IB SA No Offer -> Major Entertainment Strategy + Perspectives on Recovering from Failure
Always wanted to do one of these, and I suppose I have time now given quarantine haha!
A lot of time and energy is spent on this forum communicating the importance of receiving a return offer after your junior year internship in investment banking / consulting, but not as much is communicated about how to recover after you don't receive a full-time offer. A couple years ago, I was one of those X% of summer interns that didn't receive a full-time offer after my summer in banking, and frankly I initially thought my long-term goals were dead on arrival. Now, I work in corporate strategy at a major film / entertainment company after a couple years in another major media / entertainment firm's strategy group post-undergrad. Without giving too much away on the firms to protect my identity, these firms are typically seen as two of the most prestigious within the industry and my fears about the long-term prospects of my career seem silly in retrospect.
Given the relative prestige of the media / entertainment industries as well as the uncertainty around internships due to COVID-19, I thought I'd share some perspectives I've developed since my unsuccessful IB internship my junior summer and fostered what I believe is now a fairly successful career. I remember what it was like to be a scared-shitless college senior worried about his future, and I hope the perspectives I share below are helpful to anyone who needs it on this forum as this forum was really helpful to me over the years. In addition, happy to provide advice to anyone seeking roles in the industry.
1. If you don't receive a return offer, don't be bitter - be reflective.
You may have failed in your initial endeavor, but a bend in the road is not the end of the road. Seems trite in retrospect, but life does go on and you now have an opportunity to let your next couple steps define you instead of your last failure. You're best served by taking the time your senior year to be analytical about why you didn't get a return offer. If the market's bad and you didn't receive a return offer because of economic pressures on the bank, then you need to do some thinking about where you stood in relation to your fellow SAs. But typically in your 'exit interview' they'll explain to you why you didn't get a return offer - spun your wheels too much, had a hard time navigating office politics, weak technical skills on PPT / Excel, whatever. At the end of day there was a set of skills you did not exhibit that you needed to. You need to be relentless about mitigating the flaws that hindered your ability to be successful during your internship because those competencies never go away. If you want to work in strategy, finance, or corporate development long-term, you will always have to double-check numbers in decks, format slides properly, and work in intense team settings to achieve common goals. At an even more basic level, all of this boils down to you not being the best teammate you could've been, and you need to make sure you don't hamstring your chances of success at your next role by cutting that shit out ASAP. Which brings me to my next point...
2. Focusing on being the best teammate you can be will help you throughout your career.
I'm big on sports, having played varsity athletics in college and eventually working with the industry extensively in my analyst stint, and I find it helpful to orient my career around being the best teammate I can possibly be. This way, you don't take constructive criticism personally - it is just guidance on steps you need to take to 'level up'. I want to be a good teammate, and I think everyone else does too. This attitude I believe helps us become a little more selfless and - dare I say - compulsive about being good to the people we work with, whether that means by going the extra mile on your deliverables or taking the time to prep before meetings.
3. Everyone comes to their transition point at some time or another. A No-Offer is a great time to accelerate your long-term goals.
I'd always known that I wanted to go into the media industry, and I viewed banking as a way to gain experience before transitioning into a Corporate Strategy / Development role in the field. Not getting a return offer made it incredibly hard to recruit at other banks, so I had to go all-in on recruiting for the media industry. Yeah, there were plenty of times my senior year where I was afraid of being a failure. I attended a top school (think HYPSM) so the pressure from my colleagues to be effortlessly successful felt intense, especially given most if not all of them were extended return offers. To give you a sense of the shitty culture some of these schools foster, I was even publicly ridiculed for not getting a return offer at one point my senior year in one of my social circles. That was one of the worst nights of my life. But I kept my head down, had faith, and took a gamble that worked out.
Years later, many of those who made fun of me are now asking for my recommendations / references to break into my industry from investment banks / private equity firms. I get a kick out of people thinking my job is cool or telling me they'd read about some of the deals I've worked on in the newspaper, though I used to be a little bitter. Now I just realize that everyone has their own come to Jesus moment about the jobs that are typically considered 'the path' post-undergrad at top schools. Some people go through their entire careers and love banking and make MD. Others hated their internship. Some people say 'fuck this' during their analyst stint. Careers are long, your interests will change, and weird shit happens. For everyone I know who went from banking to PE, I know 2 others that ended up doing something else like Product Management or Corporate Development or even teaching. Stuff happens. I kept my head down and decided to define success not by whether I received a banking offer, but by whether I received offers at firms I actually wanted to work at. That mindset shift has led to some pretty great professional successes in my opinion, and the best part is that I defined success on my own terms.
Still, I know it's hard to feel this way when you're in your senior fall and everyone seems to be enjoying their signing bonus...which brings me to my next point...
4. Play the long game.
I had this moment my senior year where I closed my eyes and imagined my best self. I imagined myself doing a lot of the work bankers do - decks, spreadsheets, whatever - and then leaving my office for a meeting and stepping out into a movie lot. I had this vision that I was going to be a BSD in film / entertainment. When I opened my eyes, I realized it didn't matter if I did banking or not as long as I got my shot in that field and ran with it, which is especially important in a field like media where so many people want to break in but the industry really just values experience / man-hours / 'insider' knowledge. It's one thing to talk high-level banker-ese about Netflix's content strategy, for example, and another to actually be able to talk through the ins and outs of content deal structures, valuation methods, industry dynamics... This led me to go all-in on media / entertainment. I decided to play the long game.
Careers are long. It's crazy - when you're in undergrad you can differentiate between jobs and choose one or the other because one job pays $20K more. But the more you go along, you realize $20K often turns out to be rounding errors... you can negotiate +$20K in a lot of jobs just by coming to your recruiter with a strong argument. I took a large (30 - 40%) paycut relative to what I would've made as an average IB analyst my first year, but I was doing the work I wanted to do that I knew would set me apart in the industry I cared about. That pay difference was mitigated less than 2 years later. Everyone talks about comp, but it's hard to conceptualize as a senior in college just how variable comp really can be.
Even more broadly speaking, a lot of my friends in banking - even at top firms - either did not land the PE jobs they wanted or didn't receive offers during the regular timeline. Shit happens. No one's career is a straight line, as trite as it sounds. Which makes me thankful...
5. Always find a reason to be thankful.** I'm thankful for not having received a return offer my senior year.
Don't get me wrong - all things equal, it's better to have an offer than not even if it's not what you want to do long term. But not receiving a return offer forced me to lean into my interests. Better yet, it's taught me to be calm when I think things aren't going exactly according to my career plan. When you're operating from a place of weakness - say, a no-offer - you'll go into interviews stressed and worried and diffident. If you operate from a place of strength, your arguments in interviews shift from what value the jobs can provide to you to what value you can provide to the job. Since my no-offer, I'm now much more confident in my career path, my strengths and weaknesses, and how I navigate through times of duress. If you ever find yourself in a tight spot professionally, find reasons to be thankful - the process will calm you down and you will think more rationally.
In any case, I hope the above is helpful and not solipsistic. Happy to give any more insight on specific steps I took if helpful, but I hope the above is good high-level guidance.
Cheers monkeys!
If helpful, here's my opinion too on my choice to leave banking 1/2 through my analyst stint.
In no particular order and not MECE necessarily some of my thoughts +anecdotes
Pros - Significantly better work / balance life- I can actually take my PTO. Although going to be difficult with COVID-19, I've been encouraged to take days off regardless and have been given extra leeway to take care of personal matters with extra days off without taking PTO. I typically work 45-50 hours a week, but have had some 70 hour weeks. My hours are also predictable. My friends and family say they see me lol, I smile/laugh again, and I've regained the weight I lost in banking (become underweight over my analyst one stint)
Feeling Valued - While I feel there is great value in providing capital, I felt I did decks after decks and analysis for absolutely no point late into the weekends and nights in banking. In corporate strategy, whenever I've had to stay late, the directors, VP, etc. have been there in the office with me and I see exactly why the work is being done when I am told to run with something. It's not to say I never stay late, but it's a lot less often and other people stand up for me when they think I'm working "too hard" . Although I did get the feedback in in my banking group that I was quiet - it was clear that no matter if I spoke up in meetings, it wouldn't matter. I was just a nameless serf to work for two years and I should be grateful to be there. Now, I am often encouraged to speak up even when the CFO, COO, etc. of the very large company are in a meeting. I have also never gotten a "pls fix" and people as high up regularly express thank you and know my name. I was a resource in banking and now I am a valued team member.
Impactful work - I was pretty sure I never wanted to exit to an investing role in PE and was always interested in the "strategic" aspect of a business problem. When I was going into banking, I thought I might switch into a strategy role in the investment bank after a few years or work in VC, but definitely not PE. Perhaps I should have recruited for consulting, but felt banking recruiting was much easier. Specifically, I enjoy diving into a problem and going through the process of thinking whether we should enter x market, how should we open up post COVID-19, market/customer segmentation, working with corp dev on acquisitions. I appreciate that as a junior employee, that I don't have to focus on a specific area. I feel like I'm paid to be curious!
Cultural fit - I work with all former consultants and some direct MBA hires and they're all super fun and smart. I feel like I am genuinely mentored and don't dread dinners with them. I feel mentored as a junior person. In banking, I was always yelled at for a mistake and now I'm coached to understand the right approach. Maybe it's that I'm a woman, so all these soft things matter, but liking the people you work with makes a huge difference for me.
Exit opps - Somehow I feel like my exit opps reach outs on LinkedIn have not decreased and rather increased for more interesting start-up/corporate strategy roles. I feel much more confident interviewing for product marketing and other roles I may be interested in if I leave the bizsop/corp strategy world.
Cons
Pay - Not as highly paid as IB and I probably would have a difficult time moving to PE (but I don't even want to!). I feel like I will jump firms in a year or two for higher pay as home-grown talent doesn't move up the pay scale as fast. For now, I am content with the challenging and interesting work and I am being mentored. Also, I only have one life to live and think I make enough to enjoy life.
MBA - Lots of people in corporate strategy have a degree and I'm very unsure if it's valuable for me. I'm confident I can get into a top program with my banking + corp strategy experience if I have a good GMAT score. However, I question the ROI. My group has also expressed they are willing to sponsor me.
Bureaucracy - From what I understand, bizops/corporate strategy is not respected at many places, but I have not really seen this to be the case at our company. However, I sometimes of feel that the work doesn't "go anywhere" as a we aren't a direct profit generator.
Longevity - I often worry about next steps. Do I need to transition to a profit-generating role in my next job? Has basically staying in strategy crippled my career growth as I need to be revenue-generating for longer? What skills do I want to acquire for the long-run?
Happy to double-click on any of these or answer anything else.