No Offers. What Should I do now?

There are a few options.
Portfolio Investment departments of commercial banks, management consulting also.

delay graduation.
take more classes.

has anyone recruited in the fall after previous spring graduation?

Try Big 4 valuation practices..e.g. E&Y TAS & Deloitte FAS.

Big 4 valuations are a good spot. Also look into finding a F500 with a Corporate Development/Acquisitions group. And don't just expect a boutique has finished recruiting. Call them all up. If you are from a target with a good GPA, you'll find a good job. Do well there and you could get to a top MBA and go wherever from there.

Maybe try thinking outside the box for once. It's not the end of the World, in fact it could be a blessing in disguise.

Don't really see the management consulting route as a viable one at this point.

Management consulting recruiting occurs at the same time as does IB recruiting, and at top firms (i.e., MBB), the recruiting process is generally even more selective than for BB IBs.

going back to school for another semester (or 2) is probably only a good idea if u get an internship for the summer.
Hmm.. what about applying for summer internships at boutiques - when they ask why internship if ur graduating in the spring...oh i want to do americcorps after i graduate for X months. dont know if that would work/how it would be viewed, just a thought.

I had to due to a combination of a late realization that I wanted to go into banking and some other circumstances. I got an offer from a BB, so it's doable though I have no clue how common it is.

The others I met during interviews and on superdays who weren't seniors were all working somewhere else already, I wasn't. Everywhere I applied I was asked why I was applying so late, etc., but I had a decent answer for that. It never came up after that.

If you are really set on banking, an obvious option is to step up your efforts this recruiting season, and network heavily as well, particularly since you're lucky enough to be from a target and will have alumni in the industry. Do try to get a decent job in the meantime though, it can only help.

If you have friends who made it in, you may want to sit down with them and ask them to be brutally honest with you. Although recruiting blew chunks last fall, maybe there is something in particular you could do better. I know I could've used something like that.

Good luck.

How about you quit being a lazy ass and access your school's alumni network? I'm from a non-target and was able to find around 5-6 contacts through it alone. If you are at a target, I'm sure there have to be at least a few people who are at smaller shops that are not finished recruiting (or better yet do not have a formal recruiting process).

did you do anything in the summer before recruiting? just prepare for interviews?
also did you get to start right away?

it looks like piper jaffray is still hiring for full time if you're up for relocating

Like other people are saying, extend your graduation. It has worked for a number of people in cases where they were looking to pick up an SA position but failed. It has also worked where the extension was to take a shot of fall FT recruiting. I know a number of success stories from both options. I guess it just depends how badly you want it.

1) No, boutiques are not done recruiting. While I normally don't recommend working at them if you have bulge bracket offers (more on bulge bracket vs. boutiques), many middle-market and regional boutiques are still recruiting and short on people... or will soon find they are short on people.

I personally know of people who got offers at these places VERY late in the process - e.g. even later than now. Just keep in mind the market was much better back then so might be harder now.

Going to a boutique is better than going to any related field, because at least it's still banking. And you can lateral to somewhere bigger after a year.

2) Have you used your alumni network at all? It sounds like you haven't exploited it for all it's worth yet and it can be really powerful if you leverage it... I'd contact them and get started with that ASAP and you may catch a lucky break.

3) In the worst case and if neither of the above works, I would stay in school for another semester or so and recruit in the fall again. It's WAY easier to just get into banking now vs. trying to break in from another field... and it's a lot harder to recruit when you're working full-time as well.

Do what my friend is doing.... work for two or three years, with the first being outside your area of interest, get your MBA/JD/Whatever you feel is right for you/"Insert Fancy Witty Post-Grad School title here" and then look at an associate posisiton. After the first year, move into a different arena closer to what you want to do in the end before you do the Grad School bit. Right now, he's doing Event Service Management for a major hotel and has just finalized his lateral move into their internal RE Group (Doing what is beyond me, I haven't seen him about 2 months due to work in my own right) for the end of April. I don't know the terms yet, but will report more when I get it.

I thought this thread was pretty helpful and encouraging,
I'm in the same boat as peanutbutterjelly. Pretty much as a grad. senior did not get any BB offers. Since I am a nontrad background (engineering), I'm not tanked about it - I've got offers from various engineering firms (sadly no McKBcgB either though).

I'm spending the next fall learning more financials/accounting and taking some sweet strategy classes in the business school at my university.

Some friends working right now say it's not a bad decision. Obviously it would have been more advantageous had I received an offer, but as everybody knows, the markets are in the shits right now... Two friends who chose IBD at Bear Stearns in SF are shitting bricks... So I don't feel so bad after all :P

I am in a similar situation, a senior still looking for a job. For various reasons I didn't recruit during the fall, so I'm doing this all a little later than everyone else. And staying in school for another semester just isn't an option for me.
A lot of boutiques are definitely still looking - I've been interviewing pretty actively. Be aggressive, but not annoying. I've been calling and straight up asking about openings. I've had really good results (7 interviews in 2 weeks), and I haven't finished calling or even started with alumni yet.

But from your post, it sounds like getting the initial interview may not be the problem. What do you mean by "failed them?" Perhaps it would be useful to brush up on interview techniques, reworking some of your answers to questions, etc.

I worked on getting my corporate finance knowledge up to par (actually beyond that, I knew I'd have to prove myself so I basically prepared as if I were going for an associate position). Frankly, I had no clue what I was doing before that, so I took the time to plug as many holes as I could. I had lots of time so I read a bunch of other stuff as well (strategy, negotiation, etc.). It all paid off during recruiting.

The bank whose offer I accepted did tell me they'd be happy to have me start right away, but I elected not to after talking to a few senior bankers and folks I know at a hedge fund. Best decision I made, since it allowed me to deal with the circumstances I alluded to above, travel, and generally get my crap together.

when you guys say "call em up," do you just try to get on the phone with senior bankers? (VP) wouldn't that be too intrusive?

Go to the website, find the main number, pick up the phone and dial. You can ask to speak to whoever is in charge of recruiting or just explain your situation and ask to talk to whoever the best person would be.

Your hit rate probably won't be very high, but you should definitely keep trying.

you have to realize many of these banks may be going belly up. don't stress it too much. haha. anyway you need to make some connections

two words: law school

this worked well for me when i went thru recruitment process...granted I was doing it in the fall not the spring.

ugh that was in response to post about randomly calling boutqiues, quote function not working.

I am looking for a cleaning maid.

One year Masters Program at LSE if you don't mind working in London after graduation.