HR Rant - Who tf do these people think they are?!
I recently went through my first BB bracket interview for a SA position, and I fucking killed it. At least that's what the whole team thought since they let me know through a phone call that "They really liked me, and that they will work with HR on an offer". After the call I thought I got it right? Well apparently fucking HR did not agree with the teams decison. Like WTF?!! HR didn't even talked to me? Based on what did they decided I was not a good fit from the team when everyone from AN to MD liked me (at least thats what they said lol). They literally made that decision based on fucking pieces of paper (resume, cv and transcript). If they were gonna make a decision based on those why tf would they call me for an interview in the first place and waste my time. I literally did not study for midterms to prepare for this interview, only to end up jobless and with my grades suffering lmao.
What annoys me the most is that I am from a middle of nowhere University and i worked so hard to get an opportunity like this, just for HR to tell me to fuck off (I would have been the first kid from my school to land an internship at a BB). Honestly, I am not expecting to get any more interviews at any BB due to my school, which I was mentally prepared for, even tho I have decent experience and extracurriculars. I understand why a firm would take someone from a target school than from mine, but man dont invite me for fucking 7 rounds of interviews if you never had the intention of hiring me.
Sorry for the rant and grammar (probably thats why they didnt hire me because I dont know how to fucking write) but I needed to take this out.
Moving forward, what steps can I take to avoid a similar outcome? I assume my university may have played a role, given that I have solid work experience, extracurriculars, and grades. Is there anything I can realistically do to improve my chances, or are there other factors at play that I'm overlooking? What are some reasons HR might disagree with the team's hiring decision?
Again, sorry for all the crying but any insights would be appreciated. Thanks!
From what I know, HR can be pretty instrumental in pushing for someone to get an offer, but not really in blocking someone if the team actually, genuinely wanted you.
Unless you somehow was very rude to HR over email or phone call or in person, they wouldn't necessarily block you if the hiring manager said they would make you an offer...
Perhaps also you just misread what they said. They might have liked you, thought you were great, but other candidates may have been better.
Nah my guy, that's because you're a white male. No need to write that much text.
Doesn't it work the way around ?
Nope.
I really hope is my Uni and not this shit man. At least with the Uni I know it is my fault.
Hate to break it to you but HR was not why you didn't move forward in the process
edit - there was a comment above that said the same thing why tf am I getting shitted on just wanted to clarify
What bank? I assume it’s a BB or a bigger MM, because my experience at boutiques is that bankers run the show and HR just sends out pamphlets and shit. I imagine HR has bigger britches at a BB, where they care more about bank PR than their entire IB division.
I used to do this all the time when I was heavy into recruiting. I just politely decline now, since it wastes a whole day and is so boring as I get no joy out of asking young kids hard questions and watch them stumble through.
I didn’t have the heart to tell someone to their face that they sucked or I thought they were dumb or that other candidates from better schools were my first choice.
So I would tell them they did great, and hoped they would go away. Sometimes they would follow up with me about the outcome and I would blame HR.
Lmao. Were you required to give feedback?
Normally I’m simply asked to rate all the kids I saw in order from best to worst, and my list is compared to other interviewers.
Want to hear something messed up?
The last time I did a super day for interns and me and the other interviewer crated a list of best to worst. We had three offers to give.
The HR person said she would give our top 2 offers. But not the third dude. I asked why.
She said that are we off the record. I said of course. She said he would give the final offer to our top ranked girl, who we rated number 6 overall. Wa she first time DEI really hit me in the face like that. I felt bad for the number 3 kid, but not bad enough to make a big stink about it.
That's just what the people you interviewed with said, in reality you didn't kill it and mesh as well as you think.
Either the team decided to go with another kid or HR blocked it due to uni / race / gender quotas for the SA class.
who the fuck do you think you are?
That's just what people say (blaming it on HR) when they don't want to tell you directly.
They probably used HR as the excuse.
Well, I'm sorry for what happened, but here's a few things I think you can take out of this experience:
1) Never trust empty words until you have cold hard evidence. A team who says they like you and will circle back? They could've thought you were meh but cba to break it to you to your face, choosing to deflect to HR. Only an offer letter is evidence of a team who likes you. The same logic works for a future client who says they might 'think about making a deal', or a girl who leads you on, etc.
2) Hedge your bets. You exposed yourself to a lot of risk when you chose to not study for midterms, to prepare for an interview with bleak odds. You essentially sold a naked option, that's scary af. Only bet big on asymmetric bets, and always cap your losses. Read Taleb if you haven't already. A bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush.
Above all, please don't become super cynical and bitter over this experience because that only harms you in future opportunities. You have to roll with the punches
Yo bro - Imagine the pain of getting a $600K M&A offer with 9-5pm hours rescinded.
This is just the first step for you - you have many more chances.
GL
They're Kelseys and Mackenzie's from KKG.
Understandably you’re upset. However, without extra context we can’t know what happened. It’s possible the interviewers just wanted to let you down easy, it’s possible you were really good but someone better came along and their minds changed, or they overestimated their hiring capacity given where banking currently stands and it’s possible HR did step in and required them to shift direction. There are dozens of things that could’ve happened and ultimately HR pulling it back is the easiest excuse.
However, to the question of who HR thinks they are, they are much higher and know much more than a potential SA. They are knowledgeable in their field and as a hiring manager I do respect and value their opinion. They aren’t a “lesser” employee just because they aren’t finance/IB. They have a job to do and they did it, just because you don’t like the response doesn’t mean they made a bad decision. There are countless of things that could’ve happened and this is just one of many rejections that will occur in your career. Even if HR did block it, it wasn’t just because they felt like it.
It probably wasn’t because of your school. It was most likely due to countless other factors going on outside of your control.
Agree with others here, HR defo wasnt why you didnt get an offer - skill issue. Chin up and keep going
That being said, HR is for people who want to feel important but lack the skills to be important
Are you white, hetero, and male? If yes to all 3, then you know what's up
I was in a similar position to you, as I was the first student at my school to get an internship at any investment bank on the West Coast. When I went through FT recruiting, I had a few close friends who managed to push me through to first-round interviews. Afterwards, they told me straight up that the team liked me but wasn’t going to send me to round 2 because I was not coming from one of their target schools. In my opinion, if you’re not a diversity candidate, I wholeheartedly believe that the school you go to can be the biggest factor in keeping you from getting an offer. Especially in the climate where the job/internship market has been tough for the past two years.
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