interviewer said "Good Luck", bad sign?

Had my first round interview for an investment position. At the end, the interviewer said: " It was a pleasure talking to you, good luck on your rest of the process." when I heard "Good luck", my hearted sank a little and assumed that's a bad sign. Or am I overthinking?

 
SUMMMERRR:
Had my first round interview for an investment position. At the end, the interviewer said: " It was a pleasure talking to you, good luck on your rest of the process." when I heard "Good luck", my hearted sank a little and assumed that's a bad sign. Or am I overthinking?

Ah yes, I have heard of this ancient phrase before.

The Egyptians used to use a symbol of this in hieroglyphics. It was usually the image of a man with a creature head walking into danger (usually fire). This phrase began as a symbol of hope in insurmountable danger.

So basically, if you're lucky, you'll make it through the flames.

Good luck.

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

You guys don't know. Once you are on the other side of the interview table you will realize how disorganized and generally messed up most firms are at interviewing and hiring. It's a bitch job, nobody likes it, and it's a pain in the ass.

Point is, comments, positive or negative, rarely have a lot of predictive power. People say good luck because it's a way to wrap it up and there's not much else to say.

 
Best Response

As someone who has been on both sides of the interview process I can attest that it is disorganized and oftentimes the decision of whether to hire someone or not is arbitrary.

Note: The story below is for a boutique bank with no real HR department hiring an intern. Things are obviously different at a bank where HR runs the process or for full-time hires. This story is only to highlight how random hiring can be. Obviously it is NOT reflective of how hiring works at all banks.

At the firm I had an internship with (this was a boutique, so at a bb things might be more structured) they were looking for someone to replace me when I had left. The firm went through a round of hiring with only one analyst doing the initial phone screens. He received about 20 resumes in two days and started phoning people on day 1. The screens all consist of the same types of questions and whether the interviewee was a disaster or a surefire superday invite didn't really matter since the analyst just wanted to get it over with so he could get back to real work. However some kids were so bad that right after the analyst hung up the phone he would go "that was a disaster" and then never follow-up with the candidate again until the person followed-up.

From those twenty they brought in 3 people for a final round. I wasn't in the interview room so I can't tell you how the people did, but based on what the analyst told me "they were all kind of the same to be honest."

How did they decide who got the offer? We were having drinks after work, and the MD goes "have we picked someone to replace cik11 yet?" The analyst goes "Uh, not yet, what did you think about Candidate Y, Associate #1?" Associate #1 responds "I kind of liked him, lets give him an offer."

And that was that. There was no real "grading" process or logic that went on in this process, especially at a smaller bank that doesn't have a formal HR department. Recruiting is the last thing the entire bank wanted to deal with because recruiting doesn't generate revenue and higher bonuses. Oftentimes the answers from the candidates--especially at a final round--all sound the same that it just comes down to who was more memorable and didn't screw things up.

With that said, I've been through processes where people used a sheet and would grade the candidates and the offer would go to the person who had the most points at the end of the process. YMMV.

 

Just relax and move on, but do sit back and think once how you could have performed better.

"I do not think that there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature."
 

I remember having the same bad habit of reading too much into response emails during recruiting. I understand it can be very stressful when you have those replies in your inbox and are simply waiting for the phone call.

From personal experience, any time a senior guy replies to the email wishing you luck with interviews or the "process" it most likely means no offer. The same is true if they reply with something along the lines of thanking you for "taking the time" to come in and speak with the team or some short message like "It was nice meeting you too." This may not be 100% accurate for all cases since this is coming from my own recruiting experiences and with those of some close friends.

 

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