no return and have been grinding for interviews across a whole variety of industries. to be honest, I thought I did really well in all of them, but I haven't gotten any offers. even in hindsight, there isn't anything I would have changed.
to be quite frank idk what to do considering it is almost December and I have no offers for full time. any tips / advice?
| +40 | Thoughts on navy nuclear program | 10 | 22h |
| +35 | Lying about GPA | 18 | 1h |
| +19 | Notorious Backchanneling Recruiters & Employers | 6 | 13h |
| +15 | Should I stay in IB? | 3 | 2d |
| +11 | Taking SIE going into college | 11 | 1h |
| +9 | Non target guidance | 1 | 14h |
| +9 | Kind of lost | 1 | 5d |
| +9 | This job just ain’t for me. What now? | 4 | 1h |
| +9 | Couldn't find a good place to practice quant interview questions, so I built one | 1 | 1d |
| +9 | Nontraditional Background Trying to Break Into Finance — What Am I Missing? | 1 | 1d |
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First of all, it's a numbers game. No offer after four super days is tough but not unlikely, so keep pushing.
Are you US / Europe (difference in recruiting timeline)? And are you a 1st or 2nd year student?
You applied to a whole variety of industries. Could interviewers have realized that you are not passionate about their industry but are desperately trying to land anything at all costs? Even if you perform well from a technical perspective, the soft factors are often more important: your reasoning for wanting to land that spot, how you communicate ideas, and your overall vibe. It is much more difficult for you to realize what you did wrong if it was something soft rather than a wrong answer.
Besides that, you might be aiming too high. Ask yourself if based on your gender, experience, network, and GPA, you are aiming for the right firms.
Best of luck
US, recruiting for full time. The thing is, I cant just focus on IB if I want to be gainfully employed right? I have to cast a wide net and pray? I graduated early as well so I am doing nothing at home which is kind of weird besides learning more about things I'm interested in?
There is a good point to the second part of the question. I would say that to be honest it is really hard for me to gauge those qualitative things, which I struggle with. Even looking back on those interviews, I got zero technicals wrong, and I feel that there is nothing that I would have changed in terms of how I responded to the questions asked. To be honest, I am socially oblivious to an extent (I am neurodivergent and have some level of aspd and adhd (diagnosed)) which makes life much harder for me than the average person.
I interned at a Japanese IB (Mizuho, Nomura) with a 3.9 GPA at a semi target.
FT recruiting w/o alternative offer… that’s tough these days. I’d suggest aiming lower to get something at all and then spend more time preparing commonly asked questions
For context, when I lateraled into banking I had 30-40 interviews and 4 case studies across 7 different firms. All of those weren’t banking roles but the majority were and I applied to probably over 100. As others said, it’s numbers and networking.
Similar situation. Non target, SA at MM and no return. Interviewed at around a dozen banks with many superdays. General feedback I’ve gotten was I interviewed great but it’s a risk to them because I didn’t receive a return offer. It sucks, but a numbers game. I’m sure it will eventually work out.
Why do you think you didn’t get the ro?
people can not get a return for a whole variety of reasons, and it isn't as clear cut as WSO makes it out to be
sometimes someone in your group doesn't like you for XYZ reason, maybe you are just staffed in a group you dislike, maybe its a headcount issue, maybe you made some mistakes that people wont tell you about.
the thing is that in life and in corporate America people wont tell you things at all. you have no idea, I was told I was doing great work until the very end week when they called my work mediocre: which I am still very confused by.
Honestly it's been a really competitive market this cycle. I experienced it along with some friends - getting to the interview/superday stage hasn't been hard, but getting an offer has been difficult. When there's that many competitive candidates, it's hard to stand out
Curious what positions have you been applying to? Also recruiting for FT and it feels like the job market has been extremely dry for entry positions.
the ones ive been really successful in have been product management actually (I got final rounds at Facebook / Medline) and I got rejected at both. Facebook really really hurt cuz I knew I fucking killed those interviews. one of the interviewers was talking about extending the offer too.
Ahh, that's unfortunate. But the fact that you've gotten so far in these interviews means you're doing something right.
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