How feasible is it to rerecruit FT?
Going to RX at GHL/DUC/JEF. Want to trade up. I'm from a non-target background so was curious how best to navigate this situation.
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Buddy I would not mention firm name just in case. Would Edit out or give a range of similar tier firms
Would u still be able to rerecruit now? Not sure how you’d go about getting opportunities when everything seems to be closed haha
Assuming you want to stay in RX, very challenging. RX usually has a high return rate - the people who are land those top RX firms so early in the process are very well-prepared, know they want to be in IB and perform well. Many of the top RX groups are also school snobs and don't have many (or any) non-targets in their class.
If you are looking to do regular IB at BB/EB, still challenging given FT is just not easy in general, but doable. Would need to re-connect with your network around week 3 of the internship and touch base closer to the end of the internship to talk FT processes. Have to be careful here because you need to network a lot but also have to get a return offer to be competitive, so is generally hard to recruit without your current bank noticing you are stepping out for random external calls all the time.
Probably tough this year given current market. I was able to recruit for FT successfully as a non-target (not RX), but my firm hired a bunch for FT that weren’t SA.
This year, my firm didn’t give FT offers to all of the SA and is doing 0 FT hiring
I re-recruited full-time this summer and traded up firms, and I will just say it was an absolutely hellish process. I consistently was waking up three to four hours before I needed to hit the desk so that I could prep for interviews, and left early to "WFH" whenever I sensed was socially acceptable so that I could prep some more. I was so sleep deprived I slept 19 hours straight the Saturday after I got my FT offer.
I personally know four other people who traded up this past cycle (my close friend, a friend of a friend, and two random people I saw post on Linkedin). I'm connected with a lot of people working at the top SA programs, and the fact that I only know of a handful of people who successfully re-recruited suggests that it was an extremely difficult year to re-recruit. I'm sure there are more people who were successful FT at top firms, but this just goes to show you that trading up is extremely difficult when there's very little M&A/LBOs and firms are trying to right-size their orgs. The best advice I can give you is to start early -- with both networking and technical prep -- as I think this was a key advantage I had over friends who decided to re-recruit way later. If you can, try to visit New York and do coffee chats. Lastly, really assess your "narrative" and how you can come across as a compelling candidate. Getting the technicals correct matters but ultimately you need to get your interviewer to buy into YOU. I was point blank asked at the superday of the firm I signed with why I should be hired given I had the least impressive resume of any candidate they were interviewing that day. Those are the moments that make or break the interview and knowing yourself extremely well is the only way to have a compelling answer.
Best of luck man
Hey there,
thank you for this detailed response. I appreciate it. I was wondering what is “early”? did you start first week of your internship or when you say early you mean I should start now?
I started a few months before the summer. Not sure how to answer your question below about networking, as I approached it relatively similarly as I did SA networking.
Also how did you stab at networking?
did you reach out to new contacts or did you reach out to old contacts to stay in touch?
I think networking will be the hardest hurdle for me. I’m a little confused on how that process works.
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