Anyone who made the switch from T2 / MBB consulting to IBD and willing to share advice / insights on how they did it and how they're finding it?

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I'm from a T2 (CDD, ODD, carve outs) and have joined a small IB (as VP) in the London. Very happy to discuss further if helpful, but in short:

Technicals:
1. Learn the mergers and inquisitions technical interview guide back to front. Really helpful to ground yourself in some of the concepts before diving into modelling training anyway
2. Modelling training. I used wall street prep. It's LONG and slow. But it's in-depth and high quality
3. I then used Claude and Chat GPT to pull out case studies so I could practice without guidance (I did most of these cases once I had the offer and was on my notice period)

Recruiters:
1. This is a volume game. 98% of recruiters just ghosted me because I didn't come from an IB / corp finance background. I would send cover letters to every M&A recruiter I could find on LinkedIn and eFinance. Eventually I found a couple that didn't dismiss me

Interviews:
1. Get ready to fight for your opportunity. My new MD told me in the first 10 seconds that I didn't have the right experience. I argued with him for the entire interview that (1) I brought commercial and operational experience that would be a differentiator and (2) I had a finance and accounting mindset and that I'd done the prep required to make the jump. I told him to give me case studies and to let me prove myself. If you're not confident / pushy you won't get through this stage
(3) Case studies - brutal on top of running deals. I had 6 interviews including a take-home case and a number of in-person cases. The take home is easy enough (especially with wall street prep). The in-persons are what you need to prep for the most

Ultimately, it's a really tough jump but just give it everything, reach out to as many recruiters as possible and don't get discouraged. You just need one opportunity to prove yourself, then it's up to whether you've done the prep / nail the interviews. You'll need to prove why you're a better option than someone already in IB so leverage what differentiates you

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Currently in biopharma after T2 trying to make the change as well. ER also on the table

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