I have no offer right now, am I screwed?
Hey guys, so I'm currently a senior at a target school. This is my last semester and I still don't have any offers. All the banks seem to be done recruiting and I'm starting to freak out. I have pretty strong IB experience for the past 3 summers despite a low GPA, but didn't pull an offer at the MM bank I interned at.
I really want to continue my career down banking though. Will there be more positions opening up or am I screwed? Would greatly appreciate any advice.
Time to take the BB ops roles you've dreamed about
Your first step should be to figure out why you did not get an offer. Did you do any networking? How did you interview? The reasons are probably your low GPA coupled with you not getting a return offer. Not getting a return offer, especially from a well-known IB, is very difficult to overcome.
My suggestion would be to start reaching out to boutiques. You can always lateral after six months to a year. But, you really need to get your story down as to why you did not get a return offer.
Detox15 I'm not sure what sector you focused on but have you considered Corporate/Business Development? Based on what I see in my industry there is a major need for people with financial modeling ability and experience sourcing and developing pipeline of M&A opportunities.
Have you considered the above instead? If not what about joining a valuation group such as Duff & Phelps and then lateraling into an IB role?
I know its not what you want to hear but some alternatives...
"Regional Semi-Target". That's a new one.
I understand your situation as I was in the exact same position about a year ago. I did not end up getting an offer after graduating in December and I also had a low GPA.
I started networking like crazy to find any type of IB/PE related job for January 2016 after my graduation. Turns out a friend of a friend of mine was working in a small PE shop in Eastern Africa. I reached out and got an opportunity to work for him for 6 months. I networked like crazy while working there via emails and phone calls.. I came back about 2 months ago and got an interview at every firm I reached out to and ended up securing a FT spot in a respected MM firm.
That being said, start sending emails to everyone you know and dont be picky about where you start. Just keep grinding, it will all work out.
Good Luck
I say this both from having spent 25 years in IB (M&A) and from my current consulting business, which is advising college seniors (target and non-target schools) who want jobs in IB, PE, HF, etc., as well as other fields.
First, as others have said, try to get a really good read on why you didn't get an offer. if you've done that and you still want IB, you need to be very, very sure that whatever happened won't happen again (and persuading another firm to hire you won't be easy). However, if you were my client (and I've had several clients in your position), I would advise you to think very hard about why you want IB. I don't mean all the standard reasons like "equips you for almost any career", etc. etc. I'd want you to think about why you're drawn to it. Is it the prestige? Or the money? Is it something you think you should do?
At least for now, my advice would be to try something else. I agree with the others who say that things don't look good. If you still want finance, there are many paths, and they might lead back to IB. For instance, I have a client who failed to get a BB offer after his summer. He went to work for Texas Instruments as a financial analyst and two years later, having impressed the hell out of an MD in another BB firm's tech group (on a deal), got an offer to join that firm. I have other clients who didn't get offers, and they've gone off to do something else and have never looked back. I had a great career in IB, but it isn't for everyone.
@RedRage you raise an interesting point. There is obviously no way to fully determine whether IB is "right" for anyone. However, both when I was in IB and now in my advisory business I try to assess whether the individual is really interested in IB for its own sake. For example, do they really understand what it is? Do they have a strong interest in the capital markets or the deal business and what's going on there? Have they done any investing on their own? Do I see any passion there?
I realize that in most cases they're college seniors and I don't expect huge amounts of knowledge or lots of understanding, but it's important to weed out people who think only about the money they could make, or being able to say they work in IB, or think it's something they should do. I also want to hear more than the standard "I want to get into PE and this is the best way" (btw I'm talking only about IB, not exit opps) or "it equips you for almost any other career". I want to see a spark, defined as a real interest in the business of investment banking. I found when I was in IB that the people who had that spark were the ones who became successful bankers (and who had the greatest opportunities going forward).
It's that spark that keeps you going when it's 2am and you're knee-deep in the third revision of the PowerPoint that must be ready for the 10am meeting, or any of the thousand other crappy things young IB'ers have to deal with.
So ask yourself if you really like the idea of going into IB (as far as you can tell anyway). If it really interests you for what it is, go for it.