When to Give Up on a Banking Job Search

This topic has been discussed in various different formats on WSO, usually with a user asking if they should give up given their background and success rate thus far. However, I thought it might be useful to tackle the subject head on in a more general approach that might be useful to everyone regardless of their specific situation.

First, let's get one thing out of the way. The most common advice to keep trying and "never give up" is not good advice. Yes, if you are getting some returns from your efforts, keep trying. If you are hearing almost nothing back, at some point, the correct decision is to stop wasting your time. Go back to the drawing board or go a different route.

When to Quit

1. Come up with a game plan for your job search. Applications, resumes, WSO courses, interview question practice etc. Send your application / contact 100 people. If you hear back with interest from 5 to 10 people but don't land a job, just keep doing what you're doing. Send out another 100 applications, you're fine. It's a numbers game. Make sure to be self-analytical. Sounds like you are doing lots of the right things. Maybe, just one thing is stopping you from sealing the deal. For example, your resume is great but you need to work on interviews.

2. You sent the first batch of 100 resumes and hear back from 1 to 4 people. You've got a shot. Re-think everything that you're doing and see if it needs some polish. Do more practice. Get more WSO courses if that helps. Go back to the drawing board but keep trying. Every 100 resumes where you're getting some responses but didn't get the job, do it again and again and again even if you get to 600 resumes. This is where the "never give up" mentality does make sense.

3. You send out a 100 resumes. You get 0 to 1 response. Try switching up your entire approach. You need a whole new game plan. Send the next 100 resumes with the new approach. If you get 0 to 1 response again, really beat yourself up and come up with another whole new approach. Send another 100 resumes, if you get 0 to 1 response, it's time to quit. Either choose some other career or make some major change in your background that may take years to complete before trying again (ex. get a good MBA or CFA). Do not waste more of your time. You gave it a really good honest shot and it didn't work. That's ok. Plenty of other good careers out there.

While this advice is a bit of a downer, I think it's important at all stages of your career in different ways. Getting a certain job or going down a certain path is important to your career but so is knowing when to quit a job or direction in turn cutting your losses so that you refocus elsewhere.

These are my thoughts which are certainly not the Gospel so please share your opinions on the right moment to quit. Would be very helpful to get a discussion going from multiple people and experiences.