Which strategy to choose: BB OC or double down on boutiques?

I haven't had much success with BBs for SA. I'm now talking with several small boutiques, including some niche, top ones I'd definitely like to work at.

If I got dinged for BB SAs without even making it to the first round (London so no networking involved), is it a waste of time to apply for OCs? There's a tradeoff between the time spent working on boutiques and the time spent working on potential OC applications so I have to make a choice.

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This year is not really indicative of general quality of your app. I'm a student at a target university, have an elite boutique internship, perfect GPA, very high GMAT, lots of extracurriculars, did tests perfectly and this year I literally only got called by one other elite boutique SA and an US BB (GS/MS/JPM) for OC. In the end I was lucky enough to land the OC, but this goes to show that it's often about luck rather than skill. As a suggestion, even if London is not as networking heavy as the US, you should IMO still network as it's an easy way to learn what the firm cares about and a good answer-provider for the "why us" question.

Make your numbers as big as possible so that you get your best shot. If you can apply and would do the job, apply.

 

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