I hate finance recruiting

agreed. i got a good number of first rounds interviews with banks but im just tired of dealing with preparation bullshit. im just going to grad school and start running my own business. my life is too short to be wasted on this shit.

Purely sick of it. The sad part is, no matter how much you know, or how well you answer the questions, its all luck. It all depends if the person interviewing you is nice and lenient to let you past the first rounds. Even in the second rounds, they will chose Ivy league schools...quite funny and ridiculous since most the ive league kids I interned with clearly are idiots when it comes ot finance....I remember one girl from Harvard said "I thought a firm's value does not depend on capital structure" she was referring to MM theory in a world with no taxes...The other Ivy interns clearly had no interest in finance or the business world, and when talking with them regarding current news of the economy, clueless. Now, I hate to generalize, but honestly, I don't find Ivy league students more bright or intelligent than other students, nor do they have more capabilites. But who am I to judge? No offense to anyone whose in the Ivys, just my two cents. These forums are great and I have learned a lot from reading everyones experiences and words of wisdom.

Anyways, interviews suck. But, that's life man. The analytical route, working for the fed, may not pay more, I think it is definitely more prestigious. Second most powerful man in this country, is Bernanke.....Good luck!

The amount that I agree with your statement cannot be properly conveyed through the internet.  I feel that my entire life has been put on hold for the past few months - everything has been put on the back burner; friends, girls, hobbies, interests, everything.  There are so many books I want to read and movies I want to watch its sickening.

I keep telling myself "yeah I'll do that after I have an offer."  Fuck man.  This is the worst ordeal I've ever gone through, not necessarily because of all the work involved, I can handle that but it's the ups and downs that really kill me.

No shit, tell me about it this sucks. For the past 2.5 months, I've been fucking writing so many god damn emails and talking on the phone so many times. When I was home in NJ for break, it was exhausting to keep up with interviews in the city every day. I'm in no way complaining, but I feel your guy's pain with this process.

The only thing to really look forward to is an offer, and if not, I guess i'll most to south america and open a hostel or something.

Jeez, it you can't handle recruiting, I can't imagine you actually working in banking...

I do think though, that all this mirrors well what your life is like once you actually get into banking. Serves as an unintentional but pretty effective weeding out process.

Just gotta g it out, we're almost there. Best of luck to all of you, even though we're competing for the same jobs.

"Is it necessary to not mind it to succeed as a banker?"

Could someone currently working FT answer this?

To the OP- you're not alone.....

I don't necessarily agree that actually working in banking is more stressful.  While you're working, there are fire drills and stressful times with long hours, but there's never really times where you experience the kind of nerves associated with being under the microscope for 3 hours (in a superday, for example).  I always hated the "dog and pony show" of interviewing, but it's a fact of life.  I'm just glad I managed to get the PE job I wanted with only couple interviews.  I can only imagine what it's like to interview for months on end and work at the same time.

As crazy it sounds, I actually liked the recruiting process.  It's way more fun than the actual job, by far.  So if you think what you're currently going through sucks, just wait.  Just wait... :)

And yes to an extent it is all luck.  Nothing's a sure thing, that's why you have to spread your net wide when interviewing and make sure you have "safeties" in there.

To be perfectly honest with you, a lot of what we do in banking is complete BS (well, this describes most sales jobs, which banking is).  If you can't stand that, maybe grad school or the Fed would be better options.

It all comes down to what value more: money or doing what you like.  If you can find something with both, wonderful.  But that's usually not possible.

It is a false statement that Ivy kids are not smarter than others. The average SAT at Harvard is well above 1450, with a quarter of the kids having a perfect 1600. There is no finance program at harvard and most other Ivys, so we don't know as much about accounting and that type of stuff as interns, but average IQ is certainly higher.

Q:How many Harvard kids have gotten laid?

A: Not many

That was on the SAT

I actually enjoy recruiting, as its a way to prove that non-Ivy leaguers can attain the same jobs as Ivy-Leaguers (and sometimes even perform better than them)

i agree. the whole process is annoying. I started nearly five months ago and am still not through. I remember one guy telling me he flew to New York 6 times in three weeks. He had to take his exams, go for the interview, and then the same thing again.

FElt like I was in the Navy Seals or something. Between taking the max load of courses (one extra than normal) and doing D1 athletics, and then flying back and forth between NY every week, i thought i was going to die after.  This was for SA positions. FT, surprisingly, was a lot more relaxed, mostly because I was prepared better (took less courses, off-season in Fall, etc.)

It's a very whimsical, 'luck' based process after a certain point. You just need to pray (if you are religious) or wish upon a star. Seriously.

Totally agree with the consensus. Recruiting has completely consumed my life and certainly has hurt my grades a bit, and the worst part is that after all of my preparation it will still come down to luck. I got dinged in an interview last week because I didn't answer a certain question fast enough - I didn't actually get it wrong, just not as fast as my peers apparently did. Once I heard that excuse, I almost threw my computer through the window. Add in the crap with the markets and it just makes for a stressful time. Hopefully we all get some good news soon.

I personally enjoy the process. Nothing against you, but I never told people I networked with some "I love blah blah" crap. I already have to worry about getting an internship, worrying about BSing to sound like the perfect candiate is just too much. If a firm picks a bullshitter over me, so be it, I wouldn't want to work there anyways.

And contrary to many beliefs, a lot of bankers can smell bullshit, whether or not you think they can.

It's stressful to not know if you have a job, but wtf are you complaining about? How bad do you want it?

dude, just chill.  You have interviews, they're almost all the same.  Just have to be confident.  Like, I had a 2nd phone interview at a BB.  I didn't have much time to prepare but I took the call.  And blew the interviewer out of the water by just portraying confidence over the telephone.  I answered all of the questions well.  I'd say that the interviews that have not gone well for me are the ones were I forget that interviews and banks are full of people that make mistakes just like me.  Also, just make sure you illustrate your points with examples.

Also, I kind of like the recruiting process.  Or at least I like that I'm going to New York on a BB's dime.  And I get time off school. I like traveling so it's good with me.

Just a little stress, and you whine. all of us went through it, and we survived. Go and cry to your mommy if you want. Oh, remember to bring your teddy bear to the interviews too.

Today I found out i got final rounds from GS MS and LEH! Okay for those of you who are pretending to be all macho, that's complete bullshit. That's most likely becuase you haven't gotten enough interviews. If you do manage to prepare for them well, its extremely frustrating. i research IPOs from every company. I memorize merger facts. I learn everything about the firm. It takes hours and hours, and with classes and extracurriculars. The GS interview was one of the most insane interview experiences in my life. Unlike other places which were all fit and no technical, two guys asked me everything from doing 17^3 in my head to the importance of teh divergence theorem to pure finance. Yeah, I toughed it out and i got final rounds, but sure does it still suck.

Anyone else enjoy interviewing? I get an adrenaline rush and I amaze myself with how easily answers come to mind.

It's the waiting / let downs that are so stressful.

why would anyone ask you what the divergence theorem is? Unless you are a math major, it has very little to do with investment banking.