Would you Answer a Nontarget Cold Email?
Bit of background: I go to a very nontarget school but have a very high GPA. Just wrapped up my summer analyst position and received a return offer at a bank that very frequently gets shit on by this forum (high-tier MM/very low tier BB). I'm not trying to sound ungrateful with my offer or sound like I'm trying to build my life or career around prestige necessarily, but I feel like a majority of people would agree that working at a EB/top BB is far more ideal that where I'd be heading now in terms of pay and exit opps, so I've been trying to leverage my offer to multiple shops and getting guidance from alum who've done this previously. I've followed their advice by used their email formats and have been customizing emails for each person I send to (basically trying to say I'm not sending generic email blasts for FT networking) but my response rate is about 1-3% when my alum told me it would be around 25-35% after having an offer in hand. Given this, I'm wondering if my response rate is low given the school I go to and bank I was at? Or is this an aspect of a shit market where banks just aren't hiring FT like they were last year? Or finally is it just far too early for FT recruiting since most EBs/top BBs don't even know their headcount yet and if they run a process, it would be after my current offer explodes and I'd have to look at reneging or something for a better offer? Would appreciate any answers and thanks in advance!
really just the market - minimal junior ft hiring also given that most banks have overhired. This year's ft recruitment could be worst since 2012. Ppl don't have the incentive to talk to prospects when there is no opening for the foreseeable future. I have seen ppl with internships at JPM IBD struggle to gain traction at my top BB/EB and they would have otherwise waltzed into first round interviews had it been 2020 or 2021.
Thanks for the answer. Do you think that this may change throughout the year and FT spots could open up in late-2022/early-2023? Obviously would want to accept my offer before it explodes if I have nothing else in place but also don't want to have to worry about the consequences of reneging if opportunities for a significantly better bank pop up in the next 4-6months or so.
Hope it improves for all our sakes. But tbh I would accept and renege if gs/ms/jp/evr/cvp/pjt/moe/pwp/laz or a known top group at a mid tier bb come along. Vp and down will generally understand your choice (in this market they can easily hire as many replacements to their heart's content) and more senior ppl won't remember you in a year's time so risk is minimal while reward is potentially massive.
It's a combination of a lot of factors. Just from a junior perspective, if you're reaching out to any 2nd/3rd years (both An/As), they're probably getting crushed. The interns have just left and reinforcements are just starting to arrive. They're probably trying to schedule networking and looking at exits themselves, so talking to some non-target is the last thing on their mind. Really I feel that you'd get a lot more success just directly reaching out to the staffer or another senior banker who is more in touch with next year's FT headcount. It's also a numbers game and it's harder given your school and previous intern experience. Just keep at it. Absolutely accept your current offer now and evaluate future opportunities as they come up.
Thanks for the response and clarification. In terms of reaching out to the bankers that have a better idea of headcount, how would one know whether I'm reaching out to the staffer or not since I haven't seen people really disclose that? Also would it be better to reach out to mostly seniors in general? So far I've focused only on juniors (An/As) since I figured most directors or higher don't really have a view or care about recruiting (at least that's what it felt like at my bank this summer).
View from a person with a 80%+ response rate for most of the SA season - I will 100% respond to a non target email, but if you're just emailing me now after the internship trying to get FT I will probably not respond, solely because it's very late to just now be networking for FT. Most people aiming to upgrade to a top BB/EB for FT were touching base with their network in late June. A lot of first rounds are already happening and they've already screened all of the candidates through multiple networking calls. Might be different at other banks, but my BB looks to wrap up recruiting within 2-3 weeks of the internship finishing and you are just frankly a bit too late to join that process.
Add in market conditions / banks wanting to preserve high intern offer rates, and you end up with a tough FT market.
networking in June to switch internships before their summer even starts. Big red flag in my eyes.
Uhh literally anyone trying to go to a top BB. I got at least 100 FT emails in June alone. You want to have spoken to a bunch of people by week 8/9 when they're thinking about first rounds, August 15 is just far too late to be doing initial outreach.
Also internships start the very first week of June so by week 4 you can say you've given it a chance. Agree networking before the internship is a bad move though
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