No return offer, should I recruit again as SA?
Tried to do FT recruiting this fall at BB's and MM's, landed good number of first rounds, about a third of them converted to superdays, but still no offer.
Should I delay graduation by an extra semester or two and re-recruit to be a summer analyst?
No Return Offer
Not getting a return offer can certainly feel like a crippling blow. However there’s usually a path back into investment banking if you are creative. The first thing you should do is ask yourself why?
Having senior references at the bank you interned at is invaluable in this scenario. Simply state your reason for not receiving an offer whether it’s examples being market conditions or poor “fit”. However follow your explanation by assuring your interviewer that you did quality work and you would be happy to provide references from senior bankers.
You can re enter investment banking by using your relevant experience to find a job in transaction services or similar role. After you've leveraged that internship you should be able to get through the interviews using your references. Lateral out of the firm and recruit full time.
Trading down. You can also join a smaller bank. If you came from a MM or even a BB with no offer then start targeting the “little guys”. Contact every regional boutique you can find.
These are broad strokes but the having a great answer to the “why” is the most important.
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im in a very similar position. I'm not delaying graduation but just reaching out to as many people as I can to land something decent and maybe lateral over to something legit later on.
I'm in a similar situation as well. Let me just say it's super rough out there. I haven't thought twice about delaying graduation though. Just stupid if you ask me. It's not going to get any better in a semester's time.
I second sharks, in fact it might be even worse next year.
Sure the market might get worse, but wouldn't you be in a better spot when competing for SA positions with all the experience?
For me personally, financial aid covers my fees so tuition is not a consideration.
My parents don't mind me staying an extra semester or two, they want me to boost it up to a 3.5 hopefully. Money won't be a huge issue...
If I do re-recruit during the SA cycle, how do I even present myself to the same bankers who I interfaced with during FT recruiting? Would they even take me seriously? What do I say - I had a good internship this past summer but couldn't land a FT offer, the market is shit awful right now, but please consider me as an intern again next summer?
Would I come off as incredibly pathetic?
Sharks is making sense. I don't understand all these posts about trying again for a SA position as a senior. First, you aren't likely to be able to do this through on campus recruiting. The banks (especially those that you talked to last year) will notice and it will be an auto-ding. In the unlikely event that your resume gets through, how do you explain the extra year/semester in an interview? What are you going to do with the gap time? If you are interviewing with me, I will ask these questions and I'm pretty skeptical about the whole thing. You are paying an entire semester extra tuition just for the chance that this year you might get a return offer? Why would it be any better? Seems like a bad risk trade off to me. There are still jobs out there - put your efforts into getting a full time job now, do a good job in that job and take it from there. Stop trying to game the system.
Do you really think recruiting is simply based on merit and no one "games" the system?
You can absolutely do this through campus recruiting.
If I didn't interview with your bank for summer/full-time previously, and I put my graduation date as May 2013, how exactly would you know I'm any different from any other junior?
Your high school graduation date plus I can count summers. It is not going to work at a target -we track students over several years -and it won't work at a school with competent career counseling. You couldnt do it at my target alma mater. Obviously you think it's a great idea but I am on the other side of the desk and I think it shows poor judgement. Put your efforts into finding a full time job now. And no I don't think recruiting is all merit. But gaming isn't the way to go. Networking is.
How about going to a grad school instead of delaying a graduation date? You can still apply for SA positions.
@thejoker: I have no intentions of applying to grad school, if MSF was what you were referring to - the only "higher" degree that would interest me is an MBA, which is a bit down the road.
What do you guys think of re-applying for SA, but for a different industry/sector coverage group?
I actually am more interested in another sector (let's call it Sector #2) than the sector I was in this past summer (Sector #1). Could I possibly spin delaying graduation into getting a chance to explore Sector #2 as a summer internship?
What kind of MM bank were you at that didn't convert a single SA to FT?
monkee1, why would you want a SA position in a different sector? A SA position is going to be a gamble one way or the other and employers are still going to question why you are delaying graduation for a summer position. If you want to switch sectors, interview now for a fulltime job in Sector 2. Smaller shops in Sector 1 and Sector 2 (whatever they may be) hire later in the process. There will be fulltime opportunities this winter and spring - go after them.
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