How easy was recruiting for you?
It's been a year since I went through the process and I'm starting to realize that not everyone's recruiting process was even remotely the same. Some people had multiple BB/EB interviews based off just cold apps alone, and learned technicals the week of the interview eventually landing them the offer. While others I know either had to sweat for 4 months straight with 100s of chats or just completely struck out and are doing big4/micro boutique now. This was at a solid target school which would have been unbelievable to me going in. I thought it'd be a simple resume drop through the touted OCR everyone talks about and that there's ample opportunities for everyone, but guess not. It's just crazy to hear how different people's recruiting journey can be even at a solid target school.
Would love to hear everyone else's experiences.
bump
Relatively straightforward, my father knew one of the senior MDs so I was invited in, the head of the team thought I was a good chap so I was offered an internship there and then.
wow you overcame such great difficulty. the hardships you faced!
He had a good hand and he played it, it took me years to break in and I don’t look at him with contempt.
I came from a low semi/non-target, only sent probably 100 emails, our alumni are generally responsive. Have 4 or so interviews on-cycle but didn't place until off-cycle. Failure in interviews I would say was 50% on me not being prepared for the first 1 or 2, while the west is just "sh*t happens."
non-target with very few alumni. 200+ chats, grinded technicals for 3ish months. At a BB now and happy how it turned out. There were a few kids at my school who had similar recruiting journeys but didn’t land any offers.
200+ chats over what length of time? Also curious about your outreach numbers.
Went to a target and got a bullshit degree. At the last minute I realized it would not land me a good job, so I started applying via OCR on my campus.
Lied on my resume (had a 2.3 gpa and said I got a 3.7). Got lots of interviews but had never heard of technicals or financials or anything about banking. Just knew it paid well. Failed most interviews obviously. I remember one guy asked me to rank a revolver, term loan and unsecured bonds by seniority and I said I had no idea lol. I’ll never forget the look he gave me.
Somehow got an offer from a BB cause I lied I couldn’t make the first round cause of a family death (just didn’t feel like getting up and showering and walking to the on campus interview lol) and the lady felt so bad she just advanced me to the second round super day, which was all behaviorials as the technicals was the first round.
True story.
God I see what you have done for others..
Made it easier?
LOL. You were lucky
Have you ever played halo before? Do you remember why Cortana chose master chief during training?
She said something like it wasn’t cause you were smarter or faster or stronger than the other trainees. You had this luck factor.
I’ve only been somewhat successful in life via luck. I’m serious. I’ve had some insane luck during school and general life. Funnily enough, my gambling luck is total crap.
Things that never happened for 100
What year was this? Would never happen today.
This is like the story of how Stephen Schwarzman walked into DLJ and got a job, and then negotiated his salary to be $500 extra.
Went to a non target state school. 300+ coffee chats. Ended up with RO to JPM/GS
How does one even do 300 coffee chats? The recruiting cycle is only 3 months..how many emails did you have to send?
had to be at least 3000+ (not including follow ups), have heard from many in my recruiting class that response rates were around 10% and that was for semi target. either that or intern is lying
Non-target, no networking, 1 BB interview -> 1 offer -> return offer
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Getting IB interviews off cold apps wasn't that uncommon a few years ago, especially for coverage groups. From my experience at the MBA level for internship recruiting, if you had pre-MBA experience (even if it wasn't a finance role) in the industry they cover - more often than not, you have a decent chance to get an interview. That's how I got a random interview at a known MM (WB, HL, Jef types). Didn't get the offer but I know someone who had a very similar experience and ended up getting the summer internship / FT conversion.
Non-target here. I joined business school my sophomore year and didn't get my SA offer until March of the spring semester, so my recruitment journey was 8-9 months (no RO - all good/culture sucked). I sent a lot of emails to alumni at different companies, not just banks.
At the end of the day, if you put in work, then you will get something in the end in the long-term - this is irrespective of whether you get SA/RO or not. I think 50% of it is explained by hard work while the remaining is just luck in my opinion. I live in a 1 br apartment with 6 people and a first-gen immigrant too, so I grinded very hard for the SA recruitment and SA itself. It kind of sucks to see people who were raised here with rich parents, big houses, relatively easy lifestyle get opportunities which I look up to/deserving of, but at the same time, I keep that fact away from my mind only to invest in myself for months just so everything works out at the end. I am a big believer of "everything happens for a reason", because if you do work hard and invest in yourself, then again you get something at the end which you could potentially be happy with - regardless of prestige.
It varies. Mine was tough but some people were relatively easy- they applied in their final year and boom. Some people in my cycle have gotten promo to VP w/o having a good modelling skills( it’s what it’s, knowing how to play the polítics game is a skill).
Easy tbh. At a non target and landed 3 coverage offers (all MM / low BB NYC. think WF RBC Nomura types) from cold apps alone, signed by January 2025. Just finished the summer and got the return. Now another 10-11 months of paradise. I did have good experience when originally applying, all of which was also earned through cold emails
Hardest thing in my life, pooping 20 emails a day for 4-5 months while prepping technicals. Sucks compared to rest of college
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