Investment Banking Question for UT IB Alumni

[TexasFanatic]

I am about to start my MBA and have been doing some IB technical prep to help me get ahead of the process. 
 

I know UT sends a lot of kids to Houston for Energy IB and some to NY. 
 

Any alumni have any insights on their experience, exit opportunities, and/or advice/recommendations?
 

My ultimate goal is to work 2/3 years in IB and head towards buy side. 

Looking forward to the process. 
 

Hookem 

[Ravishing Rick]

At UT you need to work extremely hard to get excellent grades. Get a banking internship. While there, work your ass off to do great work. Build as many deep relationships as you can.  A lot of people neglect the relationships portion….relationships alone aren’t enough, but excellent work plus relationships is the way. 

[TexasFanatic]

22 minutes ago, Ravishing Rick said:

At UT you need to work extremely hard to get excellent grades. Get a banking internship. While there, work your ass off to do great work. Build as many deep relationships as you can.  A lot of people neglect the relationships portion….relationships alone aren’t enough, but excellent work plus relationships is the way. 

Thank you for the reply. I have an accounting background and hope to leverage those skills plus what I learn in my MBA. I will network as much as possible and will work tirelessly at any summer associate internship I get.
 

My buddy on the alumni board for WSFM is also going to help me out. My fiancé and I, prefer NY than Houston. 
 

However, I’d take the best opportunity I receive and run with it. 

[LECHorns]

This probably isn’t what you want to hear on a football message board, but post-MBA to IB will be a tough route to buyside. You won’t have the buyside experience to fill a VP role in PE, and you’re likely too experienced to start as an Associate (which is usually a 2/3 year role that ends in an MBA). Your best bet is probably energy - some of the energy PE groups can be a little less “traditional” than non-energy.

There are still terrific career opportunities available, but the “fairway” buyside gigs will be tough. You could also consider some of the less traditional type shops like family offices, independent sponsors launching, etc. Maybe head of corp dev at a PE backed portco that is a serial acquirer?  The few folks I know that did IB post-MBA are all either still bankers or in a corp finance role (eg, CFO).

Just my two cents.

What did you do pre-MBA?

[Oldest Horn]

Figure out your gap summer opportunities as soon as you set foot on campus, if not before. Depending on your background you may find buy side opportunities right away. 

[JMarquette]

Just go Wolf of Wall Street style - IB guys love drugs

[TexasFanatic]

15 hours ago, LECHorns said:

This probably isn’t what you want to hear on a football message board, but post-MBA to IB will be a tough route to buyside. You won’t have the buyside experience to fill a VP role in PE, and you’re likely too experienced to start as an Associate (which is usually a 2/3 year role that ends in an MBA). Your best bet is probably energy - some of the energy PE groups can be a little less “traditional” than non-energy.

There are still terrific career opportunities available, but the “fairway” buyside gigs will be tough. You could also consider some of the less traditional type shops like family offices, independent sponsors launching, etc. Maybe head of corp dev at a PE backed portco that is a serial acquirer?  The few folks I know that did IB post-MBA are all either still bankers or in a corp finance role (eg, CFO).

Just my two cents.

What did you do pre-MBA?

I started at a Big Four firm and recently worked in fund accounting.

Also thank you for the detailed response

[TexasFanatic]

46 minutes ago, Oldest Horn said:

Figure out your gap summer opportunities as soon as you set foot on campus, if not before. Depending on your background you may find buy side opportunities right away. 

I have been networking with some folks for IB recruiting. I plan to attend as many events as possible. 

There is also a fellows program I will apply to as well.

FYI, my background is tax accounting (Big Four) and fund accounting (for a large Investment Mgmt firm)

[Oldest Horn]

3 hours ago, TexasFanatic said:

I have been networking with some folks for IB recruiting. I plan to attend as many events as possible. 

There is also a fellows program I will apply to as well.

FYI, my background is tax accounting (Big Four) and fund accounting (for a large Investment Mgmt firm)

Do your best to break out of the back office side and be very clear you’re looking for deal team exposure wherever you go. 

Any opps at your old firm to transition over?

Happy to go to PMs if you don’t want to clog the board. 

[Nuufaola]

There are two things you should do, one for banking and one for the next step:

On banking, set up an appointment with Xavier Sztenjberg, who basically is the leader, heart and soul of WSFM.  Tell him everything.  The advice above is all very good.  Kill your self your first semester and first year, as those are the grades that matter.   Oh, and I am shocked by people who don’t read the paper.     Pretty much everyone on Wall Street are voracious consumers of news.   Young people (not you) read instagram.  The key for NY is some blend of the WSJ, the NYT and the NY post.

You will never get into the buy side without a good banking job, so focus there.

 

A very good point was made above that it’s not typical for somebody to jump from banking to PE from the associate ranks.  I agree with that in general, but if you look at PE shops that have specialization, a lot of the laterals they take from banks have experience in banking in a subsector.  So, in consumer that is the LCatts and the TSGs, BX tac ops just hired a guy from Lazard to lead financial services, etc….   I also agree that the energy shops in TX can be more forgiving, but that means you are in Houston not NY (and, while my heart is in Texas, my ass is in NYC).   Most folks in PE were analysts in a bank for 2 or 3 years, and that is it.  So, you will need to be smart.   One idea is to find Ken Wiles, who leads the PE effort at UT.  Get an appointment with him and start networking with some of the folks he recommends.  

Oh, and if you want to go into PE, you pretty much have to be in a M&A focused banking job.  They are not hiring from the ECM team…

 

first things first, get the best IB job you can.