Delaying Graduation to Recruit for SA 2021????
Hey, I go to a super target and am in the class of 2021. However, I fucking HATE online learning and originally thought I would be pursuing a professional athletic career abroad, but this opportunity was essentially dried up due to Covid as well. This was meant to be a two year buffer post grad in 2021 so I could later go to B-school and break into banking from there. I've known this Covid mess was going to be a huge deal since march, so I've been networking heavily and also been involved in the 2021 SA recruiting cycle (got a super day coming up) with the full intention to take the year off if I secure an offer. My question is, how would I go about explaining a year long gap to HR if I get an offer after the fact? Surprisingly it hasn't come up in any interview yet that I've been in college for three years, but I plan to say that I will be taking time off to help my family at home (we've been greatly affected by the crisis) and also to self teach me finance concepts through an online program. I can also secure a fall internship through my school to keep busy.
Is this grounds to rescind an offer if I take a year off? Or will banks only care to make sure I graduate in 2022? Any insight would be MUCH appreciated.
Congrats on the SD. I don’t think this would be an issue if you graduate at the right time? I know people that take off for health reasons so I’m not sure why they would necessarily care if you finish in 4 years or not if you are a strong candidate. Interested in opinions on this tho
The reason it hasn’t come up is because you don’t usually put what year you started in your application/ in your resume.
I’m starting my 4th year of college this year. Spent 2 years figuring out what I wanted to do and I finally settled on a major this year. At minimum I graduate with a bachelors in 5 years, but if I don’t make it into banking this year I’ll extend a semester and recruit next year. That’s 5.5 years; I could’ve had a masters degree if I was ambitious enough/if I knew what I wanted going into college.
Will I be self conscious about it? Nah I won’t care at all, even when recruiting with banks I interviewed with this year. I’ll just give a good reason like “I had a lot to learn from last year because it was hard to do many mock interviews with COVID, and it was also a tough job market because of this completely unforeseen event. Thankfully I learned exactly what I needed and I’m doing much better this cycle of recruiting even though the economy hasn’t fully recovered from last year”
It’s all about how you spin it. I can’t imagine that you’ll be allowed to take a whole gap year for funsies though. Just take 2 easy online classes to extend and mention in interviews that you had to finish your generals or something.
This definitely makes me feel better. The reason I would have to take a full year off is because I only have two semesters of financial aid left, so If I just extend as a part time student an extra semester– I'd have to fund 70k entirely on my own which is out the question... I'm thinking if I can get a significant fall/spring internship I could probably use that as a sign of productivity? What do you think
Yeah that 70k is definitely not worth it when you don’t have a 100% guarantee at getting into IB, even from a super target. My school is super cheap (tuition is like $4k or something) and scholarships are based on GPA with no limits for how many years you take. If I extend past 5.5 they’ll probably try to have a serious chat with me though and tell me I need to graduate, so it’s not like I have unlimited tries for 10 years lol.
Do you mean delay graduation by a semester (like spring next year) and do the internship? Because that’s a great idea - if I don’t get IBD this year I’m looking for a full time internship next spring (so no classes + I’ll have time to network and prepare again).
They won’t know that you aren’t taking classes until AFTER you have the offer. If bankers ask what you’re doing this semester in interviews then say you’re interning at a sick firm and gaining the skills you need for this job. If you get the job and HR asks why you didn’t take classes for that semester (they won’t) then say you wanted to take a solid internship in lieu of classes to beef up your resume for recruiting.
If you mean take an additional internship in that gap year then I have no idea how you’d swing that. It would be better to take a semester off and intern elsewhere then finish a semester later.
By the way, you don’t need to extend graduation by a full year. Banks will hire people who graduate in December as well as May/June graduates. If they tell you that you need to start in June (for training or anything else) then they’ll give you the 6 months off without pay after graduation - take a nice vacation before you hate your life for 2 years.
That's a good point! I guess my only worry is how this perceived during a background check. Would it look worse to take Fall Semester off rather than the Spring? Or after you receive an offer they don't really care what you do, as long as you graduate either December 2021/May 2022?
My biggest concern is with optics around taking time off. I know that Covid times may give people looking to delay more leeway, but what's a deal breaker for the bank you know?
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