One year since I didn't get a return - advice

Ignore username, outdated. 

Today marks just about a year ago of not getting a return offer in IB. 

I felt completely lost, and as someone who had, up to that point, and probably still, had never faced failure to that magnitude. It is still a massive bruise on my ego (even if I did think there was some weird flukiness in the decision, but alas), and the subsequent period was one of the hardest of my entire life. Coming from an Ivy target, I knew I'd get a lot of questions when I got back.  

To anyone else receiving that news, here's a guide to what to do next, at least in my experience. 

Number 1: Send thank you emails anyways

This was absolutely brutal, especially given that the whole situation was so fresh, but I had a few employees personally call me saying that they disagreed with the decision and were willing to serve as a personal reference upon receiving the email. This was huge going into new interview processes, being able to say "I'm happy to provide references to attest to blah blah blah". Apart from this, it's just a classy thing to do. I also think very worthwhile to make these notes personalized, not just slop "I really appreciated the opportunity to...". Any way you can curry favor from your previous employer is helpful. 

Number 2: Figuring out where to apply next

My biggest, BIGGEST recommendation is to apply to consulting or other adjacent careers. Consulting, especially, has half of their recruitment as explicitly "full time", so you're actually in the main timeline, not just trying to shove yourself into an off-cycle process. I recommend casting a wide net. As someone who was, honestly, quite successful at converting interviews to offers my first go-around, I can safely say that was NOT the case the second time around due to a) the weight of being return-offer-less, b) the higher standard for interviews and c) the lack of general spots. Though I ended up with three offers and five processes I had to suspend, I can safely say it was WAY harder. 

W/in banking: I found this to be the most difficult because they both a) explicitly asked if I had a return and b) asked why I was interested in their bank instead of my previous one. \

W/in finance (private credit, VC, etc): Interestingly enough, I found the "better" firms to ask me fewer questions about my previous job, and they were less likely to explicitly ask why I didn't get a return. I got a few crazy ass buyside interviews where I could tell I wasn't asked simply because they assumed I was trying to "upgrade"

Any roles outside of these two explicit realms were areas I found FAR more success, and personally, I was not upset to be leaving finance behind, especially for consulting. They asked "why I decided against banking" or about my previous job experience, but none of them asked if I had a return. 

Number 3: Figure out EXACTLY how you're going to respond to the question of your return

Don't explicitly lie I know this sucks to hear, but unfortunately, you can't lie and say you got an offer or that they told you it was "solely a numbers decision" if that isn't something that you were actually told. I think there's definitely room to lightly embellish (if 40% didn't get returns, nobody is hunting after you if you say "half"), but unfortunately, you open a huge can of worms by actually lying. You can, however, lie about "how you had already decided it wasn't a good fit" or about how you were internally evaluating the internship.

Have your explanation PREPARED for if they ask point blank "did you get a return" Whatever makes you look best. I'd say any of these, if true, are valuable to point out:

• How it contrasted to feedback on your work (if you got consistently positive feedback and it came by a complete surprise)
• How you're happy to provide references
• That they cut a lot of the class

• That you had already discussed with seniors that you were thinking of (blah blah blah

  Have this air-tight and ready. 

Do NOT bring it up unless you are explicitly asked It sounds tempting and natural when asked "why you decided to leave firm X and come here" to bring up that you didn't get a return or to allude to it but ABSOLUTELY DO NOT unless someone asks

Be prepared to answer the "tell us about your internship" or "tell us why banking wasn't for you" without getting at your lack of return

Keep it brief! Keep it tight, don't talk for so long it comes across as sketchy or defensive. Don't bring it up in successive answers unless you really need to or if they ask again

Number 4: For every interview, come up with a SUPER specific explanation as to why you're interested in this field, not your previous internship

A few pieces of advice:

1. Lean into location, if this is applicable. My internship was in SF, so anything about "wanting to be closer to home" in DC, "wanting to be in the heart of finance" in NYC, felt natural and didn't raise questions
2. Getting into the nuance differences between jobs, if applicable. You loved X about banking, but in Y, you get the chance to ___. I repeated the line a lot that investment banking felt very mechanical, and while I found that interesting on the day-to-day, I appreciated that in consulting, there's more of an opportunity to...
3. AVOID ANYTHING that implies you were put off by the hours and difficulty of work. Or even that you thought it was boring. After all, most of the fields you're thinking of will be similar. And if you do, you need to caveat it to hell and back and at your own risk
4. Don't shit on your ex-coworkers. It may be tempting to say that you felt like the seniors blah blah blah, but nobody wants to hire someone who comes across as a shit talker or overly demanding
5. A framing that worked for me was "what I learned about myself" and "the things that energize me"

Number 5: Mental aspect

a. No matter how unfair or unjust you think the situation was (or wasn't), it is worth doing some self reflection on what you could have done better. Maybe it's the work itself, the optics around the work, but once you've taken a second to reground yourself, try to really think about what role you played. A lot of this self reflection, to be honest, didn't make me feel great, but it was incredibly helpful moving into a new job.

b. Nobody at my school cared, like at ALL. I was really worried about the pushback, dirty looks, condescending questions, etc. given how involved I was in my school's (very large) IB community, but to my surprise 1) people didn't ask and 2) those who did either didn't care or, if they were in IB, completely understood

c. You WILL get interviewers who suspend the interview when they hear you didn't get a return. I was in shock the first time this happened, but it happened a few. You need to stay resilient and know this is a long game.

Good luck to everyone in this position. I know a lot of us haven't faced this opaque of a failure before, and the subsequent job search is, frankly, a whirlwind. I can say thought, with confidence, that of the people I know who didn't get returns, we all ended up with something that we were more or less satisfied with. It is, at the end of the day, your first job of a very long career, a very long life, etc. Hang in there, and best of luck!