Makes sense. Thanks a lot

I would just frame it by saying that you made a mistake accepting the Big Tech offer and want to work in IB, but at a firm without all the issues you encountered at the boutique. You can’t really “avoid” those parts of your story given the recency.

I have a bit of unusual story you can say. I have 5 years of experience in the energy sector. I wanted to do finance so went for MBA. During my time I did an IB internship in a boutique bank but as bank was too small and had team issues I decided to go with big tech offer I got after graduation in 2021. It has been only 4 months but I want to try again with IB as I miss teamwork and financial skills I applied in finance. I am aiming for industrial IB as my background is more aligned. I wanted to ask how would you best frame my story to be more effective? I don’t want to end up going into every part of my journey if that makes sense. Thanks a lot.
Ray

I very much doubt that you could be a doctor for a few years and then just “join” a top consulting firm as a Partner or Director. It doesn’t really work like that – they hire for entry-level roles, and then you move up if you perform well. You’re much better off skipping medical school / medicine / everything else associated with it and going into consulting directly out of university or an MBA program.

Thanks. For reference, you should ask questions directly on BIWS or via email there because the response time will be faster (I only check comments on this site once per week and it’s just me, vs. several people on BIWS).

I think you would probably need a story about something very specific in your L/S equity role, such as an interesting deal that you couldn’t work on because all you do is follow companies there, and how that motivated you to look into investment banking. And you would need responses to the usual “But you could make more money there!”-type objections (yes, but it’s also less stable, harder to advance at single-manager funds, etc.). But this depends greatly on your background and the experience you have to work with, so feel free to send a more detailed question via the other site.

Bought the BIWS prep guide for IB an finding it really useful. Just a bit of background – I am ex-buy-side with 4 years experience as a long/short equity analyst. Left the buy-side to do my masters in finance at LBS (MBA equivalent). Struggling with the ‘why IB’ question given the normal transition is from sell-side to buy-side. trying to focus on the advisory angle, but do you have any pointers or tips?

Cheers

We cover recommendations for your story here: https://mergersandinquisitions.com/walk-me-through-your-resume/

For S&T, you need to focus on specific products you like rather than saying something vague like “I like the stock market.” See: https://mergersandinquisitions.com/sales-and-trading-interview-questions/

I am a first-year undergraduate at UCL (target but less competitive than Oxbridge/LSE), studying IT/Business. I have done a L/S Equity HF internship and have won several trading competitions. I am currently applying for IB’s insight week programs. The UK interviews are basically digital ones(hirevue), and I am wondering what shall I respond if the bank ask both “Tell me about yourself” and “Why IB?” Will my story sound repetitive?

Also, I am applying for the S&T. What are my reasons for the job do you think banks will be interested in? I have a genuine interest in the markets and is willing to do a relationship-based business (equity sales). However, are there any other thing that people usually mention when they apply for S&T?

Thanks for your help! Really appreciate your information on the website.

I would recommend following one of the templates here: https://mergersandinquisitions.com/walk-me-through-your-resume/

It shouldn’t be too difficult – interested in accounting/finance so you worked at the Big 4, but wanted to work more directly on deals, so you went to the boutique IB firm. Did well there, but didn’t get the deal exposure you wanted, so you went into PE to learn about bigger/more diversified companies. And now you want to work at a larger bank to combine the deal experience you gained at the boutique IB with the bigger companies you experienced at the PE firm.