Your main options are:

1) Go for off-cycle internships and other off-cycle roles (see the article on this site) once you graduate and then use those to win a full-time IB role.

2) Forget about IB for now and aim for something like a Big 4 role or a job at an independent valuation firm or corporate banking, work there full-time, and then use that to move into IB.

3) Apply for a top Master’s in Finance program in the U.K. (or possibly in an EU country) and use that, plus an internship at a boutique, to move into IB.

I can’t say which of these is the best because it depends on how much time/money you can spend and how much you care about IB specifically vs. closely related roles such as valuation or corporate banking.

I would not even bother with U.S.-based roles for now because it’s too difficult to get a work visa, and it’s not worth the time and effort unless you’re already studying at a university there. London is really the best option – Germany could potentially work as well, but it’s a much smaller market, interviews are incredibly technical, and it’s generally much harder to break in (you can search for some of our past coverage of IB in Germany).

In this situation, you’re probably not going to be able to find an IB role directly from your previous experience. Your best option is probably to aim for some of the “Plan B” roles that people often win on their way into IB roles eventually, such as corporate banking, corporate finance at a normal company, or a Big 4 role. You could also try to network with much smaller firms and win some type of off-cycle internship, but the pay may be poor or nonexistent.

If you did an Applied Math degree, another option might be to forget corporate finance roles and aim for quant roles instead. Just because you have a Math degree from a top university, you can probably interview around and win some type of quant role at a hedge fund, bank, or other finance firm.

But this really comes down to what you want to do long-term: Corporate finance? Quant? Continue with sales? Go to a tech company? These are all potential options but the routes to get there are different.

Graduated from a target school two years ago. I was aimless and wasn’t sure what I was doing. Received a degree in Applied Mathematics with a low GPA, limited internship experience and no network. Took up a sales job in a random industry a year after undergrad just to make money and, although I hit my metrics, still dropped it after a short amount of time. Didn’t know what I was doing in life, and had no motivation to move forward without figuring it out. Now have an unemployment gap.

I am looking for a fresh start. I don’t know how forgiving finance is, but given that I previously had back office experience and wasn’t sure what I was doing with myself, the sales job was a desperate attempt to get something client-facing to develop soft skills. I’m not quite sure where to go from this point on.

IB looks like it’s out of the picture. Where should I look next, if finance is still an option?

I don’t know, that sounds very indirect considering you already did a PE internship and at least came close to receiving IB offers. I think you could probably move into IB without an MBA if you can work in the Big 4 TS team for ~1 year and network aggressively. An MBA is most useful for people with experience very far removed from finance who want to make a career change.

Even if FIG is not your industry of choice, yes, it’s easier to move to a different group from there than from a Big 4 DD role.

Hi Brian,
I recently received a full-time offer from a strong MM bank in their FIG group. However, FIG would not necessarily be my industry of choice. That said, I assume moving to a different group would be easier from that position than it would be from a Big Four FDD role. Is that true? Or would it be about the same?

I don’t think here is a huge difference in those options, but if your top concern is making sure you have an immediate FT role right after the internship ends, the off-cycle IBD offer is better. The PE offer might be better if you want to roll the dice and potentially set yourself up for PE later on but maybe go a bit longer looking for an FT role in IB first.

Recently graduated from university in London with great grades (top in year at a target in hard subject) but no IB offer. I did a summer internship in BB IBD 2020 (virtual) but did not convert, was in the 35% that did not convert, but they didn’t convert any interns in my team as extremely limited availability, most of my work was intern project based which is a bit BS.

Didn’t successfully recruit to a good bank FT for 2021 (managed to get Stifel /Cantor Fitzgerald offers), probably due to over focus on my final year grade at university, however have managed to get an off cycle analyst offer in PE (Cinven / EQT / Carlyle) but unlikely I’ll be able to convert it. Also received an offer for off cycle IBD M&A at a tier 2/3 bank (DB / Barclays / HSBC) which has high conversion.

I am highly likely to take the PE offer as it’s a very unique experience and I think it will give me great exposure / network to buy side investing which is my ultimate goal. The firm is also prestigious within London and it was a very competitive process, even taking the no conversion factor into consideration. Most of last year’s cohort have gone onto top IBD programmes / MBB / PE grad, however most of them converted their internships.

Is it too much of a risk to hope for an opening for a 2022 analyst role at a top bank / mid-upper busyide firm and take the PE offering? I haven’t secured a 2022 grad role yet in IBD, and feel like I’ve missed some openings (however this is due to some difficult circumstances). However I know that some of them open at the start of next year / before summer for spaces?

Please let me know your thoughts!

Cheers