Balancing Banking and PE interviews?

ricottacheese:

Newspeak:

CHItizen:

And what if the world ends on the Thursday before your interview?

I don't know, dude. No one knows, dude, but if you're good, you'll find a way to deal with it and still kill the interview. And if you don't kill it, then don't whine about it. No one cares; make plays not excuses.

I'm not sure where you're getting the idea that someone is whining or making excuses. I'm not in this situation but I'm sure that I will face similar constraints when I start next year in banking. I've heard of things like this happening to alumni and I'd like to know how to preemptively deal with this situation.

I was just wondering how people balance recruitment with the brutal hours of banking. Saying "I don't know; you'll find a way; stop making excuses" doesn't contribute to this thread in any way. I'm sure that this scenario is relatively common, yet people get jobs from these firms every year and I'd like to know how people have dealt with it.

seems like you already know the answer to it - faking doctors appointments and personal emergencies is by far the most common technique, also just a simply "i have to step out" without giving a reason is usually okay. no real secret beyond that unfortunately, unless the recruiting landscape is very different from when i was an analyst (and i dont think it is)

Ok, thanks. Are the MD's usually fooled or do they assume you're lying when suddenly everyone has personal emergencies?

CHItizen:

Newspeak:

CHItizen:

And what if the world ends on the Thursday before your interview?

I don't know, dude. No one knows, dude, but if you're good, you'll find a way to deal with it and still kill the interview. And if you don't kill it, then don't whine about it. No one cares; make plays not excuses.

I'm not sure where you're getting the idea that someone is whining or making excuses. I'm not in this situation but I'm sure that I will face similar constraints when I start next year in banking. I've heard of things like this happening to alumni and I'd like to know how to preemptively deal with this situation.

I was just wondering how people balance recruitment with the brutal hours of banking. Saying "I don't know; you'll find a way; stop making excuses" doesn't contribute to this thread in any way. I'm sure that this scenario is relatively common, yet people get jobs from these firms every year and I'd like to know how people have dealt with it.

Reading comprehension... I never said you were whining; I said (the hypothetical) you ought not whine if you don't kill an interview because you were tired and sleep-deprived. You seem to be thinking I'm talking about YOU as opposed to talking about a hypothetical person who bombs their interview because they're sleepy.

And speaking of adding no value, you know what else adds very little value? Rehashing the same topic over and over again. There are numerous threads on this site devoted to how to "step out for a bit" for PE interviews, and there's a full M&I article about it (I think).

I don't have the time to get in an internet war with you so this is my last post directed to you in this thread. It's sometimes hard to figure out attitude and intent through text. I read your post as being hostile and unhelpful but maybe you were good intentioned and, if so, I apologize.

That said, I still found your post unhelpful (and lacking reading comprehension, as you mention it) because its non-specific prescription was to "find a way to deal with it" when my question was specifically requesting "a way to deal with it" from people that have been in this situation in the past.

I highly doubt that "No one knows, dude," given that tons of people have been through this scenario in the past. I agree with your post that one shouldn't complain if it doesn't work out but, rather, should find a way to make it work. However, part of "making it work" is asking people how they have dealt with this problem in the past in order to preempt it, which is the point of this thread.

Fair point about this not being an original topic. I'd argue that most of the threads on this site aren't original, though. That said, I couldn't find a thread that gave a satisfying answer for me. I found a couple threads that talk about excuses for getting out of work on the day of the interview but I didn't find anything that fully answered how one can try to get around working super late for the week prior, although there may indeed be no way to mitigate this.

I spoke to an alum from my future BB group that works at a megafund and he mentioned that a similar situation happened to him the week of one of his interviews at another MF. He said he was a wreck on the day of one of his interviews because a deal was closing that week and he was getting railed at work. Maybe he was "making excuses" and "whining" but I don't think it's unreasonable to expect that getting 5 hours of sleep total in the 5 days before an interview will negatively affect your performance. I wanted to know if there were successful strategies that people have employed in the past.