About the FT offer

Usually you shop your offer around and recruit well before the formal recruiting season starts. You actually usually start and finish interviewing even before school starts!

Yeah of course man, and depending on where you work, they might be quite flexible and give you time to decide if you are interviewing with other firms. But....BEWARE....not everyone will do this...

If you are in a major city, there should be some sort of fast-track recruiting process where banks interview candidates who work at competitors, several weeks before the official full-time recruiting process opens.

You may get invited to a drinks evening to meet HR, some bankers, other interns etc., otherwise just be proactive and call the HR of firms you are interested in about 1/2 way through your internship to find out about FT opportunities.

However, you should of course, be 100% focused on getting an offer from your employer during the summer, that should be priority numero uno

check in with your schools policy on "exploding offers"..... your school probably has something stated like "if person interned with you and extended an offer, you must give until october X to make a decision on the offer." Knowing this date, most places will recruit at your school before this exploding offer deadline to try and pick up the interns from other places for full time.

but not all interns are invited fyi, im not sure how they screen

how does an SA get the FT offer? is it something that is simply offered at the end of the internship for satisfactory performance, or does the SA have to actually "re-interview" as well?

How can one get HR contact info at competing firms?

Qwerty, that really depends on the firm you work at. For instance, last summer, I was told explicitly, several times, that as long as I didn't massively f*ck up, I would get an offer. I did not have an "exit interview" at the end, I only had a mid-way performance review. Generally, for people at the firm I worked at, if your review went well and you actually wanted to work there, you got an offer.

If you have an interview at the end of your internship, I'm not sure how much it will change the overall outcome. If you've not worked hard for 10 weeks, then a great interview won't save you at the end.

p.s. - I would never aim for just "satisfactory" performance", if you don't put in the effort, your team will notice and no way you'll get an offer IMHO

Serenity Now, perhaps you have heard of this thing called "the internet." I hear they even have it on computers now...

Go "online", go to the "website" (I think that's the right word?) of the firm you are interested in and find the contact details for graduate recruitment, omg it couldn't be any simpler.

And if you can't get in touch this way, do some networking! :P

If they don't have internet in your country, use an analogue "tele-ma-phone" to call the firm and ask to speak to someone in grad recruitment.

Can you shop around a trading offer for a banking one or vice versa?

Can you shop around a trading offer for a banking one or vice versa?

Can you use Canadian dollars in the US?

Haha, I wouldn't do this, they want you to show focus!

Why make a guy an IBD offer if he's going to swan off and join the Dark Side? [i.e. S&T]

Yes I know the internet joefish. How do you think I'm posting here =). My experience with applying to BB banks online has been dismal, and I would imagine that contacting HR directly would yield the same result. I guess I could try this networking thing out.

Joefish, the FT work is gonna be a lot more BS and much, much longer and more tedious than any online application. You're just gonna have to suck it up and deal with it. How are you gonna deal with some Associate that you think is "under-qualified" that keeps you in the office until 6am moving bullet points around? Seriously, the job ain't that much glorious than the applications....

"It is a fine thing to be out on the hills alone. A man can hardly be a beast or a fool alone on a great mountain." - Francis Kilvert (1840-1879)

"Ce serait bien plus beau si je pouvais le dire à quelqu'un." - Samivel

I'd think it would make you look better, or at least keep you from looking foolish, when networking for FT offers to be able to say that you have alread ygone through the main application process.

I guess there's a huge difference between the US and the UK. In the UK, everybody goes through online applications.

"It is a fine thing to be out on the hills alone. A man can hardly be a beast or a fool alone on a great mountain." - Francis Kilvert (1840-1879)

"Ce serait bien plus beau si je pouvais le dire à quelqu'un." - Samivel

In the US u have to go through the online as a formality after getting an interview, but honestly the online apps are not difficult at all. the only one i recall that took longer than 10 minutes was barcap's...

This hasn't been mentioned yet, but throughout your SA stay, keep asking yourself if you can see yourself working there full time. 2 weeks before your internship is over, if you have decided it is the place for you, pray for the offer and accept it. If not, shop it around as discreetly as you can. From what I've heard of past experiences though, the firm usually finds out one way or another if you're interviewing somewhere else. I would recommend against shopping your offer if you like your office but just want to see what's out there. You're only burning goodwill you've spent all summer building up.

This is what I've been told by a number of graduating seniors and alumni from my school so I'm just passing the message along.

I'm worried that I won't have the time to shop any theoretical offer around.

I know enough people at other banks to make sure HR get my resume etc. for the fast-track applications process (in London), but I'm not going to be getting out of the office until 9pm at the very earliest [thank you M&A] so I don't know when I'm going to have time for interviews at other firms? Unless they do weekends or ridiculously early in the morning (like in Monkey Business/Confessions of a Wall Street Analyst)??

I've bee told by lots of people that I will enjoy the firm this summer (although some teams should apparently be avoided), but I still want to see what else is out there. Not in my nature to choose from only one option.

Yawster - if you get an offer from firm X, can you trust them enough to simply tell them that you are also exploring other opportunities? Or am I just being naive :P