HR Found Out I Need Sponsorship After Interview
Hey guys,
Sorry for the long paragraph TL:DR at end.
I recently had a Sophomore Summer Corp Banking interview with a big Nordic bank. I entered the process laterally- I cold emailed somebody who never replied but put me on some sort of list. The HR reached out asking me to answer some standard application questions (Why Bank, Why Position), I had first round interviews last week and final interview 2 days ago. I think I pretty much aced them, combine that with the slight lack of competition and I was pretty much golden. I got replies from both my interviewers to the tune of 'HR will reach out in a couple days.' Problem is I'm Intl. and because I never went through the application process, they never found out. So they had one of my interviewers ask me and I told her I have STEM OPT. However, I got a call from HR asking whether I will need sponsorship at some point, and after some back and forth she said that in their eyes I need sponsorship and they normally don't even interview people who do. My only question is can absolutely cracked interviews still carry me through (say, if I was hands down the best candidate)?
TL:DR-> Bank doesn't sponsor, slipped through cracks by their mismanagement, HR called to reconfirm, do I still have a shot if I was the best candidate they had?
I had a verbal offer for NYC MM PE internship.
and I asked about sponsorship after they said they will send written offer in two days.
They went with the second candidate, got the call the next day.
if they have a no sponsor policy, don’t waste your time. Just be depressed for a couple of days, then get up and keep hitting. Had multiple instances of this during my engineering undergrad in the US.
Best to move on. Firms are typically not flexible when it comes to sponsorship rules. Unless you are a math prodigy who got a PhD at 25, you are out of luck - they won’t make a sponsorship exception for you.
Back in the day, a personal friend of mine (college roommate who’s international) actually had his summer offer revoked for failing to disclose the need for sponsorship (HR basically said he lied). In your case I don’t think it’s that severe since you said you never went through the formal application process, but regardless it’s a very low likelihood that the firm will make an exception for you.
Got it, I definitely don't plan on going the route your roommate did even though a bunch of people have advised me to. I'd rather not waste their time and mine, especially by intentionally obscuring stuff
So this friend didn't even make it to the summer internship right
Typically no flex in these policies, even if you are a star. The rule is "if you need sponsorship now or at any point in the future" - unfortunately even if you intend to leave at 2 years, you still answer yes to that and many firms have 100% no sponsor rules. Even a superstar does not have any extra shots in the eventual lottery with odds of only 10%, so banks do not hire entry-level internationals as a rule as they would lose them all quickly.
I agree with above, don't think you lied but you should clarify upfront in future processes that you are international and have OPT. These days a huge number of firms will absolutely not sponsor, even with OPT, so might as well save you all some time.
Yeah I definitely wasted a bunch of time prepping and got my hopes up for absolutely no reason. I do see your point with clarifying so I'll be more mindful of that going forward
But thanks!
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