Networking advice can be generic. What working finance professionals told us wasn’t.
Search “how to network in finance,” and you’ll find the same generic advice repeated across dozens of articles. Update your LinkedIn. Get a business card. Have a firm handshake and follow up politely. None of it explains what to actually say to a stranger, or why it matters in the first place.
Professionals who’ve spent years navigating their own careers give more specific advice. After all, they’ve also lived through the same uncertainty. At an IENYC Finance Club panel on cross-border transactions, senior professionals from top firms shared what really works.
Recruiters, and in many cases AI bots, sort through hundreds of resumes for every open role. Any single resume struggles to stand out.
Applications are also growing much faster than the jobs themselves. Candidates submitted 356 million applications through Workday in 2024, a 26% jump in a year. Job openings on the platform rose 7%.
“The reality is that there are a lot of applications, and it’s very difficult to filter someone based on a resume,” said Carlos Beltrán González, Investment Banking Vice President at Lazard. “The more you engage with people, the more opportunities you have for a varied set of firms to actually recommend or refer you.”
That’s the advantage conversations have over applications alone. A resume competes with hundreds, or even thousands, of others. A conversation, even a short one, gives someone a reason to remember your name, whether that’s in three weeks or three years.
Events like the Finance Club panel that brought González to IENYC are among the easiest places to start. They put you in the same room as people you might otherwise only reach online.
Many people treat networking as a step in the job search, as something to pick up once an internship or role is on the table. But the people who get the most out of it are those who treat it as a lifelong habit. By the time an opportunity comes up, their name is already attached to a conversation, not just an introduction.
Knowing why these conversations matter is one thing. Knowing how to network in finance with someone you’ve never met is another.
Reaching out to someone you’ve never met can feel presumptuous and even rude. Many people just getting started in finance avoid it entirely because they assume that professionals don’t have time for unsolicited messages or calls.
González disagrees. “Start early, begin conversations with people that you know, or even cold call people. That’s always an option,” he said.
Cold outreach doesn’t require a polished pitch, and it usually doesn’t mean calling a stranger out of nowhere. A short LinkedIn message or email referencing a shared connection, professor, university or mutual contact is often enough to get a response.
For those without an existing network, panels and events are a practical way in, since they are a great natural way to introduce yourself to someone whose name you can reference later. Your first message works best when it’s more specific than slick, since the point is to open a door, not impress someone.
It’s easy to treat networking as a numbers game, where more contacts mean more opportunities. But that misses the real point of these conversations. Jake Foley, a VP at Tungsten Advisors, says that your focus when looking for opportunities in finance “should be on fit and feel.” Whether or not you’re happy working at a particular firm matters more than the name on the sign.
What he means is that networking works in both directions. While someone is evaluating you, you’re also picking up on the way that person, and ultimately their team and firm, talks about their work, clients and culture. Do their methods and personality appeal to you, too?
Reframing networking as a mutual assessment, rather than someone putting on a performance to impress people in higher positions, often makes it feel less transactional and considerably less exhausting.
Once a job offer is signed, it’s tempting to see networking as finished. After all, the ultimate goal of all of this was to get a job, right? But that instinct can actually work against you, as people who already have jobs may benefit most from staying connected.
“Once you’re working at a firm, don’t feel shy about looking around and seeing what’s there, because you never know what’s on the other side of the fence,” González said. He pointed to how much movement exists in the industry: “M&A and investment banking are very liquid sectors. There are always lots of opportunities to change firms and sectors. Don’t feel like you’re tied to one firm.”
Careers in finance rarely move in a straight line. The relationships built early, both inside and outside your first jobs, often shape what options exist five or ten years later. Continuing to have conversations beyond your job search keeps those options open.
The first conversation is usually the hardest, but also the least consequential. Nobody remembers their first cold email months or even years later, but plenty of people remember the person who eventually followed up, showed genuine interest or asked a good question at the right moment.
There’s no ideal moment to begin, which also means there’s no reason to wait for one.
Programs like the MS in Finance at IE New York College are built around the kind of access and industry connections this article describes. Learn more about the program here.
Keep it to three or four sentences. Name the connection point in the first line. State one specific thing you want to ask about, such as how they moved from audit into corporate development. Then propose 15 minutes to meet rather than an open-ended “chat.” Vague requests are the ones that go unanswered.
A week is reasonable for a first follow-up, and once more after two or three weeks. After that, stop. Instead of chasing, give the relationship a reason to restart later: comment on a deal their firm closed, or send a note when you finish the program. Silence usually means bad timing rather than rejection.
The mechanics are the same, but the starting point often isn’t. Students who arrive without a US network lean harder on structured settings, such as club panels, alumni events and professional associations. It also helps to be direct about your timeline early in a conversation, since hiring processes and start dates vary by firm.
Yes, though the rhythm changes. Asset management, private credit and corporate finance teams hire in smaller numbers and less predictably than banking analyst classes. That makes referrals matter more, because a single conversation can put you on a list before a role is posted.
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Emma is a writer, translator, linguist and editor from Washington, DC, USA. Her career has taken her from social media management to copywriting, inventory buying for a major retail chain, events management and even teaching.
Emma received a B.S. in Business Administration with a concentration in marketing and a minor in French from Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA. During that time, she studied abroad in York, England and Rennes, France, where she developed an interest in cross-cultural communication and linguistics. After relocating to Madrid, Spain, she began specializing in writing, focusing on topics like travel, marketing and culture.
Currently, Emma works full-time for IE University’s narrative team. In her free time, she enjoys reading, hiking and exploring the city.
