Failed SA27 cycle and next steps

Hi guys, I am a current sophomore (formerly) recruiting for SA27. I have some confusion as to what to do now. For some context, I attend a decent target school (think Cornell, Georgetown, UMich, etc). I am in a good club at the school; however, I am an engineer. As a result, my GPA is lower than my business/arts counterparts. As a result, I only got a couple of interviews (2-3) during the cycle from very good places (think CVP, PJT RSSG, EVR, MOE) but was unable to convert the interviews I had to offers. I literally got no interviews from bulge brackets despite networking pretty heavily with the big 3 BB's (JPM, MS, GS) As a result, I completely struck out on banking recruitment for the most part. I was told by a couple of the people I networked with and MDs I talked to to come back out for full-time recruitment. Now, I am pivoting to consulting and I think I am going to try and potentially re-recruit for full-time. I was wondering if anyone has done this before and could give me some insight. I was also wondering if I should do something more specific, like RXco, or if MBB HC or something like that (generalist SA program) or something adjacent would be fine. I know it is not the end of the world but I feel kind of lost. I believe I am a pretty competent person and would do well in IB but am worried about what the re-recruiting prospects would be if I were to try and re-recruit from a consulting background as opposed to a different investment bank for my junior summer. Any advice would be very strongly appreciated. Thanks.

12 Comments
 
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Some banks will drop roles all throughout the summer until like September of this year for SA 2027. Stay alert on LinkedIn as you can still land something for normal cycle, especially since you go to a target. Preparing for consulting is also not a bad idea, and tbh if you case well I don’t see why you wouldn’t land it. MBB looks great for FT recruitment if you decide to go that route.

 

You kinda need to be doomscrolling on Linkkedin all the time, and in terms of networking you need to be sending out emails to every middle market bank. It’s very unstructured and there’s a chance that the bank you cold email may not even be offering roles. It’s a crapshoot and a risk you need to take. You need to go into it before hand that you will be wasting time and energy for certain banks.

 

I got a solid mid tier bb offer in jan 26 for sa26. I even saw someone else get an offer at another mid tier bb in March for sa26. You have to stalk linkedin everyday in the fall like the guy above said.

I was literally the exact same candidate as you: decent target school, good gpa and did all the right things. But my only interviews were at top 5 EBs where I got smoked. Not a single bb interview despite extensive networking

Def felt low for a few months but I never gave up on myself and you shouldn’t either. Never pursued consulting.

 

Thanks for your insight! For the LinkedIn opportunity you mentioned, should we just applied or do we still need to networked? How does it work? Thanks

 

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