Career ended even before starting

You have 2 years of IB experience you will be fine. Maybe just try to expand your search a little? Or MSF i feel like you have a lot of outs here. Might just have to change the strategy, rejection is redirection.

Just spent nearly a year unemployed after leaving my last gig without anything lined up. It was a pretty rough experience mentally but I survived by taking a decent "bridge role". Truth is the job/lateral market has been cooked for awhile. Low turnover due to lack of exit ops, combined with headcount reduction and hiring freezes, makes for a fiercy competitive market. I never thought I'd be out of a job for more than a few months. While you may think its the end of the world (I did too), trust me when I say, its not. Most firms/companies didn't even care that I was unemployed tbh.

As others have said, you still have two years of experience in one of the most competitive fields. Try very hard not to beat yourself up, shit happens. You may need to pivot into something somewhat related temporarily, but your career isn't done by any means. You'll look back on this experience over the course of your 30+ year career and laugh one day. Keep fightin big dog 

It is a tough market out there. I’ve been hearing about first year analysts getting laid off…

I’ve had similar thoughts to you twice in my life. I struggled mightily during my undergrad experience at a top Ivy. I eventually graduated with a 2.3 gpa. I thought I was cooked for sure. Graduated a couple years behind all my friends and have ridiculous gpa in a bullshit major.

But I scrapped and clawed and lied my way into my first IB gig.

And then in my late twenties I blew all 500k of my savings via gambling.

In both instances, I experienced depression, rage and suicidal ideation. But at the end of the day, you can’t act on those thoughts because you will ruin your loved ones lives. I just couldn’t be that selfish.

And it’s easy for me to tell you it will all work out, because it did for me. Twice. And nothing is guaranteed.

But what I will tell you is that you’re too young to give up. Maybe if you were fat and 45 and divorced and broke, I would say yea dude, you’re a loser and should give up. But you’re way too young.

Even if you don’t have successful parents to rely on, you can still make your way back to IB if you really want that.

You can swallow your pride and go for middle office or credit only roles at banks and then work your way back to front office. You can pivot to another industry and see if that tickles your fancy.

Or you can try for FP&A type roles.

Or you can just bum around for a couple of years doing something like the peace corps, then apply to an Ivy b-school and try to break back in as an mba associate.

Crazier shit has happened to people, then you breaking back into banking.

Might be helpful to get some perspective on what a small problem yours is, compared to what many people experience.  I've had colleagues with terminal illness, and who've lost children and/or spouses very early and unexpectedly.  These people would give anything for their biggest setback in life to be a couple years of unemployment. 

Or for a different perspective, consider the very successful people and how low their low points had gotten.  You can pick almost any of them, and they have a low that's pretty deep.  The one that pops into my head is Ray Dalio losing his shirt earlier in his career; he may have still had his personal wealth intact (I forget TBH) but he was also much older than you are and had to rebuild his business.

None of this is to minimize the frustration you must be feeling.  It's more just to show you that you're not far behind in the grand scheme of things.  You have a long career ahead of you. I won't call this a tiny dent but it's also not the massive setback that many go through.  

Was in the same position. Finished Analyst years with nothing lined up but quickly got multiple offers across various areas of finance. You’re clearly doing something wrong to not be getting any hits, and you have to realize that. My advice is to expand your focus area or geography. Also, may not be converting due to a weaker background or personality. Personally, believe strong background and interviewing set me a part

Why did you take 6 months off without recruiting? I quit my IB job and traveled for 6 months but I was recruiting that whole time. Absolutely idiotic choice and if you got laid off too, then honestly you are probably low IQ and lacking common sense.
Then you say you are gonna off yourself??? Brother why in the FUCK would you do that? Literally more retarded decision than doing zero recruiting while traveling and that's a big hurdle already. Just broaden your search beyond the highest positions in finance, ffs. Tough truth but you obviously aren't at the intellectual caliber so just accept that and get a 2nd tier job doing corp strategy, fp&a, sales, or wealth management or some shit. Don't fucking pussy out on life lol. It does you and people around you zero good.

We're just on a rock floating through space anyways, who cares about whether your title is tech sales rep or IB associate. We'll all be dead one day anyway. Just make some decent money with the skillset you have and use that to go out with friends and have fun before we all get old and get dementia like Biden. Stop being such a doofus and considering literally the worst option available to you right now.

PM me. I might be able to help you!!

OP - what kind of roles are you going for? Are they just IB lateral roles, or are you casting a wider net? And if the former, why? Is it because you really want to remain in IB, or are specifically aiming for certain exit opportunities that come from IB like PE?

Totally get feeling aimless and down on yourself. But hopefully you give yourself some breathing room and grace. I would also suggest taking a step back to think about what you enjoy in a role or what you’d like to learn next. You’re super young, and have IB experience on your resume. That’s a good base to build off of.

Have you considered something else entirely- like working at a startup? If I was in your position, as I once was, I’d cast a wider net beyond just finance roles. I think I would try to join an earlier stage startup where there could be a lot of growth opportunities to expand my role and skill set. Then, coupled with startup operations experience and an IB background, go for VC or growth roles later. Or maybe continue to gain responsibilities in the startup and go from there. Or go to b school afterwards (depending on what I want to do).

What I’m suggesting may not be easy, and it might also not be your cup of tea (which is totally fine). But my point is, there are different options to take and life isn’t linear. 

If you’re willing to take a huge prestige/pay/title cut relative to IB, you could look for roles at business brokerages. Most operate under a facade where they pretend to be “investment bankers” and spend 90% of their day cold-calling and building CIMs for sub- $1MM EBITDA businesses.

You probably won’t do any modeling (or technical work in general) and your comp will be under $100k at every level below MD. But on paper, it’s similar to an IB role, and you’ll work 50 hrs/week at an absolute maximum. It’s a decent stepping stone/placeholder until you find something better or reach the minimum YoE for an MBA. In some ways, the work can build unique skills, ex. working with messy financials (usually from Quickbooks) to isolate recurring EBITDA/FCF, marketing undesirable/tiny businesses in niche industries, working with old boomer founders, etc. And again, it’s a 9-5, so you can prep for recruiting or study for GMAT at night.

Source: friend ended up in a role like this after IB. Think he worked at a failed startup for a year, then his wife had a kid, so he took the first job he could find. He actually liked the brokerage but ended up pivoting to a corp dev director role or something.

Take a step back. It's understandable that you are feeling this way, but in reality, the industry is very cut throat and the economy is shite. 

Firstly, look at what you've achieved. 

1. Two thirds of Americans never get a undergraduate degree. So you're in the top 33%
2. Of those, less than 1% go to top schools needed for an analyst position. That's the top 0.3%.
3. Of those, probably 10% are even eligible to apply for a analyst role from their grade. That's top 0.03%.
4. By the time you get to actually getting to be an analyst, you're effectively in the top 0.001% of the population.
5. Getting a return offer would put you in the top 0.0003%. 

By the time you factor in all the different hoops you've already jumped through, does it really make a meaningful difference in your worth if you failed at stage basically no one even gets to because it's so competitive? 

Secondly, you've already reached a point most of the people leave the job at. Return offers across the industry aren't guaranteed. 

Id take a second to think about what you might want to do with life if not being a top investment banker. You could explore more adjacent roles, look into good exit opps, etc. 

6 months off to travel is pretty insane. You just finished a 2 year stint. Not like you were at 10 years and needed to take a career break…