Interviewed with GS, got all questioned answered, no offer

Okay, so last Friday, I went to GS 1st round interviewing sessions(ER, AM). During the one session, I literally heard the interviewer saying 'that is the most completed answer for the question we've heard so far'. And I interviewed with several other people as well. I did answer all the questions correctly with putting a natural smile on my face. Got dinged. Don't know what is going on. It could be a dislike at first glance. I just want to improve myself, as it is the only thing I can handle on my side.

 

There are about 10000 reason to get dinged in an interview. Getting all the technical questions correct does not equal an offer. A lot of weight is put on the fit questions (e.g. Why banking? Why x firm? Why x industry?) which are inherently much more subjective. Also a large part of the decision weighted on how well the interviewers thought you would 'fit' in with the group. Long story short, who gets an offer and who does has a significant number of internal factors too which you will not be aware. Unless you are lacking in social abilities/are weird, it's a numbers game.

 
Best Response

I think GS's response, if they could give one is going to be something like "Look, if we had the spot, we'd want to hire you. But we don't. Instead, we hired a kid who spoke fluent Portuguese and who has six uncles in the mutual fund industry to work on our LatAm sales desk. They needed to hire people and other areas of the bank didn't, and he had a comparative advantage. So don't get down on yourself, keep plugging away, and PLEASE don't take this personally. Because when a spot DOES open up, we'll be beating down your door, and we can't have you taking this rejection as 'you're not good enough'. It only means 'we can't give you an offer right now.'"

I'm not sure if telling people that things are out of their control and that rejection often isn't about them makes them feel better.

This isn't about you- you did everything right.

Two small pieces of advice:

1.) If you have some sort of niche that you fill, that might be able to help a group, SELL IT. It's usually one of those individual-specific things that makes a hiring decision. You have to interview well (not perfectly). Then you have to have something that the team really wants.

2.) Undergrads to some extent have to compete against grad students and MBAs in the hiring process. And it's not fair. One of us who's been working for three years has been in industry 12x longer than you if you have an internship. We know how some of these teams work and what they need. We've conducted interviews. We've had to show up wearing a wso/">suit and tie 250 days a week for a couple years. This gets easier as you get older, and if you can't break into GS today, you can break in a year or two, or from grad school.

 

I went to GS Superday two weeks ago for ER & HCM and my very first interview was with HCM. The interviewer told me that I did an excellent job answering all the questions but he would've liked to see my personality shine through more. After that, I was more myself with my other interviewers and told stories, etc. That seemed to work well even though I didn't answer all the questions correctly. I think they know that you are competent, they just want to see your personality. Sorry to hear you got dinged :( Did you ask any of your interviewers for feedback?

 

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