How to secure multiple IB offers in year 2? (Leo Ying’s success story)
Leo was pursuing his Bachelor’s degree from Cambridge. But before you feel that gave him an unfair advantage, do remember that UK universities offer 3-year graduate plans. So by the time he hit the 2nd year, he would already be a penultimate year student looking a looming graduation date, under the pressure of securing an offer earlier than his peers in Hong Kong or the US. He was determined to not defer in order to buy more time. So we mapped out a different strategy for him
Our winning strategy- Apply for S&T and target sales roles specifically. Especially because his personality was well- matched to the nature and demand of sales roles. Also since he was less technical, despite reading business courses like Economics, he didn’t pack sufficient product knowledge or programming skills. To be honest, when he did sign up with us we weren’t 100% sure that he could nail an #ibankoffer so we led with a balanced strategy. He aimed for S&T, PB especially focusing on Private Banking, since it didn’t require RMs to have extensive technical knowledge.
He also applied for commercial banking, a few sales roles, corporate banking and operations, as his safety net.
Our key focus: We helped him train up on how to stand out by having additional industry and business insights (to support his strong business background). We told him it wasn't enough to know what is FX swap and interest rate, instead he should be able to differentiate and compare it with associations as well. For instance, for HSBC, you need to be able to highlight how the division can grow, upcoming pitching strategies (market views and strategies). The aim was to train him to become someone who though was a year 2 student, yes he would be equipped with knowledge equivalent to that of a graduate analyst or even an associate, by understanding in-depth market insights, positions, and company specific insights.
More importantly, to groom his sales personality, soft skills would be fundamentally imp. So we emphasized a lot on training soft skills, preparing him to answer behavioural questions, so that he could set himself apart from his peers.
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