That's it.

2024 hasn't even started for non-diverse at most banks. You'll be fine, man. Can't give up now.

Relax dude, it’s not over until it’s over. I recruited until October of my junior year to get one offer for an extremely small boutique. A year later, I lateraled to a MM bank (JEF, HL, Baird). I was terrible at networking and I’ll be the first to admit I screwed up my own recruitment cycle, you just need to keep trying and adjust your scope. Are you only targeting BBs & EBs? If so, you need to get real and size up what positions you are most competitive for. Play the long game dude

I mean this in the kindest way possible, but I think you need a reality check for how much talent is around you and how competitive these EB/BB jobs really are. Yes, there are tons of privileged prep school Ivy League kids with connections who get these jobs, but there are also many low income/middle class kids who grinded since high school to get into Ivy Leagues or other target schools. Or state school kids that are absolutely crushing it.

Also, in recruiting barely anyone cares if your GPA is a 4.0 or a 3.8 and I feel like this attitude that because you have a 4.0, you should be getting an offer is disconnected from how recruiting actually works. As is being upset that you paid money to fly to NYC when you really didn’t need to do that. Or talking about how you’ve done everything possible when I didn’t read a single thing that would make you stand out from your peers. I get it - you have fewer resources. But I’ve reviewed hundreds of resumes and there are tons of candidates who go to no-name schools with awesome leadership/projects, finance competitions they won, better internships, remote internships during the school year, good story around a specific vertical etc. A good GPA and being in clubs isn’t going to get you an interview because almost every candidate has that. You say that “you deserve this” but really think why you’re better than the 99% of applicants going to be rejected for each job? They work super hard too, they’re smart too, they’re likable too.

Your dreams aren’t dead as there’s still a lot of recruiting going on, but I think you have to let go of this attitude of entitlement and this rage because the more emotional you get, the worse this will go. If it helps, I went to a target school and got ghosted all the time - you just can’t take it personally.

The fuck bro first rounds for most shops are just rolling out. What did you expect?? To get first rounds at top shops just bc you put the work in? I can guarantee you even target kids miss out on the opportunity to interview with top shops from time to time.

Also everything you stated that you have been doing… literally every kid is and the rlly smart kids are going much more beyond.

Nobody owes you anything. It’s honestly shocking to see how some people expect jobs that are high paying, interesting, outstanding long term career prospects to land in their lap. You got strong grades at a non target. So what? Hustle - transfer to a better school, work part time every semester in internships that will advance your long term career goals, read every finance / investing book out there, show excellence outside of academics (sports or volunteer opps), get leadership positions in school clubs, etc. I repeat - nobody owes you anything.

OP I feel for you bro. Go to a target school (came from a state ranked 46-50th in education with 0 finance connections). Worked an unpaid boutique M&A internship (lost money from rent by staying at a nearby university) to get experience on my resume. Grinded and got F500 corporate strategy/development for soph summer. 
 

Ghosted by all boutiques, seen mediocre kids with NYC connections get hooked up, and now I pray my networking pays off for BBs. I promise you with your drive and work ethic these privileged kids will flame out and you will be able to get your way to the top, and never rule out a business school after 4 years if banking somehow doesn’t come to fruition. 
 

My advice is go downmarket and hammer the middle market firms. Once you’re in the club, you will be able to move around and the only time your school will hurt you is maybe on-cycle PE recruiting if that’s ever what you want to do. Cheers man.

I see a lot of my old perspectives coming through in your post and there are a few things I'd tell myself, with the benefit of hindsight, that would have improved my overall attitude/well being when I was a young professional.

First, you can't dwell on what others are doing and you can't harbor resentment for "elites" (used colloquially to capture target kids, nepo kids, etc.) to the point that drastically effects your mindset.  I'm big on self-motivation and have found a lot of success harnessing that chip on my shoulder, but it is a very fine line between being productive and being destructive.  People love to say that comparison is the thief of joy, but it's actually "upward-comparison" that is the thief.  If you can't get away from that, at least compare yourself to your peers that don't have their shit together and have no idea what they want to do with their life.

The second thing is thinking it's over before you even started.  I commented in another thread recently about how I was so much further behind you when I graduated and it took me a few years to really find my footing.  I didn't even learn about banking/PE/high finance until after college and only then did it sink in just how impossible that path would be for me, given my background.  I dwelled on that, bitched about it not being fair, whined that my blue-collar sheet-metal working dad and school teacher mother should have had the foresight to groom me for something I didn't know I wanted until I was 23, and generally threw myself an all-time pity party.  Predictably, it changed absolutely nothing about the situation other than fucking up my own attitude.

Regardless of what happens with your internships, I think you need to take your foot off the gas a bit.  You can't burnout before you even start.  Careers are 40+ years long and, despite the (seemingly waning) 2+2+2 trajectory, your first job will not define you.  I was forced to take what I could get at the start, do a damn good job, and parlay that into the next opportunity, then the next, etc.  I'm not even suggesting you need to settle at this point but you have to understand that there is a very real opportunity to break into this industry (IB/PE in my case) down the line.

I think there are other points to make but I'm fading.  kellycriterion and monkiseemonkido 's responses are both excellent and I fully echo what they're saying.

Look, your attitude fucking sucks but I smell the passion and I like it. Not going to hold your hand but send me a PM and I’ll take a look at your resume, give honest feedback, and help you fix it. The rest is up to you

You learned not only great life lessons but also two important buy-side lessons (if you ever thought about doing that after IB):

1) Don't put all your eggs in one basket 

2) Stay optimistic, but never forget risk.

So you've put all your energy and focus in one basket (IB) expecting everything to go as planned - but it didn't. Now, I think you're smart enough to understand that IB it's a cyclical business, and considering the current circumstances: (i) Economic and banking turmoil, (ii) IB lay-offs, (iii) CS IBD laterals, (and bonus: (iv) Ivy kids competing for the same spots as you), you're at a huge disadvantage.

Instead of asking for guidance on what next steps you should take, I'll do the contrary, I'll take some steps back, look at my current career plan, and assess how realistic my plans and assumptions were and what options are more suitable considering my background and my current circumstances.

Put the same effort you put into banking recruiting into summer internships for corporate finance rotational programs or something else that has a similar skillset to banking but is slightly less competitive.

Ideally find a program with the opportunity for a corporate development rotation or a large corporate development team.

Put the same effort once you start into networking with the corporate development team.

From there, it's a pretty easy lateral to banking.

Your post reads like a high school kid at a school no one has heard of complaining that NBA scouts don't come to his games. They may not, but so what? There are still plenty of opportunities to get recruited down the line.  

Got my 2023 SA in like October last year. I didn't think banking was in the cards for me and had other offers, but just kept plugging away at apps and networking. My offer came from a bank I didn't network at, and I thought had finished recruiting. My first round interviewer even asked me how I applied because he thought they finished too. It's a numbers game, keep your head up.

The fact that you are still at your non-target state school just discredits all the hard work you put in. School status is the easiest way for people to filter you out. You are not the most hard working non-target kid, because the ones who are end up transferring to a target. I went to a non-target and recruited with 8-10 other non-targets. Only ones remotely successful ones were guys who transferred to T20s (myself included)

I think you need to first take a step back and gain some perspective. Most of WSO's undergraduates are likely already high achieving students from target and semi-target schools, so getting an SA position seems like a given on this forum. Breaking into a top BB/MM/EB is hard. You're competing for one of the most coveted six-figure jobs that you can achieve out of undergraduate studies, and merely being well-prepared technically and doing the requisite of networking does not entitle you to recruiting success. Each year, hundreds of thousands of students around the world compete for the handful of BB/EB/top MM seats out there, and most people do not manage to break into IB, many who work just as hard if not harder than you.

Also, it sounds like you haven't spread your recruiting universe enough. If you're truly passionate about the space and interested in going into IB, you need to be applying for regional MMs and boutiques. I can guarantee you that with enough preparation, you can get into IB, maybe just not the top of IB directly out of undergraduate. I always like comparing it to college adminitions: good grades could guarantee you getting into college, but good academics does not entitle you to an Ivy League or elite university.

Nah bro I think you should fuck IB and become a writer instead. I like your style. 

Relax man, recruiting for IB analyst roles, even during the peak COVID bull market, is, has always been, and will always be a crapshoot. You're just competing with hundreds of Ivy League target school kids with access to way better mentorship, academic / technical preparation, alumni networks (and often even personal/family networks in the industry) and internship experience, so it's tough. But guess what -- being an investment banking analyst royally blows, and 90% of them jump ship for opportunities in private equity, hedge funds, etc. as soon as possible. This leaves all the banks to fill up their associate classes with MBA grads. So you can either spend the next 6-12 months begging for a shot at an analyst seat in a somewhat reputable bank, which you've correctly concluded seems highly unlikely to materialize. And you do NOT want to end up at some boiler room "investment bank" in Ohio helping prospective retirees sell their car dealerships or planet fitness franchises, only to begin the process of trying to lateral from there to a middle market bank, which will probably be just as difficult as recruiting now, so I personally view all of this WSO dogma about how you need to be cold emailing everyone in the industry you can find as pretty silly. 

The market sucks right now, you might have went to the wrong school, learned about banking a little too late and did the wrong internships, and that's just the hand you were dealt. None of that matters because this is America, the land of opportunity, and you can still take a great, well-paid corporate finance role at any F500 public company, tech startup, etc. in whatever cool fun city you want and actually ENJOY your life for a few years. Get into the best physical/mental shape of your life while all of these skinny-fat nerds are hunched over their desks eating garbage from Seamless 7 days/week moving logos around powerpoint. And then once you're ready, apply to a M7 MBA program and then cruise through the associate recruiting pipeline along with anyone else with half a pulse. You'll be fine my man! Trust me, I've been there. It might suck now, but nobody promised you a six figure salary with a finance degree fresh out of Kansas State, but I promise you WILL get your bag with some patience and planning! Could have it way worse coming from rural America. Watch some Joey Diaz if you need the motivation to keep crushing it along the way. 

Just wanted to add, might want to remove that ACT from your resume. 33/34 or above keep it, otherwise drop it.

Wish you the best of luck!

I can't articulate how much this has helped you guys. Thank you to everybody that commented. For the first time in a while I feel a lot more relaxed about my future.

Ik people have it easier at target schools since I go to one, but most of the people ik recruiting at these schools aren’t spoon fed kids. We grinded our whole lives to get to ivys. Just perspective on that.

M

most banks haven't even done first rounds yet lol, MS hasn't sent out non-diversity. the fact you want to give up before it even starts makes me question your commitment and attitude

Not gonna lie I cringed really hard while reading all of this. Your sense of entitlement definitely comes off in the way you write and speak. I have spoken to non-target kids before (came from a non/semi-target myself) and would personally not pass your resume on just from what I gather of your personality in this post…

i’m in the same spot right now, don’t give up!

I’m planning on rerecruiting or applying for ft. There’s always a way!

You let people belittle your hometown? No one wants to hire or work with a pushover. Also, analysts are getting laid off left and right, it should be no surprise that you’re having trouble recruiting right now.

Have some self respect and delete this embarrassing blogpost.

I went to a state school, graduated with a 3.4. Absolutely no internships ever. Got into an analyst class at a large 4 US banks middle market banking program, left after 11 months and now I do Corp banking at the 6th largest bank in the world making 6 figures. You can’t ever give up bro. Never.

If you really want it, it’s achievable.

Prospect in IB-M&A

I lost.

After only God knows how much time, effort, and money spent preparing for SA 2024 recruiting, I am now on the wrong side of recruiting season and got ONE first-round interview to show for it (that I ended up not moving on for, fuck me I guess). I truly don't know what else I could've done, and maybe that's what gives me the closure to write this post so freely. I'll give a quick timeline of how I got here (which isn't very far from where I started):

Fall 2021

• Leave rural as-fuck hometown to go the only state school (non-target) within 300 miles
• Admitted straight into the b-school (but it's not on the east or west coast so it doesn't matter, right?)
• Planned on studying finance, which for now, I had no idea what that meant
• Got involved with three clubs to learn more about the professional business world
• 4.0 for the semester

Spring 2022

• Getting slightly-more familiar with what finance is through these clubs
• A big suggestion by my university career center is to find mentors, so I somehow get a banker to respond to my message (I only messaged him because it said "finance" under his profile, I had no idea what banking was). Tells me to meet him downtown for coffee on a Tuesday morning, so I skip class to ride the subway from campus to downtown to meet him. I end up getting stood up in the coffee shop; sat there for 75mins like a fucking chump
• Get tricked into a Northwestern Mutual-esque siren song internship that I made plans for the summer (housing, no other job searching, etc.) only to get it nabbed, rescinded, whatever you wanna call it, two weeks before the start date; left me scrambling for a job, ended up going back home and working labor for the entire summer
• Have an Earth-shattering, devastating death in the family right before finals
• End Freshman year with a 3.96 cumulative GPA

Fall 2022

• Joined my university's closest semblance of an investment banking club, immediately fell in love with the field
• Purchased $700 online IB prep-course (guess which one)
• Learn everything from EBITDA to hand-spreading comps on my own ON TOP OF school, clubs, and trying to be social. I've lost ~20lbs because I haven't been able to go to the fucking gym in 8mo
• End semester with a 3.94 cumulative GPA

Spring 2023

• Doing everything I can to get bankers on the phone and get my name out there
• Applying to every fucking internship for every fucking firm under the sun
• Land corp. fin internship for summer 2023 at a local construction company near campus
• Take a self-expensed spring break trip to New York and have 12 coffee chats with bankers IN-PERSON (I'm sure that's not a big deal for spoon-fed kids on the east. Actually, a fun little aside - I met an Ivy kid waiting in the lobby for a coffee chat at the same bank I was at, so I asked him who is he waiting for, etc. and the kid didn't have a fucking clue, "I think he's (the guy he was waiting for) in the tech group?" "I thought you were the guy I was meeting with for a second, IDK what he looks like." "Oh yeah I'm on spring break too, me and my friends were just in Punta Cana and instead of going o Tampa for the rest of the week I decided this would be better.")
• First-round interview with a super small, unrelated firm from back on campus; purely behavioral. Get told by the interviewer how prepared I was, get an email the next week saying I wasn't selected to move on

And so, as of 9:45am on 03/24/2023, I have no interviews, no prospects, nobody responding to emails, and no will to go on. I've taken every fucking Harvard-Crimson dildo and Yale-Blue buttplug balls-deep and said "deeper please" to every banker I've met with just to try and get a glance my way. I've let people belittle my school, my background, and my hometown because they operate as if their lives are worth more than mine purely because they were born out east and go to Princeton. I've eaten shit my entire life with a smile on my face because the only reason I'm even here is because my motor has never quit; for whatever reason my path has never been easy. So finally, after all is said and done, I type before you today dejected and drained. 

Let me make three things absolutely clear.

1) Ivy students, I do not deliberately hate you or have such a huge amount of envy toward you; I know this entire rant has been sneaking jabs and anger (or insecurity if you want to call it that) directed at you but it's not your fault that you were born into your situation and played your dealt hand right, as it's not my fault mine was the other way. You clearly deserve it, and so do I, but life isn't fair and that's not your fault.

2) There are going to be a ton of speculative assumptions made in the comments about why I haven't been successful (or maybe this post flops and nobody gives a shit, that's what I'm used to anyways), and I don't care. Nobody's perfect, and I know this post is going to make it hard for me to support why I should be successful (self-pity, angry, personality, etc.), but here's the honest truth: I have put an unbelievable amount of preparation as a person, as a candidate, and as a student just to get here; I am a blue-collar kid that is eager to learn and is humble in theory. Maybe I come off as arrogant, desperate, etc. sometimes but for the most part I would like to think I am somebody you can talk to and see yourself working 90hrs with (and I am ESPECIALLY conscious of this when I network). I am not a transactional person and I give people the time of day because I know what it's like to not be given the time of day.

3) I need guidance. I have so much pent-up anger and a chip on my shoulder the size of Mount Everest because of this recruiting season and I don't know where to direct it anymore. I am a very emotional person, and it took me years of my adolescence to learn how to direct my strong emotions into productive things, but I frankly can't function with how angry I am at the world right now. Maybe it'd be better if there was a certain thing I could pin my misfortunes and unsuccessful efforts on but there isn't and that's what's tearing me apart. If even one person out there can give me some help on what to even do from here this post will have been worth it.

This entire process has left me questioning whether I should even pursue banking anymore, but the truth is I don't care. I'm sure I'll end up at some regional shit-shop and either give up or go for it; with how I'm feeling after this season, I'm guessing the former. I hate the entire made-up fairy dust game that every candidate has to play to get into this exclusive club known as IB, but maybe that's why I lost the game.

You won't get much sympathy here but I feel for you

Alright man you can come back from this. First you need to take your ACT score off, anything below a 30 looks questionable and I would only put a 32 or higher on there. It just doesn't make sense next to the 4.0 like did you even take the exam? Second you need to get an IB internship ASAP. I broke in from a non-target and so did ten + guys I know. We all had boutique bank internships sophomore year before recruiting came around. GPA and clubs only get you so far. You need to be able to tell the right story. Also, why tf are you giving up now? Recruiting just started if you're non diversity. I got my SA offer in November my junior year. You haven't failed until you stop trying. From this position you need to internalize that it truly isn't over until it's over. You have more than two years left to secure a role in IB. Yeah the market sucks right now but you can keep at it and find something close enough. It's rough for full time too. I was laid off alongside half my analyst class early in 2023. Nobody expected it to be this bad so quickly so just bear with it as things adjust. Recruiting will be complete garbage until the end of 2023 or later. One last thing I think your attitude shines through in a negative way from what you wrote. Stay humble champ. Best of luck. 

Non target as well. It can be done. Just gotta work harder

OP- happy to help with anything related to resume, cover letter, provide resources (useful for interview prep; not useless modeling courses), etc. Context: current sophomore who just landed SA '24 role in Tier 2 RX firm, had 80% hit rate on networking (no exaggeration), and went to semi-target. LMK how I can help

How come angry kids like this blame everything under the sun but their parents lol.

literally 0 shot anyone with at any BB/MM/EB is responding to your cold email boss... (a) typo in first sentence- you need a comma after your name (b) relentlessly preparing? who cares? so has everyone else? either show your preparation by saying you're in a finance club, etc. or make it about them, not you (c) i'd be willing to bet $1B that your "why that group is interesting" is dogshit and generic (i.e., insightful) based on the rest of your comments/dialect (d) so long for no reason... get to the point upfront (e) 3rd paragraph... wtf? so you basically just write a summary on their LinkedIn profile and think that is unique/personalized or makes you stand out? LMAO (f) why tf are you posting times... and your M/W are so busy that you cannot chat until after 5p? can't even step out of class to accommodate for their schedule? at bare minimum, if you're posting times, you should say that you're able to be flexible and accommodate to their schedule. Last sentence is cringe and turn off... in addition to the fact that it's grammatically incorrect (run-on). This isn't even getting into your resume that you claim is so top-tier that you deserve 1st Rounds

You need to wake tf up out of your fairy tale. The cold hard reality is that you are from a non-target with a mediocre,at best, resume (which has horrible bullet points that describe nothing and don't line-up with your narrative that you've been grinding so hard- if so, then you'd know how to properly write the bullet points) competing with not only better candidates at your school but with Ivy League caliber talent. This is (for simplicity) the most coveted job out of undergrad, and you feel entitled to taking the spot of others with elite profiles. 

What's crazy is I empathized with your story initially. I gave your OP +1SB. Then I read the comments and realized how little effort you've put into your resume and cold email template. You're all talk and certainly are not the caliber of individual any bank of value is looking for

OP, amongst all the other comments regarding your attitude (painfully bad), here's some basic resume advice which you somehow have evaded until now: every bullet point on your resume ought to have a numerical quantifier. You can ballpark this and it doesn't have to be accurate to the letter. Higher organic growth? Exposure? Higher conversion rates? What does any of this mean? Do you think the HR woman perusing resume #564 is going to take the time to try and figure it out when she has another 200 to do before the end of the week? It actually gets worse as it goes down: how did you manage to work somewhere for four months just to complete a three-statement model, which you even had collaboration on? You need to rewrite the resume from scratch using way more imagination than this one has. Whoever green lighted your resume should be shot.

I haven’t posted in like two years but your attitude (in the comments in particular) is annoying enough to get me to opine. You clearly think you’re incredibly special because you have a good GPA and “made it out” of a small town - but you’re not. A high GPA in Finance at a Big Ten school is a dime-a-dozen, it’s just objectively not a hard major. So what else are you bringing to the table?

My guess is that you’re not self-aware enough to realize how much you are giving off vibes of “I deserve this” in your networking and interviews. If you were some potential superstar you could get away with that but realistically-speaking you aren’t. You should be leading with humility and the realization that you’re playing from behind relative to many of your competitors, who have probably been aiming for banking since they were in high school (which is gross but I digress).

I also suspect that it’s you that is consistently bringing up your hometown and high school, not the people you are talking to. You clearly are letting it define you here as you continually use it to defend everything you haven’t accomplished. And it probably is important, but unless someone comes from a similar place, no one is going to care or give you extra credit for it. Given the fact that it seems like your parents are paying for college, it’s not like you’re dragging yourself out of the mud my guy. Give it a rest.

I say all this as someone who came from a town that I am certain is smaller than yours and went to a college that I am certain has less of a brand in banking than yours (that my parents didn’t contribute a dime towards). I didn’t even get into banking until after I graduated college, but I just finished a 2-year stint in PE and am exiting for a really unique opportunity. I’m not particularly special myself, but I got here because I didn’t define myself by what I didn’t have, I just worked 10% harder than my peers and let my abilities define me and people genuinely liked working with me.

So be more aware of your attitude, keep working towards getting relevant experience (why aren’t you working during the semesters?), and re-calibrate your expectations. You’re probably going to land at a MM or LMM bank as your first stop. Which is fine! It’s a great place to get a foot in the door and get some reps. Some of the smartest people I’ve worked with started at shitty little banks. Just be humble enough to accept that and do great work there, and doors will keep opening up. Good luck to you.

Bro - going to keep it quick since I had a similiar experience. Not getting the best job out of school isn't as bad as you think. I know that it feels like huge sunk costs right now - but as others mentioned you will be fine. Just have the right attitude (WHICH YOU YOURSELF SAY YOU DO) when starting there.

Shoot me a DM, I broke in despite an extremely atypical background and I am happy to try to help out.

Everyone here has covered this, but one thing I want to add is that your background isn’t special. There are thousands of kids from similar towns at similar schools with similar GPAs also struggling to get jobs. At some point it becomes a numbers game and there’s no reason someone at a bank should give you a shot over anyone else. It’s an absolutely atrocious recruiting market right now and it’s going to be a long time before banking groups reach the size they were pre-tightening. 
 

Second — getting a job at a BB bank isn’t the end all goal. If you’re truly “passionate” about the industry, you should be hitting every small sellside advisor up. There are hundreds of these guys across the country and I’d bet most of them would love to have an intern or analyst from a background like yours over someone from an Ivy. You can make a nice little career for yourself there or use it a stepping stone to make it to a larger bank, LMM PE, M7 MBA, or whatever it is that would make you happy. 
 

lastly — I didn’t interview you so I don’t know you, but your posts make it sound like you think you’re better than your hometown/college/family. If that’s coming through in interview or coffee chats or cover letters, that’s an instant ding from me and most people I know. You keep saying you’re trying to come across as humble but I don’t see that at all and I bet it’s coming through in all of your interactions. 

As a kid I was humiliated by the experience of being poor. I saw how my parents had to scrounge, and I knew that was no life for me. What, like other people deserved a better life than me? Like they’re better than me? No! I was furious. I dreamt of breaking the poverty cycle since I worked my first job as a 13 year old getting paid under the table at a shady restaurant over the summer. Knew I wanted to do IB since freshman year of high school, was reading Matt Levine daily by sophomore year, even convinced a SM L/S to give me a (severely underpaid) summer internship. Worked 70 hours a week the summer I had to study for my SATs.

I came from a broken, low income family that never went to college before and was accepted into one of those (top 3) ivies you talk on and on about as if there is only one profile of people attending these institutions. I’ve seen firsthand how hard many of these people work too - how many rich people out there would like their kids to attend Harvard, and how many actually get to do so? There are only so many seats. Many of them have outcompeted equally privileged peers all of their lives up to the point of acceptance. It’s true, doesn’t change the fact that many of them grew up very rich or in well educated families. But none of that should matter to you. The most dangerous excuses are built on parts of the truth, because it makes it just so easy to use them as a shield for your ego. All generational wealth had to be built up by someone, at some point.

Look at the culture of our society today. There is a shortage and desperate need for smart, ambitious, hard working people in our world and generation. If you are putting in as much as you say you are and don’t quit, then you will be rewarded in time. Think about what you could’ve done better. Execution, strategy? What, do you think you’re a genius and made all the right decisions with no mistakes? You need to be reflective, to be improving and learning constantly. That requires a certain attitude of brutal honesty and self criticism that I’m not sensing here. And I don’t know you, but this post sounds like defeatist excuse making to me. Be better

Respectfully, my SA didn't convert since the banking sector took a shit and now I am graduating with nothing but my dick in my hand. 

As others have said the industry is in really tough shape right now so I wouldn’t put all of your eggs in one basket. You can still dedicate half your time to IB recruiting but I would also dedicate the other half of your time to other positions that are achievable (Corp Fin, Big 4, etc.). If you strike out these jobs will provide you with a good enough foundation to pivot down the line if you still wish to pursue IB via an MBA. It’s not a perfect solution by any means but given your grades you’d be a solid candidate for most M7 programs with Corp Fin/Big 4 experience and an average test score. Recruiting out of pretty much any program in the T15 is a joke given the structured recruiting pipeline and I’m confident that you’ve already put in more work than 90% of the people I encountered recruiting for associate roles. At the program I attended I would say 80% of the people would not have made it past the first or second round of an analyst interview at the T15 I attended. You had people who didn’t know basic accounting, what the job entailed, and didn’t understand the difference between IB, PE, HF, AM, and VC landing associate gigs with ease many of whom went to prestigious colleges for UG. While this is certainly frustrating, I’m telling you this to let you know that in the event you fail at landing a seat out of UG you’re more than prepared and capable for recruiting for MBA associate gigs 4-5 years down the line successfully. When my time to recruit for these kinds of seats came given that I had put in the legwork previously and actually knew what I was talking about I was able to smoke the kinds of people I lost out on opportunities to out of UG because I went to a non target. 

Something else that I’ll include in here for you and others that I firmly believe: 

Anywhere you go including non targets there will be 10% of people you have no chance of competing with. These people are just inherent rockstars and on a level that will be virtually impossible for anyone to match without an obscene amount of work. On the tail end of this the bottom 10% of people provide virtually no competition for substantially everyone. That leaves you with 80% of the population where the line between them is very much blurred and differentiated through there work ethic. This whole idea that if you go to an ivy or other top school makes you more capable or smarter than someone else is complete bull shit. My observations are that those that get into those kinds of schools are largely polished or have a spike which helps them in admissions. When it comes time to actually do the work the vast majority of these kids aren’t able to differentiate themselves from the vast majority of the population and really aren’t that special outside of the brand name on their resume. My program was filled with people that finished near the top of their class at H/S/W/P/Y/D and these people were all impressive on paper but when it came down to it wouldn’t be able to compete with top students at the non target I went to. They’d be average to slightly above average students at your run of the mill state school and competing with these people intellectually was not difficult at all. I’m just a regular dude and barely had to put any effort in to finish at the top of my class at the target program I attended.

Sry if you are not in the diverse group aka BLM, no shot at getting in at this stage

Join the military and go kick doors with the infantry for a few years. Great place to ride out the recession. If you're really serious about a career in investment banking by the end of your enlistment, just then use the GI bill to cover tuition at a top MBA program. Goldman Sachs and Evercore will still be around in four years - its not rocket science.

Stop being so negative and move on or improve. Given how negative you are, honestly hope u never make it onto Wall Street. Would not like to work with someone like you