a couple years from now compared to anyone who’s just getting started a few years from now.
The other reason, of course, is that there’s little reason to wait. Taking a few years off to travel would be fun but it wouldn’t enhance your chances of breaking in when the market recovers.
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Tags: boutique investment banks, Hedge Funds, investment banking, investment banking jobs, middle-market, Networking, Private Equity, understanding investment banking
Other readers who liked this article also liked these:- Boutiques vs. Bulge Bracket, Part I
- Recruiting in a Down Market, Part I: The State of the Market
- Weekly Reader Q&A: Elite Boutiques, Moving To The Buyside Early And How To Dress For Success As A Summer Intern
- Weekly Reader Q&A: Investment Banking From Ph.D., Boutique Summer Internships, Informational Interviews
Regarding entering finance, your point is well noted about being able to ride out the storm.
However, I wonder about this as this recession is already shaping up to be one of the worst that we have ever seen and it seems as though there is more bad news to come and plenty of uncertainty.
There will be limited deal flow unless you work in restructuring and companies/banks that are going bust need to help or need to merge.
Downsides of going into banking now the way I see it are:
1. shitty bonuses (if any at all)
2. total lack of job stability (there still seem to be “toxic” assets on banks’ books and there are definitely more bank failures/mergers to come)
3. lack of deal flow (volatile equity markets and inability to raise debt finance together mean that less deals will be done and you will be spending more time pitching and getting less transaction experience)
Furthermore, no one can really predict when the market will pick up. It may happen in 2010 (as it has almost universally been acknowledged that 2009 will be another shitty year) or 2011 or who can really predict it….thus, going into banking now may just mean endlessly waiting for the market to turn without having a clue as to when this will happen
I worked in banking for a short while at the analyst level and am now debating whether it is worth trying to get back in for the above reasons. I am now considering strategy/ops consulting (even if its not the big MBBBM), corporate development or other types of roles where I can still learn a lot, find the work interesting and work that may potentially offer a better lifestyle.
I don’t think there’s anything such as a “stable” job these days. That idea is from the 70’s, doesn’t exist anymore.
Ultimately, the best way to proceed is to make yourself into a valuable asset with lots of connections and useful skills – which is one reason why I’m doing what I’m doing right now and not jumping back into the market.
Hi Brain,
If I just graduated this August (as I went to UK for exchange), can I apply for the 2010 analyst program in bulge brackets? Or should I just try to apply for boutiques and not bother with those large banks?
Really depends on your background / networking effort so far… you can always just apply to everything and see what happens, though if you don’t have on-campus recruiting I would not bother with bulge brackets.
Hi Brian,
This comment is not specific to this posting, but you did say that comments are better than email for asking questions. My question is, why are there no dates on postings and comments? For example, this article. When I see an article that starts with the word “lately,” the first thing I want to know is when it was written, since that is an important part of context.
I definitely do recognize that the articles are fresh enough to be relevant even if I don’t know the exact date. Still, there is something fundamentally weird about published material without a publication date.
There are no dates because with most of the articles on this site, I aim to be timeless. I don’t really view this as a traditional blog – it’s a collection of articles on topics related to finance, with the occasional current events or news-related item thrown in (and usually the date is easy to figure out with those).
I don’t list dates because it automatically biases you against older information, even if it’s still relevant. Resumes and interview strategies, for example, do not change much – if at all – from year to year..
You see “Lately” in some of the articles because they were written when the site was still relatively new and I hadn’t taken this approach yet.
Hello again,
I have a question.
I have to write about what 500 word essay on recent controversies on the field of finance/ banking industry. I thought I would write about how the investment banking playing field is changing due to consolidation in the industry with Lehman brothers’ bankruptcy and increasing strict government regulations that are intended to stop reckless risky investments. I will also write about how they are coping with this by restructuring and how Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley already changed their business models and turned into more traditional bank holding companies. Do you think this will make a good topic?
I really apologize for my long question but I hope you will help.
Thank you!
/Burmaa
sounds fine
I am applying an internship at IB through the Washington Center and the above question was asked.