Summer offer and IB interviews - MBA
first time poster here. top10 US MBA 2nd year student. Spent the summer as a summer associate in Europe at a bulge bracket and now about to interview with a fairly large boutique (read centerview, Greenhill, Moelis).
as weird and dishonest as it may sound; here is the question: with no FT offer from the BB last summer, shall i say that I received a FT offer but just prefer working in NYC rather than Europe, would that blow up on my face in the future? would they check such an offer if I have to receive an offer from the boutique?
2) how about this: shall I say that the office that I worked for do not give away offers right away (thats true actually) but I'm interviewing with the firm for London regional Hq since thats the only office in the region for MBA associate hiring- the truth is, i'm not officially interviewing with them but i'm in talks as to if there is anything that can be done to get a position/interview etc. i had great relationships with all my vps and mds and they put in a great word for me for London. but dont think London will need any more FT associates than they had last summer. anyway...
saying that I got an offer would be powerful of course but might be costly- idk. what do guys think? thanks in advance for all the inputs!
Best,
Definitely don't say you got a return offer when you didn't. Think of a good reason why you didn't get a return offer. You can implicitly say you're still in talks with the BB.
You're still talking with them but you'd really, REALLY, REALLY prefer to be in NYC.
This for sure. If they ask why you haven't received an offer yet, which they might find strange, add that you are still in talks b/c you believe it is apparent to them you'd rather be in the US and they are trying to decide whether it'd be worth it to make an offer to someone who they think is not sure they'd accept it b/c it is overseas.
don't lie - that's a terrible strategy and they'll be able to sniff something is amiss.
like the example above, keep it vague and focus on framing things in a positive way.
If you’re at a top 10, they should have a fairly competent career services office…I would definitely get their thoughts on this. I went to a top 10 MBA myself and our guys were extremely helpful for questions like this.
I was in a fairly similar position and applied for a few FT IB roles (more for the security of having an offer and to payback student loans) but didn’t really want to go back to IB.
My personal thoughts are that you’re probably OK with saying you have a FT offer since 1.) it makes you look wanted and 2.) raises your desirability so whomever you’re interviewing with is probably not going to call your summer place (if you nail the interviews). However, I know of a few people who have had this type of thing blow up and it completely de-rails them.
Having only spent a summer, you may or may not realize just how close/small Wall St is. Think you have a margin of safety since you were in Europe but bankers beget bankers / your boys at XYZ Bank go out for drinks or are buddies with ABC Bank, etc. and, in my opinion, you don’t want to lie about something like that.
Be honest. If they ask if you have a FT offer (and they will ask), say they haven’t decided on their summers/have not yet extended offers but I expect to know by date xyz.
In short, as an MBA (I assume you don’t have a finance background pre-MBA), your reputation and credibility is all you have to go on. You can likely get away with saying you have an offer but if you’re “found out”, it could kill your chances at any reputable bank.
To clear any confusion with my long-winded post. Don’t say you have a FT offer if you don’t, even if you may get away with it. Your downside far exceeds your upside.
lying is for losers.
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