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Do you work for Northwestern Mutual?
IB gets a lot of hype but you will largely be formatting power point and toiling away in excel for several years before you use your sales skills. Why not focus on leveraging your sales skills to find a better role in finance? Doesn’t have to be IB...
I'd recommend just moving to a bigger firm once you're a little more established... JPM, Morgan Stanley, UBS etc.
You should try to break into a company by contracting. Look up recruiters for big firms I.e Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Wells Fargo etc… once you get a position inside the firm use the time on your contract to network and turn your contract into a direct hire. Depending on the firm strategize your move for before or after you become a FTE. Some companies are big on Internal mobility - some companies are not. That’s why the time during your contract is very important so you can get all the info you need and impress the right people
You could either:
- go directly to a middle market/lower tier IB to get some experience under your belt. Some may take you at An 1 or 2
- move to a sales/trading desk at a top bank (probably at An 1)
- study your cfa (would not recommend)
- middle office then network your way up (would not recommend either…easy trap)
Look outside of top 10 on league tables. The French (Cred Ag, BNP, Natixis) / Japanese (Sumi, Mizuho, Nomura) / Canadian (RBC, TD, BMO) / Australian (ANZ) are all valid…but tbh any experience modeling/working on pitch decks is good experience when you’re transitioning at the early analyst levels