Ft Recruiting is making me feel like a failure
So far had 6 supers and haven’t been able to convert. Been trying my best with prep, confident with technicals to the point I can answer them cold. Have all the important behaviorals down and been tweaking my stories to best fit whoever is interviewing me, but it just seems like i’m unable to be convincing enough to have them extend the offer.
Feeling like an absolute embarrassment to everyone and really don’t know what to do now. As much hope I try to tell myself saying it’s going to work out, I really don’t know anymore. I might honestly be a failure. Haven’t been getting uh traction for other positions besides IB.
Not looking to do MSF as it’s not even guaranteed for placement with these programs esp when i’m dishing out $50-$80k for tuition.
I’m extremely lost and don’t know what to do now. I feel like i wasted my time going to college when I could’ve just sold insurance out of high school instead and make shit to. of money. I only want to do IB for the experience, nothing else.
Bump
Hey man, IB isn't the only great career out there. Recruit for corp fin and do an MBA after a couple of years if you still wanna do IB then. I have seen so many MD and ED's who started in corp fin and then did a top MBA and then pivoted to IB.
Your career is not a sprint its a marathon! Keep you chin up!
what’s the best way to recruit for corp fin? i swear all the lisitings i see all require at least 1 yr of IB experience. There was only one company that had a corp fin analyst program
This might be my hottest take on this site, but I truly believe it's impossible to get BB or MM IB by recruiting FT out of undergrad. I mean there's hundreds if not thousands of laid off analysts, 1st year associates who are desperate to get back into the game and it would make no sense to a firm to hire a new grad over them.
Unfortuantely you might have to bite the bullet and do a two year MFin or take a huge risk at Vandy and pray that the pipeline is still good.
You honestly might be better off trying to recruit for FP&A at F500 or WM.
Definitely don’t think it’s a hot take - was talking to a few friends/mentors about it and FT recruiting for these positions just have a higher ceiling; if you don’t check all the boxes their looking for, you won’t get it (esp since you’re competing for 1-2 spots).
Funny enough I’ve been getting more success with IB processes than even FP&A roles at F500 companies - it just seems (from my experience) 1) these companies aren’t hiring that much 2) With introduction of AI, not much need for analysts to do the grunt work -> less spots
Might be wrong but a lot of MSF programs are 1 year. If i’m looking for a 2 yr program might as well just go for a MBA since at least i won’t be competing against the broader undergrad pool from my understanding
Really don’t know what else to do now besides calling it quits and pictonf to an entirely different industry. I really am hopeless
There is studying for CFA levels 1 and 2 if you can stomach it. I've seen some insane career extenders like kids getting their J.Ds just to extend in hopes of getting a job.
Princeton and Georgetown do offer 2 year programs, and I believe they do have their own recruiting pipelines so your sort of insulated from just being washed out into the masses, but you know obviously, the big issue is uh getting into one of those two.
My advice is probably start in Wealth Management. I mean it's a lowish bar to get into and you're probably well-versed enough in the behaviorals to pass the sniff test. I know a couple of guys over at Stifel who love their jobs, albeit AI has sort of sparked a sell-off in their stock.
I don't think OP is looking for experienced hire roles. He / she is just losing the spot to a college kid with similar background who also may have not gotten the return offer but has a better story or someone with a return offer trying to upgrade their banks. What you are describing is pretty irrelevant to OP, as interviewer are not looking to hire a laid off analyst or an associate. Also, doing 1 year MSF would not make FT recruiting even remotely easier since he is getting all the interviews / spds. I don't think you understand how investment banking recruiting works with all the respect, as again, the OP likely is aiming for is a FT analyst role that will be added in / be part of the fresh analyst class of 27.
Del
To be fair, I am a bit of a dumbass. I took an IQ test a couple of years ago, and the person was laughing when they were grading my answers. Never got the score, however.
Do you think you’re doing anything wrong? Or do you think you’re just unlucky? Do you feel content or confident you did super well after your superdays?
It’s been a mix. Few supers I’ve felt confident and some not really. Just given where i’m at in the cycle, can’t deny I’m not feeling the anxiety of placing. Yet again, I’ve done so many interviews that I’m just immune to these feelings and every time I walk out of these supers I get an underlying thought that I just won’t get it given how things are.
I got feedback from one process that they just had doubt if I could perform the job since my most recent internship was a commercial banking gig at a top BB (despite doing IB internship my freshman summer at a boutique). Other processss wasn’t able to get feedback but w/some reflection can say I needed work on my behavioral and overall cadence/attitude.
Just given the amount of supers I’ve had so far, I can’t deny I probably have areas I need to improve on but I just don’t know either if the market is that bad to the point firms can be extremely selective with who all they want to bring on. I really just do not know
Fair, can i pm you?
that's life man. good luck is all i can say.
Yeah ig so. idk it’s starting to feel that there’s only so many times I can stand back up and keep fighting - feeling like my breaking point is near before i simply accept defeat.
Just woukd like your perspective on how to keep on fighting. I just think (probably in a selfish way) I’m the only one suffering through all this and I didn’t do a good enough job to prevent myself to be in this situation.
If i were you I would try to 2-3 years in CB then recurit for Credit Buyside
Seems like you didn't get a return offer from your commercial banking summer internship. Tbh, a lot of kids from GS/Evercore of the world without return offers struggle hard to land MM ft offer. I'm not sure how you see yourself landing a ft offer with commercial banking summer internship that you weren't able to convert. Not saying that you are inherently a bad employee but I just don't see a reason why a bank would take you over kids with return offers from lower-tier investment banks and kids without return offers from top banks, and there's also kids from corporate banking with return offer.
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