The #1 issue is that you don’t have internships. SF is less competitive than traditional IB roles, but you still need a relevant internship or two in most cases to have a good chance. I’m actually not sure what you mean, though, because you said you did not complete internships, but you also have previous work experience in RE brokerage (??).

For now, I would recommend aiming for less competitive roles within fixed income or even trying for something like CRE lending or another credit role in real estate since you seem to have some RE experience. These roles are also less competitive, and your chances will be higher if you have previous RE experience.

I have applied to many different roles/functions within SF which include but are not limited to: credit rating, IB, C/RMBS analyst, servicing, loan workout, CLO/ABS analyst, research, as well as other fixed income roles in general, however, I am not having much luck actually getting an interview within those roles. I have cold messaged individuals on LinkedIn & have received great advice from a few (mainly to keep networking), but once again, no luck.

Questions for you:
– Should I focus my efforts on applying to other roles within Fixed Income and trying to make the transition into SF later?
-Should I work on projects within Fixed Income/ SF to boost my resume?

Probably the Credit Ratings Analyst position because it’s a more general skill set. Structured Finance is quite specialized. This answer might change if the Structuring offer were at a Tier 1 bank, as the bank’s brand name might outweigh the specialized nature of the group in that case.

Thanks for sharing your insights as always! Super helpful! I’m currently considering two opportunities and was wondering which opportunity do you think would give me better odds of pivoting into LevFin, Corporate Banking, Equity / Credit Research, or IB Coverage group.

– Credit Ratings Analyst on the Corporates team (industrials coverage) at a big 3 rating agency (S&P / Moody’s)
– Securitized Products Structuring / Origination Analyst at a Tier 2/3 large bank

Thank You!

You have the best chance at direct lending / private lending, followed by an AM / pension fund that invests in ABS/MBS, followed by RE lending, followed by RE PE. I don’t think an MBA will be super-helpful at this point since your experience is already quite closely related, and so you are not really a career changer.

In theory, yes, you might be able to do this, but in practice, I’m not sure how easy it s to move from fintechs to IB-related roles, especially in a bad hiring market. An MBA would definitely let you make the move, but I wouldn’t recommend spending the time/money required for that until you do a bit of networking first and see if bankers are receptive to you. The biggest issue is that these types of moves depend almost entirely on how much hiring banks are doing, so they happened all the time in 2020 – 2021 but not as much now.

Thanks so much for this!

I think it will be tough because structured finance is so specialized. If you want to do private credit or direct lending, it would make more sense to move to Leveraged Finance at the bank (or an industry group that does a lot of debt deals) and then move in from there. Another option might be to look for a hedge fund or other credit fund that focuses specifically on structured products.