What To Do - SA position at a MM bank

I verbally accepted an SA position at an MM bank about a month ago and I'm currently waiting on an offer letter and paperwork. So I emailed the MD that I met with about this earlier last week and he said that hes hoping to get approval sometime that week. Its been a week and I have yet to hear back from him. What should I do, if anything?

And what does he mean by "getting approval." I applied online and got interviewed so I would think they had approval before putting the application on the company website.

8 Comments
 
drexelalum11Likely he meant approval from HR, meaning that your background check and piss test aren't complete yet

i haven't received any paperwork to fill out for the background check and i haven't taken a drug test yet or received any paperwork for that either...thats what i emailed him about along with asking him when i'll receive the offer letter

 

If its a satellite/regional office, they might be waiting for approval to give you an offer from NY (or wherever their HQ is). Sometimes regional offices need to get their offers ok'd by HQ before giving them.

Chances are pretty high that you'll be fine and NY will approve... but then again you can't be 100% sure of anything in this economy.

 

lasered is exactly right. not to scare you, but waiting on approval can sometimes be a pretty shitty sentence to hear. it basically means that the regional office is making their case for you to be brought on, and it is now in the hands of HQ to give the ok. this is the reason why you haven't received any paperwork yet. good luck and try to arrange for backup plans.

 
Best Response

I didn't think OP was referring to MM such as Rothschild/Greenhill/Lazard, I'm assuming its a shop most people haven't heard of and probably doesn't even have a personnel department. If thats the case, then sit tight. Maybe they're hiring at the junior level because they need some new monkeys to do the heavy lifting, and they're in no rush to bring you on ASAP, so they're taking their time. Most of the MM shops don't abide by the Wall St BB standard practice of R1, a few weeks later R2, a few weeks later superday, extend offer, given time frame to accept, drug/background check, on-boarding, first day in September (or whatever it is). So these feedback people give you, while it may be informed, is most likely irrelevant.

Regardless of the situation, don't be complacent, and keep interviewing and keeping your options open.

 
Marcus_HalberstramI didn't think OP was referring to MM such as Rothschild/Greenhill/Lazard, I'm assuming its a shop most people haven't heard of and probably doesn't even have a personnel department.

Its a relatively well known MM bank, think (BNP Paribas, Macquarie, RBS)...its a non-U.S. bank, but I'll be working in one of its nyc offices in its capital markets division.

 

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