Am I cursed?
Hi, monkeys!
I saw that people on this forum have been sharing their recruitment horror stories from this year, so I thought I might chip in.
I am a final-year at a UK target seeking roles in S&T and AM.
I got BB and HF springs and a summer at a BB. Sadly, I did not convert the latter bc the team was EM and struggling for business after Russia got isolated under sanctions.
I applied to 90+ firms and attended 10 assessment centres. At 2 of them, I was told I absolutely smashed the interviews, but they didn’t have the right desk for me (I strongly wanted to do Macro and presented myself accordingly). One HR genuinely kept in touch with me for 3 months trying to find headcount for me.
At another firm, I received a verbal offer only to hear afterwards that the company announced a complete hiring freeze.
Just when I thought I got an amazing AM BB offer, the BB in question was acquired by UBS and my offer was withdrawn. The rest were either outright rejections or ghostings.
Assuming a 9/10 chance of being dinged after AC, I seem to have landed in the 38.46% probability territory. My friends always look up to me for my determination and I always went above and beyond after my ACs to ask for feedback and advice, but I am seriously lost at this point.
Obviously, I know there were ACs where I didn’t do my best and there are always some better candidates. I wouldn’t ordinarily put myself out like this, but I just don’t know where else to seek guidance.
Any ideas on how I should plan my options for graduating in June 2023?
I networked myself into some work experience at an investment boutique for the summer, but they will most likely not have headcount. I know it’s too late to apply for Masters, so I was thinking about doing the CFA and applying for MSc in Econ at Oxbridge/LSE/US in the meantime.
If anyone has any information about when/how best to apply for Off-Cycles or successful examples of cold-emailing firms, I will sincerely appreciate it.
Same position but in America. No matter how hard we work, you cannot change the economy you graduate into. Keep working and best of luck.
It's across sectors and seniority levels. Don't beat yourself up, just keep pushing and eventually you'll get there. As mentioned above, there's nothing you can do against the macro environment and regnant gloomy sentiment. Bad timing. I graduated during the European Sovereign crisis and it was tough but eventually with persistence you manage to get something decent down the line, especially if you come from a UK target.
It seems like you are doing quite literally everything right. Don’t beat yourself up over it and keep doing what you’re doing. You’ve proven to yourself you can get offers and literally work at a BB + HF and that your capable of landing a strong position. When you go into your next internship just focus on expanding your skill set and knowledge to the greatest extent. There’s no better place to do it. Leverage what you’ve built for skills and what you have now and keep applying (post grad) and blow them out of the park with your knowledge. Nothing can be done about the economy as mentioned above (as much as it sucks). Just keep doing your thing and I guarantee you’ll get there
Hey man sorry to hear your situation.
But seems you're doing something right if you're: 1) getting to the ACs, 2) getting praised in interviews + HR keeping in touch with you, and 3) actually landing more than one offer.
Would you mind if I was to DM you to find out a bit more about your experience with spring/summers?
Feel free to ping me a message
Things will get better, trust me
I was in the same situation when I graduated - I still have the spreadsheet I used at the time to track all my applications: 114 applications, all for S&T and AM like you; four final rounds / assessment centres; one offer
I did all the right things: was at a target uni in the UK, did all the internships, and still couldn't get anything I actually wanted to stick
I applied, and was accepted, to do a master's, but turned this down for the one application that eventually offered me a job - and I hated it
Spent a year at that first firm, a year or at a second shop, and then eventually landed where I currently am and have loved it ever since
Persistence beats resistance, and eventually you'll find something - it may not be the "something" you want right now, but it's a foot in the door
Once you have that, you can then work on improving your craft and figuring out how to manoeuvre yourself to your desired role / firm - you just got to keep plugging away
You've done the right thing by applying to master's programmes - this will be your fall-back
In the meantime, keep applying to anywhere you think fits your wants, but a word of caution - don't just applying anywhere, make sure to do your DD and check the calibre of the employees on LI and see where any leavers have eventually ended up
Better to spend 6mos on the sidelines with nothing in hand, than 2yrs at a dead-end firm slowly burying any chance of escape
Feel free to DM me if you want some more advice
Best of luck
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