The school you went to is the most important thing. They don't recruit at less prestigious schools. I was lucky. I didn't go to a great school. I mean in my analyst class, we had thirty from Harvard, twenty from Wharton{'s undergraduate program}, and only five from {my top-fifteen school}. Once in a while, you see someone from a state school. But usually they're there because of connections. The most common type of connection was a personal one-either a direct or indirect friendship-with an employee of a particular firm. Michael, also a banker, came from a nonlisted school. He used his own job search experience as an example of the usefulness of connections: If you're not from the core, then it's much more difficult to get a job here. All firms say that you can submit your résumé online, but I'm not sure if I've ever heard of someone who was successful this way. In my case, I had to come out here {to New York, from the South}, work through friends and friends of friends, really use connections and be proactive.
( Lauren A. Rivera )
[ Pedigree: How Elite Students ]
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