How I Cold Emailed My Way Into Wall Street

Exhausted, I walked into the cold cabin with my best friend Nick. It was getting dark as the sun faded behind the mountain tops. We turned on music, started a fire, cracked open some drinks and settled in for the evening.

We had just spent the day snowboarding, which preceded a 14-hour drive from Washington, DC to Burlington, Vermont, at Nick's parents lake house. We were toast.  

It was a time of dreaming. Our sophomore year of college and I  had visions of working on Wall Street and Nick wanted to become a doctor. We were both actively hustling and grinding to get opportunities and advance our careers and lives. 

Nick asked me where I would want to work if I had the perfect choice, and I immediately shot back that my top choice would be to work at Goldman Sachs. Goldman was the most prestigious investment bank in the world. Nick naturally said he wanted to be an MD/PhD at Harvard. 

As we sat there, staring out the window into the dark with thick snowflakes floating by, I realized that if I was going to get a job at the most prestigious bank in the world, I would have to take unique actions to make it happen.

I wasn't an Ivy Leaguer. I was at Virginia Tech, a mid-tier state school.

Nothing was going to be handed to me and I had no contacts who could pull me up. I knew I could do well on tests by memorizing information, but I have always been more scrappy than polished. Although I was 1st in my class for finance with a 4.0 GPA, I knew that good grades would never be enough; good grades were just the expectation. 

Finally, some liquid courage kicked in. I told Nick I was going to cold email one of the recruiters at Goldman Sachs. He told me to go for it. What do I have to lose?

I spent the next two hours writing. It was getting late, but we were energized. When I read the email and showed it to Nick we immediately realized it was too long. Investment bankers want info to be short and to the point, right? There's power in brevity.

I cut out 3/4ths of the email, focused on the key three things I wanted to say, and then had Nick proofread it again. 

We read it over and over, knowing I only had one shot. Finally, three hours later, we thought we had the perfect email.

Short, to the point, and focused. 

Email sent -- time for another drink. 

I passed out. I woke up the next morning with a hangover and freaking out. What had I done!

You can't just cold email the most prestigious investment bank in the world and expect to get a response. 

Time passed, Nick and I headed back to school. 

But then... a week later, I got a phone call from a 202 number... a Goldman recruiter? 

Yes... and she asked if I could come in for an interview. I said sure, do you want me to drive up today?

She laughed, and said no, it all has to be scheduled with their team. I said OK. We finally got a time on the calendar and I drove home for the interview. 

I was sweaty and nervous. I didn't sleep the night before. I had no idea what they would even ask me. I had never been to a "real" interview before. All my other jobs were babysitting, being a lifeguard, or working the register at a cafe. 

So I went in, thinking that my job was to pitch a stock. They're an investment bank right? They pitch investments to wealthy people, right? 

The interview began and I started answering their questions. I told them the truth. I was good at memorizing information, and that I had been trading stocks since I was 16 and was obsessed. I had read all the investment books, my favorite being Rich Dad, Poor Dad. I had invested in a liquified natural gas company and a company that made cases for iPhones, that was later acquired by Apple. 

I was also day trading options and making money to pay off my student loans and to pay for food and drinks on the weekend. I had had a good run, but other than that, I just wanted to be in an environment where I could learn from the best of the best and get to the next level.

They each asked me several brain teasers and I failed. They asked me complex math questions and I failed.

I told them the truth: I hadn't ever been good at brain teasers or on the spot math questions, but if they're important to know how to do, I will learn them for the job. 

They could tell I was hungry, and although lacking traditional Ivy League level skills or polish, I was transparent and honest, and I could feel they actually liked that. 

They were all really nice, but I left the interview scratching my head. 

I decided to follow up. I had collected all of their business cards with their work emails.

So, I immediately went home and sent each person I met with a short, personalized email with notes from each interview, thanking them for their time and gratitude for the opportunity, and that I hoped to work for them.

After I finished sending my follow up emails, I called my banker friend to tell him how it went, and he immediately laughed and told me I was supposed to wait 48 hours to email someone after an interview. Woops! 

Two days went by.... no emails back. 

Then... the 202 number hit my phone again. 

The recruiter called me and said that I had the ONE slot for the Sophomore Wealth Management Internship in Washington, DC, and I had beat out 7 other candidates, all from Ivy League institutions.

If I wanted the internship, I could have it.

The reason: the office wanted an intern who was "real”, and they liked the fact that I already had investment experience while the other candidates were not as active, and certainly not trading for their own personal portfolios. 

Now, as I stated, I was not polished. I totally bombed the internship and they didn't invite me back. But heck, it was an incredible experience. It also made me think ahead of what I wanted from my life - not what society and finance culture told me I should want. 

The best part of the experience was observing a productivity corporate culture and seeing what the lives looked like of those ahead of me. These were high achievers who prioritized their jobs ahead of everything. This was good to see. The exposure was everything to me and I'll never forget it. Still to this day, I've never been at a company with such an incredible level of focused talent and productivity. 

I went on to Junior year and used my cold email techniques to get an interview with McKinzie, but they quickly found during their interview that I couldn't do their brain teasers or math questions. Guess it wasn't for me. I told them exactly what I had told Goldman: solving brain teasers isn't a skill I use regularly, but I can learn if it is important to the job. They didn't like that answer as much. They really wanted me to do the high-level math in my head. 

Overall, what I learned is to keep going for it. You never know what doors will open. And even if they don't, there's much to learn and connections to create.

And by the way, I did end up making my way back to Wall Street in a roundabout way only a year after graduating. Each lesson I learned from my internships and interviews, I carried forward to serve me at the next job.

On my second go on Wall Street, I had finally acquired the skills and conversations that set me up for success.