Full-time Offer Rescinded. What Now?
Hey All,
Need a bit of advice here because I'm finding myself in an extremely frustrating and discouraging situation.
As the title says, I had my full-time HC IB job rescinded coming into graduation this spring. For context, I went to a non-target, have a 3.8 GPA, and was late to the internship recruitment game. I found out about IB during the spring of my sophomore year, so pretty much once the majority of SA 24' recruitment was done. I was told there was a slim possibility of grabbing on to a regional boutique, but I had to start prepping immediately. I had no summer internship following my sophomore year so I put my head down took the WSO and WSP prep courses and cold emailed my way to an internship. After nearly giving up a couple times, I ended up having a call with an MD of an up and coming HC boutique. They still were filling SA positions so I applied and after a month process, I miraculously secured the internship.
Fast-forward to the following summer and I started with the firm. I loved it. Solid culture, I enjoyed the work and it was the team I wanted to be on. I ended up securing the FT role and started my senior year on a high. I was really looking forward to what seemed like a great opportunity out of college, but once spring rolled around, I received an email from HR rescinding my job offer. Mind you this is 1 month out from graduation and a 1.5 months from start date. FT spring recruitment is pretty much wrapped up. Apparently this happened to the entire incoming class FT A1s and SAs. I was livid and didn't know what to do. I immediately threw myself into networking mode and spent my last few weeks of college trying scrape up something before June 25'. Needless to say, I was unsuccessful. I made it to a couple Super days, but didn't work out.
I get that firms hire and fire all the time, but I just wish that there was some decency to give us a bit more time to look for other options. Like even a month earlier would've been better. My last semester of college was supposed to be closure and time with friends, but instead was wrapped up in time spent networking and nights spent prepping for interviews. Right now, I'm sitting as graduate with no job - something I tried so hard to avoid. It's almost August, I'm still sending emails and having calls with just about anyone I can get ahold of. I'm doing mock interviews, prepping with interview questions and building models and CIMs of public cos just to stay sharp on excel and ppt. It feels like no one is looking for FT A1 Spring 25' Grads, MSF applications are closed, and summer 26' on-cycle is just about to start, but I don't qualify since my grad date isn't December 25' or May 26'.
I don't know what to do. I really don't want to look for a Corp fin, ER or mid-office role because I'm truly interested in sell-side M&A and I've worked so hard for this particular job. But I'm going to have to start making money somehow. People are telling me to enjoy this time and keep hustling, but to be honest I'm starting to go a bit crazy and I'm absolutely sick of telling my story to new people again and again. My parent's friends and relatives don't get why it's so difficult for me to find a job and I have to explain it over and over again because they merely just don't understand anything about the job/industry/culture.
I've considered going back to school to get a 2nd major in Accounting, which would both set me up for next summer's A1 recruitment and help keep me sharp (and add to my story in interviews), but I don't want to add to my student loans and it's at the same non-target school. I've even considered studying for CFA or GMAT/GRE. So as of right now, I'm planning to continue searching/emailing for a bit or at least another month or so, but sometimes I just feel like I'm wasting time.
Apologies for this novel of a post, but would really appreciate any advice out there.
Thanks
In a very similar situation with you. Life is tough. We got this.
Same here.
It sounds like you’re going through a brutal case of emotional whiplash. I’m truly sorry.
You will need to properly mourn this loss. Your nervous system is grieving a career path you were fantasizing/celebrating for two years. For now, the money/trajectory you thought you were on is gone. It’s okay to be sad about that.
The best thing you can do for depression/loss is stay busy. Workout, hike with friends, coffee chats, whatever makes you feel alive and productive. It’s easy to be mad at the world, the firm, or your family-friends, but that will only make you feel worse. Staying busy is just survival and won’t speed up the mourning process, but it will give you that feeling of progress your body needs.
There’s opportunities out there for someone who landed an IB summer role. Lots of businesses would kill for someone with your experience for entry positions. Your situation is manageable if you can keep your head above water a little longer.
I think your true battle is within. You’re doing better than most students. But you’re not crazy for being sad you lost something you thought was yours.
Hopefully you can laugh about this a year from now when you unexpectedly land a nice role you didn’t expect to land after 500 applications. Until then, I wish you the best.
Dogshit ChatGPT-slop answer
I actually wrote it out completely. Sorry you don’t like my answer.
Average brain rotted gen-alpha that can't comprehend more than 3 sentences.
I want to jump in here and second this person's comment.
I was in a very similar to boat to OP - from a non-target, learned about IB late, was barely able to scrape a role at a MM for summer '24, and none of the interns in my office got returns due to headcount issues. I was pretty devastated that my career was being thrown another curveball after I had worked so hard all summer.
From there, despite unsuccessfully recruiting for FT, I took what was available to me which was a "finance lead" role at a small startup that I had worked at during the school year. I also took the time to re-evaluate what I wanted out of my career, what I found interesting about my work, and set out a plan to build myself back up.
Now only 4 months after starting this backup job at the startup, I was able to land a corp dev role clearing 100k. Although this is vastly different from how I imagined my career playing out even a year ago, it's definitely a testament that rejection is truly redirection.
Don't give up, keep chasing what you know you deserve, and there is practically no chance you won't come out on top. I'm rootin for you.
Congrats on UBS!
The guy’s going thru shit n u wanna make a joke….
Literally the same exact thing happened to me and I ended up landing somewhere better then I could have imagined, the best thing you can do is stay consistent and keep up with recruiters and connections. Taking another year in school isn’t the worst idea, also finding a regional bank or pe fund you can intern at for the year then recruit in the coming full-time cycle. From my experience recruiters were extremely understanding and staying in their inbox is the highest chance you have at landing an interview.
Sounds like you’re motivated to work through this. Hope you find something man best of luck.
Sounds like Crosstree Capital in Tampa
Yea, definitely Crosstree lol. He lucked out tbh
Almost everyone has something like this happen at some point. If it's not a rescinded offer in college, its a potentially career-ending layoff at a time when nobody else is hiring for the foreseeable future. If it's not a career-ending layoff, abrupt end of long-term relationship, unexpected loss of a loved one, health issue, or some financial calamity.
Almost everyone will go thorugh that moment or two when it feels like the life we thought we were building is possibly over.
Having had a few of those, here's the things that have actually worked for me:
The part of your post where I was most frustrated on your behalf, was when you said your last semester was supposed to be a time to wind down this chapter of your life, spend time with friend etc. and now it's something else. I feel that. But I've also had to outgrow it and you will too. Reducing your needs, both emotionally and financially, is one of the best paths to happiness. Arthur Brooks has written a lot on this if you want to learn more.
In a similar position to you. Have decided to take august and september and grind gmat and do msfin next year, seriously considering doing it outside the us. I have come to terms with the possibility that I will be unemployed this year. I have started to view MsFin as my only shot at high finance. Depression is hard, I understand it well what you are growing through, but if it makes you feel better, you are beating it better than I am, you are networking a lot more and getting out there a lot more. I'm confident it will work out for you.
that sucks :( that's a really shitty thing for an employer to do especially knowing what the job market's like right now...i think you've been offered some decent advice from other comments already so i just want to add that you could leave a review on here or on glassdoor so others know what kind of bs this company is pulling
Lmao also got my offer rescinded by crosstree but it was for SA. they blow.
I don't think a Master's in Accounting/finance, especially at a target school, is a terrible idea. Buys you some time to network and position yourself better for a solid job that you can use to lateral. This may ultimately delay you for a year or two (may need to take a Big 4 job for a year and then lateral), but I don't think it's over for you.
For my IB internship I got placed in a shitty capital markets group at a firm I didn't want to be at (still a big bank), didn't get a return offer, landed a job at a boutique investment bank, then miraculously landed a job in PE after a year in banking as an analyst.
I can tell you first hand it does feel like the sky is falling and it's so easy to lose hair, not eat, etc when this stuff happens. Easier said than done, but try to have faith that it will all work out. Just grind and do your best and I think life will work out.
I can also tell you that the "prestigous" IB job is not all it's cracked up to be. It's 70% mindless bullshit. It does give you good exposure and set you up for a good career track, but I know a lot of people in the space and many are miserable.
Hope that helps, good luck my friend. Keep your head up and believe it will all work out in the end - life is short, don't waste it!
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