Worth re-recruiting for GS/MS/JP in current recruiting landscape?
I was hoping to receive some advice from people on the inside of banks in London that have a feeling for how the recruiting works.
I was lucky enough to secure a FT offer this summer from a good bank (think Barclays/Deutsche/PWP/Laz/Roth and similar, don’t want to be too specific since it’s a sensitive topic). My offer is in a group that I don’t want to work in and the group will affect PE recruitment afterwards for sure.
My future goal is to work in PE at a UMM/MF shop. I can extend my studies and do a master, which will provide me with a new year of possible recruiting. I will be able to apply for both summer and off-cycle internships in that case.
I’m not coming from a target university but will have pretty solid experience obviously if re-recruiting with this summers internship and a LMM PE fund + some other relevant stuff that helped me land the internship I did this summer. I’m also coming from a sports/military background. Also, I’m not a UK student, I’m coming from another country in Europe.
My plan with re-recruiting will be to aim for JP/MS/GS and also apply to a masters degree at a target school. If I will land these two things, my chances att UMM/MF I assume will be much better compared to taking my current FT offer and graduate from a non-target with a BSc.
Based on this background, how good are the chances of even getting an interview at JP/MS/GS given the current recruiting landscape? Will my non-target school still make it hard? And are there enough candidates with similar resumes that my experiences still is not good enough to stand out an get my a good chance to get an interview?
Thanks!
Probably not worth reneging and getting the reputation for something only marginally better
But one could argue that the better bank + a target school would increase my chances for MF recruiting a lot. What’s your current situation? Working at a bank?
No
Why? Where do you work?
Hard to say w/o knowing the group / bank. But my intuition says no given the current market, I can't imagine many banks are hiring and I'm sure FT processes will be very competitive.
Feel free to PM me your group if you want better insight.
Thinking about summer and off-cycle internships mainly. I guess they are still considering around the same numbers of interns as usual, just that the return rates might be worse?
No - will be a pretty odd decision if you go through with it. You are delaying your FT start by at-least 18 months (and paying for a useless masters), all to bet on being able to land an internship at GS/MS/JPM, which in the current market is extremely difficult. Add to that that you would still need to convert, which adds another element of risk (conversion has been very tough this year no matter how good you think you are). Even if you do all of that, by the time you are starting FT, you wouldve been A2/Aso1 if you wouldve taken the other offer
you will get a shot at UMM/MF recruiting at all the banks you mentioned (even deutsche) as long as you arent in DCM or something. Sure GS & co will be better but the difference isnt that big - you can see that a ton of people went from those banks to good funds - Languages matter a lot more etc. if your options are that limited by said group, just lateral when market is better and recruit straight after
Thanks for the answer!
I will in only delay my FT start with 12 months if doing this.
And I would say that my group is somewhat DCM like, hence my worries..
even if its only 12 months - thats 12 months of earnings/career progression lost + a useless masters paid for (which is very expensive)
You can still end up at a DCM type place at GS & co even if you land the internship and convert. You can always later internally to better groups within bank or lateral to another bank in a better group. Will be much easier when you are FT
Definitely not worth it. Your profile is nothing exceptional tbh. I'm at GS and we get drowned in applications from European students who have 2-3 banking internships at EBs / European BBs, internships at UMM / MF PE, top grades, target school and multiple languages. With that said, your profile is not exceptional and if anything I would argue you are at a disadvantage as many students have more internship experience and a better school on their CV than you.
You definitely do have the profile to get an internship at GS / MS / JPM but so do thousands of other students and they will by no means look at your CV and be like "oh wow this guy did an internship at Barclays, let's get him to an interview ASAP". Applying for any one specific bank is always a lottery and in your case it definitely is.
Even if you manage to get an interview and then an offer at GS/MS/JPM, there is no guarantee for where you will end up. For example, our summer internships at GS have 2 rotations. You can end up getting your FT offer in real estate financing. At JPM, you can end up in the private capital advisory team. Really, there is no way of knowing.
Then there's also the issue of getting an FT offer. In a market like this, most banks aren't even recruiting for FT. I know for a fact that GS will not be taking FTs this year (we didn't last year either). BoA won't be taking FTs either. You might end up needing to do a summer internship and in a market like this, that's also a huge risk. In my group at GS, our return rate was less than 40% this year.
Your odds of getting GS / MS / JPM are not great and it's a HUGE risk. Take the offer you have and try to lateral to another group within the bank. When the market picks up again, you can also try to lateral to a better bank.
Thanks a lot for the insight!!
Will think this over again!:)
Please DM me, I interned at GS this summer in IBD and would love to get some more insight as return offers will not be communicated until next week
As a 1st year analyst I am not that involved, but from what I understand most people have been given very strong verbal indications even though nothing is set in stone yet.
curious that you say you're bombarded by students with MF PE internships etc. What exactly does stand out on CVs for you if top buyside internships are regular?
Probably anything with Upreach, Level 20, 10k black interns etc
There are plenty of things that can make you stand out. It's all about showing that you're a top performer (can be in sports, extracurriculars, school, prior internships etc.). My point is that someone is not exceptional because they did an IB internship before. It's not like most people applying to GS just has a spring week at KPMG on their resume. If we are talking about white male candidates, most of them have very strong internship experience (2-5 prior internships at other banks / PE shops), strong extracurriculars (leading positions at student societies / volunteering organizations), top schools and good grades. If we are talking diversity or female candidates then I've seen it all...
I'm curious how the recruitment process works behind the scenes in IB. I'm at F500 so it's a different story, but in my company there's a special HR team that reviews entry-level/internship CVs and no one else can see them. In IB it looks like this isn't the case and both analysts and associates as I assume can review such CVs. Can you shed more light on that? Is HR the first place which reviews CVs and then they go to analysts, or you get them directly without HR being involved?
take the offer and don't rest until you get tha MF offer.
fuck the classical recruiting pipeline; there's always place for outliers/talent
Username checks out
Bro have you seen the London return rates for GS / JPM?? 40-60% bro. You literally have an FT offer in your hand you've already made it in. Why would you risk all that on a coin flip for marginally better PE recruiting odds.
Alias provident qui ut doloremque dolor. Fuga sed ipsum autem nulla nihil sed. Rerum et et dicta. Est in ut architecto vel accusamus.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...
Magni explicabo nam a. Exercitationem sit beatae itaque qui nemo incidunt. Deleniti inventore necessitatibus cumque et at. Cum aut excepturi omnis iure dolore. Non aliquam nostrum ad ducimus omnis et. Rerum rerum doloribus commodi in quis. Deserunt corrupti et voluptas repellendus.