Is OCR a big trap?

might make you look desperate/indecisive... idk

I don't think so. I applied for multiple positions for one company and received multiple interview offers.

I actually have been thinking the same thing and I think it really just depends -- I've noticed that I've had multiple interviews with one firm in one instance, but dinged entirely at another. My OCR experience has been completely random.

I would say though, overall, I think applying to both sales and trading and investment banking at the same time is a bad idea

Definitely not. For example, if you apply for PAG and FMA for Blackrock, a different group of people will review your resume for each division.

viewing it as indecisive is ridiculous in an ocr context. the marginal effort required to apply to another position is tiny. i would argue it's stupid to not do it.

that said, i can understand this perspective if you're applying to a firm that does not participate in your school's ocr.

I had better luck just applying to S&T and maybe research than going all out and applying for IBD also. Some places certainly know if you are applying for other divisions.

Idk, if the question comes up in an interview you might be able to say "I'm dead-set on banking, but given the state of the current economy and hiring environment I felt it was necessary to cast a wide net to make sure I land something."

I applied to multiple jobs with multiple firms and got multiple interviews from a couple of them. People don't care. You probably aren't as good of a candidate as you think you are.

my bank will ding you if you apply to both s&t and banking but applying to multiple offices within the same division (ex: both nyc and la banking) is ok

What about applying to both front and back office roles?

No. I applied to multiple divisions, got first rounds with both. Told my interviewer at the end of the second one that I liked his division better, asked if it would hurt me that I'd applied to others. He said he didn't care, would've done the same thing in this economy, and that it was totally possible I could end up from offers from both if they liked me enough.

doesn't the same recruiter go through all the resumes from a given school before divvying them up to analysts? I've always avoided applying to multiple positions because I assume at least the recruiter knows and maybe they might ding or tell someone down the line.