Get a Goldman or Morgan Stanley IB Referral
You are not competing for one seat, you are competing for one analyst's 30 seconds. Give them a reason to type your name into the internal referral portal before their next deal call.
Find your warm intro →Free · No sign-up · See results in ~10 seconds
A plain LinkedIn search buries the people who would actually help you.
It ranks by prominence, so the most-followed, most-messaged names sit on top. FindWarmIntros surfaces the coworkers who share your school or a past employer - the people most likely to reply - and hands you a ready-to-send intro.
✍️ Ready-to-send intro“Hi - we both studied at [your school]. I’d love to hear about your path to a company you are targeting before I apply…”
… plus everyone else in your network who can put in a good word.
See who can refer you in - pick a investment banking target:
Why a first-year analyst is your best path in
MDs do not read the resumes in the general pile. The internal referral portal is where a submitted candidate jumps from the black hole to a recruiter's shortlist, and the people with portal access and time to use it are junior: analysts and associates one to three years ahead of you.
They also have an incentive you can use honestly. Most banks pay a referral bonus that only lands if you get hired, so a good analyst wants strong referrals in the system. Your job is to make yourself the obvious low-risk one to submit, not to convince them to do you a favor.
How to write the note that gets you submitted
The mistake is a long message that asks for a call before you have earned one. Reverse it. Open with the shared thread, prove fit in two lines, and hand them everything the portal needs so saying yes costs 30 seconds.
- Open with what you share, not the ask. Same school, same fraternity or investing club, same prior firm, same hometown desk. One specific sentence that shows you did not spray this to 40 people.
- Name the exact seat. The office, the group if you know it (M&A, TMT, Leveraged Finance), and the req or job ID. An analyst cannot refer you to 'investment banking', they submit you to one posting.
- Give a two-line why-me. One line of relevant proof (a deal you modeled, a valuation course, a prior finance internship), one line on why this group. Attach the resume so they never have to ask.
- Make the yes binary. Close with 'Totally fine if now is not a good time' and 'happy to send anything else the portal needs'. You want a one-word reply, not a negotiation.
Finding the analyst you actually share something with
The whole approach falls apart if you cold-message strangers, because a referral from someone who does not know you carries no weight and few will risk it. You need the overlap first: the Goldman analyst who was in your a cappella group, the Morgan Stanley associate who did your same summer program.
This is the finding-and-ranking part that FindWarmIntros does for you. Point it at Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley, and it surfaces the real people there who share your school or a past employer, ranks them by how connectable they are, and drafts the intro so you send the shared-thread note above instead of guessing who to write. You still do the human part, it just removes the hour of LinkedIn digging.
After they say yes, do not go quiet
A referral is the start of a relationship, not a transaction you close. Once an analyst submits you, send a two-line thank you and tell them when the recruiter reaches out, so they know their name was well spent.
If you get the interview, tell them. If you do not hear back in two weeks, a short 'any read on timing?' keeps you top of mind without nagging. Analysts remember who was easy to help, and the same person can re-submit you next cycle or flag you to the recruiter directly.