Q&A: I didn't get a return offer
My background:
At this time last year, I was an intern in a top group at my dream bank and was so excited my life was on-track and going according to plan. Two months later began a semester-long panic as I tried to secure a full-time job after not receiving a return offer. I learnt a lot about myself throughout this brutal process and thought I'd share so that others can more effectively figure out what to do if they find themselves in a similar situation.
Ask me anything:
Ask me about SA group selection at a BB, getting/not getting the return, the FT recruiting process (which for me was very broad, very long and ended somewhere I could not have predicted beforehand), life lessons etc. (Throwaway because my other account would make me easily identifiable. Will PM replies if posting publicly makes my identity too obvious.)
When did things start going downhill and what do you think caused this? What kind of mistakes were you making? Why were you unable to recover from your mid-summer review?
Was this in IB or S&T? What was your group's return offer rate?
Mind telling us what you did afterwards for FT recruiting and where you ended up?
I was unprepared for how to navigate politics and facetime and get genuine feedback. PM me for more specifics.
IB, varies year to year (not usually 100%). Can't talk in detail about FT, but I'm happy with where I ended up - it's a much better fit for my interests and where I think seniors are genuinely interested in my growth and career.
It seems like a lot of your answers are very vague, I understand you want to stay anonymous, but for others to really benefit from your answers it’d be great to hear more specifics... plus there’s literally hundreds of interns across the world interning in IB, nobody’s asking where you went to school or the firm or exact group, it would be tough to drill down who you are.
The questions from Champagnepaki are perfect, specifically can you ellobarate on:
When you felt things were going downhill?
Specifics on what was said in the midterm review... did they hint towards you not receiving a full time offer or mention any massive red flags?
What was the typical return offer for your group?
This is a really important AMA as many assume they are set once they have the internship locked down (not implying you assumed anything or that you didn't perform well). My guess is sometimes it's also a capacity issue - ie they only take so many interns for full time.
Think about it, if the overwhelming number of FT spots were given to SAs from that summer, you'd only realistically have a shot at FTing where you interned. There are tons of kids who intern somewhere and FT elsewhere (using that internship as leverage to get to a different firm, different role, different whatever).
This is a garbage AMA which could otherwise be so helpful to others in your situation / could be in your situation. I'm not sure why you think you're some special snowflake that out of the dozens of SAs who don't get a return offer this year you'll get picked out of an anonymous line up, and then what...someone will go out of their way to blow up your new FT position based on an "I think I know who they are"?
To some degree, he/she may have helped us answer why they did not get an offer more in the lack of information than the actual information. Judgement sounds off, the thought was "oh, this will be a good AMA" ... nope, just a waste of everyone's time.
This is why I'm always extremely skeptical of AMAs by current students or analysts. It takes time and experience to build enough credibility to warrant an AMA. Posts like this just come across as validation-seeking, rather than altruistic.