The EXACT Networking Call Routine I Used to Land Referrals (9 Parts)

August 03, 2025

I did 78 networking calls in three months when recruiting for banking sophomore year.

As a non-target, you have ZERO chance of landing a first round interview without a referral.

A banker has to push your resume to HR for you to get invited.

I sounded like a fake, awkward robot my first few calls…

But had my routine down to a science by the end & was landing referrals like clock work.

Most kids don’t realize that these calls are 99% personality tests.

They’re testing whether they’d enjoy spending 80 hr/wk at the desk next to you.

This means the more non-banking talk you can do, the better.

That’s how you separate yourself and build genuine, personal connections.

If they like you on a personal level, they’ll be 10x more likely to push your resume to HR.

Building connections with strangers on the phone is super awkward and takes some getting used to -

So here’s a full breakdown of the nine parts of my routine I used to land referrals sophomore year.

PART 1 - DOING MY HOMEWORK

Your goal for every call is to find common ground with the banker.

This can be a sport you both like, a place you’ve both visited, a state you both grew up in…

Establishing a common interest makes you stand out from the 50 other kids they’ve had calls with.

My strategy was to reverse engineer a commonality by stalking their LinkedIn & Facebook beforehand.

You just have to be careful and bring it up in a way that doesn’t make you sound like a stalker.

Here are three examples of items I researched to reverse engineer commonalities.

  • COLLEGE ATHLETE / HOCKEY PLAYER

    I was a forward on the Men’s Division I team at my college & played high-level AAA as a kid. Under “Activities and societies” on LinkedIn, I looked for fellow college athletes or anything related to hockey or other sports I played growing up. Prime example below

  • HOMETOWN / STATE

    Not many bankers in New York are from Illinois. I looked through “Education” sections on LinkedIn profiles for bankers that either went to high school or college in Illinois. Even better if they had a connection to Central Illinois where I grew up.

  • STUDY ABROAD

    At the time, I was in the process of deciding where I wanted to study abroad. I looked for bankers that had study abroad Universities listed in their “Education” sections on LinkedIn

PART 2 - SETTING UP SHOP

Here’s a picture of the setup I had in my apartment for every call.

You should have a go-to, quiet spot where you can stand & take good notes.

Here are a few tips to keep in mind when setting up shop.

  • TIP #1 - STAND UP. Your voice projects much better when you stand. Even better if you can pace around the room a bit. I took 90% of my calls from the high counter in the kitchen of my two bedroom college apartment.

  • TIP #2 - HEART RATE. I always did pushups, jumping jacks & listened to Big Bootie Mix on SoundCloud in the minutes leading up to a call. You need to come with as much energy as possible. Your positive attitude can turn their day around if they’ve been stressed all week.

  • TIP #3 - GO-TO QUIET SPACE. Find a quiet spot to use over and over and over. If you live in a frat / sorority house, your bedroom probably isn't the best bet.

  • TIP #4 - TEXT YOUR ROOMMATES. I always shot my roommate a text that I had a call. Then he'd know not to blast music in the shower / come in the front door in the middle of a heated argument on the phone.

  • TIP #5 - SCRATCH PAPER. On the counter, I always had a blank sheet of looseleaf with my five or six prepped questions at the top. By the end of the call, the sheet was filled top to bottom with notes from the chat. Don’t type notes. Typing can be loud and if they hear you on the other end of the line, it can come across as rude.

  • TIP #6 - LINKEDIN PULLED UP. Next to the scratch paper, I’d have my laptop open with their LinkedIn profile pulled up. Having their profile pic in front of you helps put a face to a name and makes it feel like you're talking to a real human.

PART 3 - MAKING THE CALL

Always call right on the dot.

I watched the second hand on my iPhone clock and hit dial right as it switched over. This shows punctuality & attention to detail. Most bankers won’t notice but I had a few that specifically called this out and were impressed.

Just know ~15% of bankers you call won’t pick up the phone.

Don’t panic. They’re not ghosting you. They probably just got caught up in a meeting.

Dial the number one more time and leave a brief voicemail.

Then send a quick email on the same chain asking if they’d like to reschedule. Something like this.

PART 4 - FIRST MINUTE

Anything but “Good”.

When they ask “How are you?” when picking up the phone - NEVER say “Good, how are you?…”

You need to have a detailed, specific answer prepared that strategically hints at your common interest.

For example if I was talking to a fellow college hockey player, I’d respond with something like

“…doing pretty great!…actually kind of exhausted though…just got back from hockey practice and we had a conditioning skate this morning…” or “…been a pretty fantastic start to the week!…mostly just been settling in after a long hockey road trip this past weekend…”

That would then bait them into responding by sharing how they could relate…

Which would then lead to a 20min tangent conversation about hockey.

That extended small talk is what builds trust & the true personal connection you’re looking for.

It’s what’ll set you apart from the crowd and get you those referrals.

PART 5 - SET THE AGENDA

It’s your job to formally state an agenda as soon as the small talk dies down.

This involves you outlining how you’d like to structure the call & asking if that works for them.

I repeated these four sentences on all 78 of my calls.

  • SENTENCE 1 - “Yea so Jason I just wanted to say thank you again for taking the time to chat today…really appreciate you being so generous with your time especially given how busy you guys have been like you mentioned earlier…”

  • SENTENCE 2 - “…so I know I sent over my resume in that initial email, but what I was thinking for this call is that I could start off by giving a brief overview of my background…”

  • SENTENCE 3 - “…and then after that I’d love to hear a little bit more about you and your background and what brought you to where you are today at Bank of America if that sounds good to you…”

  • SENTENCE 4 - “…and then I just had some follow-up questions as well I’d love to ask if possible…”

They’ll then say “Yep…works for me…” & from there you just dive into your elevator pitch.

PART 6 - ELEVATOR PITCH

Your two minute elevator pitch should follow this four-part framework.

  • PART 1 - CONTEXT

    Quick few sentences on your background.

    Mention where you’re from, what took up most of your time growing up & the story of what brought you to choose your college & major.

  • PART 2 - BUSINESS / FINANCE SPARK

    Over-simplify how it actually happened and claim it was one specific person, event or experience that “sparked” your interest in finance or investment banking.

  • PART 3 - GROWING INTEREST

    Provide evidence of how you’ve taken action to deepen that interest after the initial spark.

    This should follow a logical narrative where each step naturally transitions into the next.

    For example, let’s say you worked on a consulting project that had a business valuation component and the valuation component is what you liked the most.

    You could explain that then make the logical transition on how that led to you taking a financial modeling course online…which then led to you joining an investment banking case competition…etc…etc…

  • PART 4 - WHY YOU’RE HERE TODAY

    How the story you just told brings you right to this very moment in this call for this firm.

    Why this firm & specific internship is the perfect fit for your long-term plans based on that self-discovery path you just explained.

Here’s a personal example of what I put into each piece of that framework.

  • CONTEXT - Couple sentences on hometown / background - Mentioning how hockey took up most of my time outside school & how I commuted to play AAA to be seen by college scouts

  • BUSINESS / FINANCE SPARK - Explained how first got interested in business since dad had his own medical practice. Enjoyed learning about the business-side of the operations opposed to the medical side. Led me to choose college based on both hockey and strong business program. College was also close to home & dad was alumni making choice easy

  • GROWING INTEREST - Explored all realms of business by joining tons extracurriculars first semester. Most interested by intro to M&A org. Conversation with older cousin who did two years banking before private equity to learn about career path. Found lots parallels between sport fell in love with from young age of hockey and banking (fast pace, competitive). Figured career would be perfect fit for me. Led me to pursue investment banking academy on campus & enroll in case competitions

  • WHY YOU’RE HERE TODAY - Explain how all that has brought me here & I’m focused on NYC & elite boutique / middle market for recruitment due to small town values. Had convos with a few of that banker’s peers who recommended reaching out to them next. Excited to hear perspective on tech group & what transition has been like with their recent promotion

PART 7 - THE CONVERSATION

If you nailed the small talk, agenda & elevator pitch - the rest is about not screwing up.

Here are two rookie mistakes that can cost you a referral.

MISTAKE #1 - AFFIRMATIVES

Always press the mute button when they are speaking.

You might think saying “uh-huh” and “hmm, interestinggg” every 30sec shows you’re engaged…

Which is true in a face-to-face conversation.

But it’s flat out ANNOYING on the phone & a pet peeve of many investment bankers.

You also never know what if phone is picking up random static in the background that the banker could find annoying as well.

MISTAKE #2 - INTERROGATION

I’ve done mock calls with hundreds of sophomores and this is by far the biggest issue they have.

Most kids sound like robots and just read off the list of questions they prepared.

Every question should be a “follow-up” that's a natural progression based on something the banker mentioned in their previous response.

Here’s how the back-and-forth should go.

When it’s your turn to speak -

First respond with a 30sec spiel pointing out something specific they said that resonated with you.

Then transition into the next question by prompting an open-ended response with something like

“...so I guess along with that…I was also curious to hear more about the placement process and what that specifically looked like for you at Bank of America...”

“...I know you briefly mentioned how it was between healthcare and consumer for you and how you ended up in healthcare…”

“...so could you maybe expand a bit more on that process and how your group is setup within BofA as well with what the typical deal team looks like and how much interaction you have with the other groups?..."

PART 8 - GIVING AN OUT

The industry standard is 30min for a networking call.

Don’t be the kid that sends a calendar invite for 45min.

It should look like this.

If you’re lucky, some calls last much longer.

I had one with a guy at Barclays last almost two hours. Safe to say he pushed my resume.

What you need to do is “give them an out” to be respectful of their time.

At around 25min, I always found a good spot to step in and say

“…well Jason I do see we are coming up on that thirty minute mark and I know you probably have a ton to get back to so I do want to be respectful of your time…”

“...if you do have a few extra minutes to keep chatting I’d love to continue on, but if not I completely understand…”

“...but before we hop of, I was hoping you could answer just ONE LAST QUESTION…”

That “last question” relates to the next part, which is securing the referral.

PART 9 - ASK FOR REFERRAL

You need to be smooth with bringing up the referral.

I always approached it by carefully wording that “last question”.

The “last question” should be about final pieces of advice based on where you’re at in the timeline.

For example if applications opened in two weeks, I’d say something like

“...so with applications opening in two weeks, I was wondering if you had any last pieces of advice for how to succeed in the Bank of America process...”

“...I’ve already been able to have great conversations with you, Anna, Abby and Matt, but was wondering if there was anyone else you’d recommend reaching out to for another perspective...”

“...or if you had any other last minute tips that could make me a more competitive applicant to try and land a first round interview…”

Which would then hopefully lead into them saying they’ll send HR an email for you -

AKA you succeeded in landing that referral.

Cheers 🥂

- Jack