UCLA Investment Banking Recruiting: A Comprehensive Guide
What clubs do I join? Am I networking right? Where do I apply? All your questions answered, and more!
Table of Contents:
Background:
When I packed my bags two years ago to head over to Los Angeles from Dubai, it didn't take me long to realize that my understanding of finance was limited to Leonardo DiCaprio starting to explain what an IPO is (probably because I watched this scene on the 16 hour flight over). Somewhere between the in-flight snacks and jet lag, I realized that I didn’t even know people used the words investment and banking in conjunction.
Thankfully, I got a little lucky; when the Enormous Activities Fair rolled around during Week 0 of fall quarter, someone randomly handed me a flyer for a finance club as I was trekking past Royce Hall. I applied, interviewed, got in, and never looked back. This serendipitous encounter defined my freshman and sophomore years of college, igniting a passion for investing, helping me land a junior summer analyst position at an investment bank, and demystifying the entire recruiting process.
Fast-forward to present day, I’ve noticed a growing interest in banking at UCLA which has manifested into students securing offers from the crème de la crème of Wall Street, often without the backing of clubs or traditional resources. And so, I decided to produce this recruiting guide to hopefully help you do the same. Let’s get started!
Freshman Year:
Note: This guide is written chronologically assuming you're a freshman, but even if you’re an upperclassman, the following sections are still packed with resources so make sure to keep reading!
Determine if you’re interested
Before you worry about club applications or networking, you should ideally determine if you have a genuine interest in investment banking. To start, I’d recommend working your way through some of the resources below to see if the field appeals to you:
RareLiquid’s Guide to Investment Banking (YouTube Video)
PeakFrameworks’ Investment Banking 101 (YouTube Series)
The Wall Street Journal (Not directly related to investment banking, but highly relevant to gauge interest in finance/business)
Don’t feel like the threshold for this “interest” needs to be incredibly high as you’re unlikely to have any experience in banking as a freshman. However, if you find yourself moderately interested in learning about finance or found the resources to be engaging, I’d encourage you to give the field a shot.
Also, as a quick note, investment banking recruiting for junior summer internships takes place in the winter/spring of your sophomore year (yes, an entire year in advance). Therefore, it's pivotal that once you identify whether you're interested, you get started early.
Resume and Networking (Fall Quarter)
Take it from me: fall quarter can be quite overwhelming, with the challenges of moving in, organizing class schedules, and socializing all vying for top priority. Amidst this whirlwind, it’s important to note that finance club recruiting tends to kick off within the first couple weeks of the quarter.
Being proactive—involving crafting your resume and networking with upperclassmen early—is essential to increase your likelihood of getting into clubs (which we’ll focus on more later). Let’s delve into each category in detail:
Resume Building:
Note: At this stage, it is completely understandable (and rather expected) if you have little to no work experience listed on your resume. Leverage your high school accomplishments and a well-formatted resume to stand out.
Before we talk about templates, I wanted to share a few general tips that might help guide you when you work on crafting your resume:
Keep your resume to one page.
Do not include photos of yourself.
Do include high school accomplishments, activities, and test scores at this stage.
Avoid bullet points that span more than one or two lines. Follow the 3-point structure.
Quantify achievements to show impact (e.g. “Analyzed XYZ document, leading to a 15% increase in revenue”). Here’s a resource to help you in this process.
Use a traditional resume template (this one is a little counterintuitive, but I suggest steering clear of overly colorful or LaTeX-produced resumes as these often diverge from industry norms).
Proofread your resume thoroughly for spelling, grammar, and formatting errors.
Use VMock to optimize your resume after drafting it (free for UCLA students, click Higher Education when logging in).
As mentioned above, finance resumes tend to be cookie-cutter. In general, there are two formats that candidates most often use and I’d recommend you to do the same:
WSO’s Investment Banking Resume Template (scroll to bottom of page)
These templates might seem a little intimidating as they presume you have past internship/job experience, but you can edit out portions like “Selected Deal Experience” if they do not apply to your high school activities.
Lastly, I’d advise you to have friends, family members, or upperclassmen read through your resume once to see if they have any feedback regarding diction or formatting (although, there are diminishing returns to this approach so maybe limit this to 3-5 people). I'm also happy to review your resume for free if you email me at rajvirkohli@g.ucla.edu!
Networking:
Finance club recruiting is competitive, with acceptance rates ranging from 5-10%. Networking is your tool to stand out.
Now, if you’ve never formally “networked” before, this process might seem a little foreign. However, in practice, it is fairly simple. I’ve broken this down to two steps:
(1) Building Contacts: Use LinkedIn (if you haven’t made a profile yet, now would be a good time) and club websites to identify sophomores or juniors running student organizations. Then, send them a short message on LinkedIn and ask to connect over coffee to introduce yourself and learn more about their club. You could say something like this:
(2) Networking: An in-depth guide about how to network could be a blog post in itself, but here are some best practices to help you figure out how exactly to approach this process:
Prepare Questions: Before your conversation, plan a few questions about the person's journey and their club. Ask about their role, the club's activities, and how it operates. This not only demonstrates that you’ve done your homework but also helps the conversation flow naturally.
Be Authentic: Approach the conversation as a genuine exchange. Share your aspirations and listen actively to their insights. Avoid trying to impress; instead, focus on building a real connection.
Find Common Ground: Look for shared interests or experiences. Discussing mutual hobbies or goals can create a strong bond and make the conversation more engaging.
Active Listening: Pay attention to their responses and ask follow-up questions. This part of the conversation is essential to build rapport with the other person.
Express Gratitude: Afterward, send a brief thank you message. Mention a key takeaway from the conversation to show you valued their input.
Stay in Touch: Networking doesn’t end after one conversation. Make sure to keep-in-touch with the individual you’ve spoken to by sending them updates (e.g. letting them know you attended their info session or link them an article that relates to your conversation).
To reiterate, once you've set up a time to speak with someone in-person or over a phone call, remember that your goal is to build an authentic relationship—not just simply transact. When you engage in a conversation, don't approach it like a formal interview. Instead, aim to connect on a personal level. Ask about their experiences, learn about their journey, and share a bit about yourself too. Networking is a two-way street.
Note: Remember that at the end of the day, you’re speaking to college students who are only a year or so ahead of you. Treat the networking process at this stage like making a new friend.
Apply to Clubs (Fall Quarter & Winter Quarter):
Think of club applications as applying to college all over again. You'll be crafting essays, sharing your resume, and even facing interviews, all in bite-sized form. With a whole bunch of clubs to choose from, my suggestion is throw your hat in the ring for a fair few of them (including consulting or entrepreneurship-focused clubs) to hedge your risk and also see if other fields interest you.
Below, I have provided a non-exhaustive list of clubs based on their focus and historical placement:
Most clubs and fraternities host an information session before their application is due. This is your golden ticket to speak to club members in person and get the full scoop on the club’s offerings. Hopefully, you have your resume down pat at this point and should go to as many of these sessions as possible to reinforce your connections.
Moving onto the fun stuff—coffee chats and final-round interviews, which are the crux of every club’s recruitment process.
Picture this: you find yourself at Kerckhoff patio in an uncomfortable suit surrounded by a small group of fellow students and a club member, engaging in casual conversations about your backgrounds and areas of interest. This is the coffee chat in a nutshell.
The final-round interview—specifically for investment banking clubs—is a bit more taxing, and is usually split into two sections:
Behavioral: This portion of the interview attempts to gauge your cultural fit (which is a catchall term for whether you seem personable, coachable, and willing to help others). It is honestly quite hard to game, but you can do a few things to stand out:
Prepare answers to common interview questions beforehand (e.g. tell me about yourself or why this specific club) and
Focus on demonstrating your knowledge of the club’s specific offerings and culture (which is something you can directly pull from your networking calls or through research of their website). Above all, be genuine and try your best to answer questions with confidence.
A good behavioral answer is one that is usually <1-2 minutes, offers insight into your background/story, and ties it all together to explain your interest in the club and finance. To do this efficiently, I’d plan out stories or answers to common interview questions using the STAR method.
Technical: Once you make it past the coffee chats, most clubs will provide you with technical guides that you’re expected to familiarize yourself with before your interview (typically 2-3 days prior). As a freshman, there isn’t a huge emphasis on how much you recall from these guides; rather, the goal is to assess whether you had the commitment to do a little bit of preparation beforehand.
Also, expect to encounter questions that measure your business acumen—these could encompass recent market trends, noteworthy news articles, or your grasp of general operational dynamics across diverse industries.
Finance clubs generally recruit once in the fall and once in the winter. If you’re able to get into the ones mentioned above—great! They’ll usually take the reins from here and help guide you on potential next steps.
If not, don’t worry: it’s more than possible to recruit successfully for a job if you’re committed enough to keep going by yourself. I’d recommend a few next steps if you find yourself in this position:
Sign up for the Undergraduate Business Society (UBS) mailing list. This is going to be pivotal moving forward. Look out for the following resources:
During the Fall and Winter, UBS hosts programs like the "Bruin Development Academy for Banking and Finance" that help educate you on the industry and any imminent deadlines. Once you’re on the mailing list, you’ll receive bi-weekly emails updating you on such events.
UBS also hosts office hours every week. This allows you to chat with members of the organization that’ve successfully recruited for internships (including myself!) and ask for 1-on-1 advice on preparation.
Continue speaking with club members, other freshman interested in investment banking, and upperclassmen to build a network of mentors who can help you navigate the recruiting process and provide you with resources—in a nutshell, build a club for yourself.
Apply to Boutique Investment Banks & Maximize Freshman Year (Winter/Spring Quarter):
At this point, you've read a lot about resumes, networking, and clubs. Before I dive into internships—the most important part of your banking recruiting journey—let's go over a checklist for your freshman year to make sure you stay on track:
The greater number of these items you can mark off, the higher your chances of effectively recruiting for internships during your freshman year. Now, let's get into how you can find these roles and crush your interviews.
Finding Relevant Banks & Networking
The process of finding internships at boutique investment banks in your freshman/sophomore year is extremely unstructured. Often, you have to rely on cold emailing and networking to even land an interview or perhaps get lucky with the 5-ish internships posted on Handshake every quarter. Let’s walk through a tutorial on how you can find these banks using LinkedIn and then structure an email to hopefully land an internship.
Note: A common question is which specific boutique banks to apply to as you follow the process below. In general, any experience as a freshman/sophomore is great, but I’d optimize for firms that offer interns the ability to work on live transactions. To check for this, I’d recommend networking with previous interns to gauge their experiences.
(1) Find a bank (preferably in LA so you can work in person) that has taken other UCLA interns before:
The easiest way to do this is to go to the LinkedIn profiles of upperclassmen in business clubs/fraternities and see where they’ve previously interned. The video below gives you a quick tutorial on how to do this if you’re unfamiliar with LinkedIn:
(2) Make a list of banks you’re interested in and get the contact information of Analysts/Associates at the bank to shoot them a networking email. To do this, I’d recommend downloading the Apollo.io Chrome extension (and here’s another tutorial to demonstrate this):
If Apollo doesn’t return an email, use NeverBounce or search Google for “XYZ Bank email format” to guesstimate your contact’s email address.
(3) Once you have a list of potential contacts, I’d recommend drafting an email template that you can edit and send to each contact based on their background and firm. Here’s an example:
(4) If you don’t get a response from your initial email, follow-up after a week with your contact and reiterate your interest in their firm. If you get a response, banks will usually schedule an introductory call that could range from a simple conversation about your background to a full-blown interview. Here’s how to prepare for these interviews (and any potential further ones from there):
Interview Preparation for Boutique Bank Internships
Technical Prep: The de facto technical guide used in a majority of investment banking interviews is the BIWS 400 Questions guide, which you can probably find online or on the Breaking Into Wallstreet website. If you’re able to confidently answer all the questions in that guide, you’re likely ready to take on most interviews at this stage. If you find the content overwhelming, BIWS also offers additional guides for each topic (e.g. Accounting/Valuation) that focus on core corporate finance theory.
As a supplement, IBVine is a great resource to test your technical competence after you’ve made a dent into the BIWS guides.
Also, expect interviewers to focus on your general finance knowledge. To keep up, make sure you spend time reading the Wall Street Journal and immerse yourself within finance concepts/news on YouTube, Twitter etc.
Behavioral Prep: BIWS’s 400 Question guide also includes fit/behavioral questions, but you should also prepare for other general questions like:
Tell me about yourself in 2-3 minutes.
Why investment banking?
Why investment banking at our firm specifically?
What does our firm do?
Where do you see yourself in 5-10 years?
What typically goes in an investment banking pitch deck?
Tell me your three greatest strengths & three greatest weaknesses
How have your past experiences prepared you for IB?
Note: I’d also prepare general “stories” that you can adapt for different types of behavioral questions. For example, you might be asked to describe your greatest success or a time where you successfully led a team—it’s generally easiest to prepare stories that you can slot into any of these questions. As mentioned earlier, I’d recommend structuring these stories using the STAR method.
Importantly, once you feel like you’ve made headway with your interview preparation, you should do as many mock interviews with upperclassmen as you can (try to do 1-2/week minimum as a rule of thumb). If you’re in a business club, this process is relatively straightforward; if not, utilize resources like UBS or LinkedIn to find mentors/peers who are interested in investment banking to mock you. These mocks compound your performance for real interviews and are perhaps the most important portion of your preparation process.
Sophomore Year:
Investment Banking Events & Programs
Investment banking recruiting tends to kicks off during Winter quarter of sophomore year, with banks on the West Coast usually going first (~Feb - Apr) and New-York-based banks shortly following them through the summer.
To maximize your chance of landing a junior summer internship, business clubs and the UCLA Economics department run a few programs that are incredibly useful in helping you network with bankers and prepare for interviews. Here are a few:
Undergraduate Business Society Investment Banking Workshop: Runs early winter quarter of sophomore year and the program takes around ~30 students per year. The interview process is extremely technical and requires you to know your corporate finance concepts down to a science. If you’re able to get into the program, you’ll have the opportunity to network with 15+ banks, in-person, over a few weeks which can directly lead to interviews.
The UBS Investment Banking committee has recently run accelerators over winter break before interviews roll around for students who aren’t in business clubs/fraternities. This can be a great chance to familiarize yourself with technical concepts you’ve previously studied.
William Sharpe Fellows Program: Run by the UCLA Economics Department and kicks off either in the fall or winter of your sophomore year. The program also takes around ~30 students per year and focuses on assigning students mentors who are UCLA alum and have a background in investment banking and finance.
Business Clubs: If you weren’t able to join a finance club in your freshman year, you still have a shot as a sophomore. In the fall and winter, clubs will usually recruit ~2-4 sophomores each; although, the bar is much higher than a freshman candidate as you’re expected to be much more adept at technical concepts. If you can get into a club your sophomore year, that should give you enough mentorship to navigate recruiting without the UBS Workshop or the Sharpe Fellowship (though, these programs are still extremely useful).
Navigating Interview Preparation & Networking
Admittedly, this section is a little short. The actual process of recruiting for junior summer positions is functionally similar to the tips covered in the Freshman section—however, giving actionable advice on how to find banks you’re interested in, networking, and further interview prep is quite esoteric and largely dependent on the individual person’s interests.
If you’re in your sophomore year and looking to figure out strategies for recruiting and what to do next, I am happy to do a free 30-minute call if you email me at rajvirkohli@g.ucla.edu (PS: not selling a service or anything, just trying to offer any insight I can). If you’d like to see more long-form content based on specific recruiting processes (e.g. technology or energy banking), please message me and I’d be glad to write something up.
Regardless, what I can say is that the recruiting process is difficult, and especially so when you do it alone. As best you can, I’d try to build a group of friends who are also recruiting at the same time as you—whether this involves a club, workshop/program, or just your own networking.
Note: I’ve noticed that a lot of students tend to strongly focus on recruiting in New York. While this is completely logical and doable, I would caution that UCLA is primarily a target for banks in SF/LA with a steep drop in relevance elsewhere. If possible, I’d advise you to be open to a few geographies when recruiting to diversify your risk.
Edit: Here’s an additional mini-guide targeted for sophomores recruiting for LA Banks. I’ve provided a small edited excerpt below:
Target Schools: USC, Berkeley, and UCLA are the main target schools for banks in LA and SF. There is also representation from Stanford, the Claremont colleges, and other T20 schools (Northwestern, seen a couple Wharton, etc). A lot of the LA offices also have a heavy Wharton presence.
Grades: 3.5 GPA required, 3.8+ is competitive.
Resume: 1-2 finance internships, preferably 1 investment banking internship (at a boutique). Refer to the sections above to find these internships.
Technicals: You should know M&I Advanced Guides and BIWS 400 Technicals cold, then start prepping beyond that. Paper LBOs are common for Super Days especially at the Financial Sponsors groups. LA interviews are generally more technical than NY interviews so be prepared. Technicals are really just a box to check, will never be the thing that gets you the job.
Behaviorals: Have a strong why LA story and make it clear you are only recruiting for LA. Know a deal, industry trends/deals if it's a coverage group, and have 5 stories you can use for all "Tell Me About a Time" behavioral questions.
Third Party Accelerators, Programs, and Insight Days
Bulge bracket banks and third-party firms often host an array of events that can help you prepare for recruiting or directly lead to an internship. I have listed a few here but I’m sure there are plenty more (thanks to Reagan for providing this information, I’ve edited his notes):
(1) Consider applying for the Freshman and Sophomore Insight programs offered by bulge bracket banks, particularly if you aspire to work in New York. These programs can significantly enhance your prospects, as participants gain a distinct advantage in the recruiting process. By joining these programs, you'll not only have the opportunity to network with industry professionals and engage in valuable case studies but also enjoy the benefit of an all-expenses-paid trip to New York, including accommodation.
Let's take JP Morgan as an example. They select only 100 students for their Sophomore Insight Day in New York. Out of these, 50 spots are reserved for Freshman Focus participants, another 25 are chosen from the Virtual Sophomore Insight Day (if you miss out as a freshman, there's still a chance here), and the remaining 25 are selected from the Career Education track. This Insight Day often leads to an interview when recruiting rolls around.
To access these opportunities, start by exploring the following links and be sure to subscribe to their career newsletters. These newsletters often feature updates and notifications about such programs. To streamline your search, create an account and use filters to focus on pre-internship programs or specifically search for insight days:
Note: These are the primary ones, but it's worth noting that other firms such as BNY Mellon, BNP Paribas, Schroder, MUFG, Citadel, and Point72 also offer similar programs. You can easily locate these opportunities by visiting their respective student career portals.
(2) Finance accelerators can be immensely useful and are a great alternative to clubs/workshops on campus. Here’s a slightly edited excerpt from Reagan sharing his experience with one such accelerator (not an ad):
Participating in finance accelerators, like Recalc Academy, can greatly enhance your career prospects. Here's how:
Expert Guidance: Recalc Academy's instructors bring extensive experience in investment banking and private equity (PE). They offer practical training that's accessible to individuals from various backgrounds.
Access to Opportunities: Once enrolled, you'll join a network where internship and job openings are often shared early, providing a competitive advantage. Recalc Academy has partnerships with PE firms, bolstering your chances of landing buy-side roles.
Networking: Connect with talented students across the U.S., spanning both buy and sell sides of finance. Recalc Academy hosts networking events, helping you build valuable industry relationships.
Interview Prep: The program includes interview preparation, with instructors offering mock interviews and assistance in crafting your personal story.
The finance accelerator program at Recalc Academy is free, and applications typically open in September. Learn more here.
These are just a couple examples of programs you can apply to as a freshman or sophomore. I’d advise you to check the career portals of banks and Handshake/LinkedIn to find these opportunities early.
💭 That’s it, thanks for reading this guide! I won’t lie, this one took me a while. If you’ve enjoyed it, perhaps like or share the post here on LinkedIn. Expect more content focused on finance and recruiting regularly!
This is amazing and wonderfully detailed. Very nice of you to help fellow UCLA students. Go Bruins!