Ignore HHs, they nly work with candidates who they can close, it’s not their job to find you a job
Ur advantage is ur from a target school, alumni are your best best advocate
If ur summer is from one of the top 5 banks, go down the ladder, if ur summer was in consumer, say ur trying to switch to tech as it’s more exciting and consumer did not excite me this much and getting a consumer summer was a way to break in and pivot
Ditto to this. For any company that sees your school as a target, reach out to the alum before applying and then let the alum know you applied (assuming the alum are receptive, had a few cold shoulders - ie. the alum clearly ignored my email / LinkedIn message and I heard nothing from those companies).
1. there are plenty of people who got offers looking to switch banks or jump into IB... many banks will take a slightly unrelated summer (corp banking etc) with an offer over an IB with no offer
2. It doesn't make you a terrible candidate at all, but interviewers have very little to go off of given your limited experience, and your old team not wanting you back is always going to be a red flag. Your skill set as a college student is still pretty limited and isn't going to outweigh the lack of offer for teams who have a ton of choices on who to hire.
I would move downmarket, MM type banks and also consider some non-banking roles. It's very late to be trying to land FT IB.
What year did your friends graduate if they broke in without offers? Really anyone from 2019-2022 had a MUCH easier recruiting experience, banks couldn't hire fast enough. This year there are almost no "extra" FT spots available. You are also honestly about 2-3 months late to FT recruiting - most banks run the entire process in the last few weeks of August, so you are competing for the scraps right now.
I think it's less categorical inflexibility and more just that you have 1 real work experience and the binary result was you didn't get asked back. Imagine you were applying to Harvard and had a 1100 SAT score but were brilliant... that latter part is just harder to show off to decision-makers when the only tangible data they have is not in your favor.
Also worth asking - what is your story for why no offer? It's a tough line to walk in that you want to give honest, true feedback and not just "there wasn't headcount" but you also don't want to seem like a slacker.
I don't think you are precluded from IB, but it's late in the season and it doesn't seem like you have gotten past first rounds. I would certainly aim your sights lower than BB/EB (think MM, regional firms, etc) and consider "IB adjacent" paths like corporate banking, valuation, credit risk, equity research, small IB/PE boutiques etc. You have a long career ahead and a year or two spent stepping stones back to IB is ultimately a total non-issue.
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Ignore HHs, they nly work with candidates who they can close, it’s not their job to find you a job
Ur advantage is ur from a target school, alumni are your best best advocate
If ur summer is from one of the top 5 banks, go down the ladder, if ur summer was in consumer, say ur trying to switch to tech as it’s more exciting and consumer did not excite me this much and getting a consumer summer was a way to break in and pivot
Thank you very much. What do you mean consumer though?
//
Ditto to this. For any company that sees your school as a target, reach out to the alum before applying and then let the alum know you applied (assuming the alum are receptive, had a few cold shoulders - ie. the alum clearly ignored my email / LinkedIn message and I heard nothing from those companies).
Thank you so much! What’s the seniority of alumni that we’re talking about? Associate / VP levels?
There are two challenges here -
1. there are plenty of people who got offers looking to switch banks or jump into IB... many banks will take a slightly unrelated summer (corp banking etc) with an offer over an IB with no offer
2. It doesn't make you a terrible candidate at all, but interviewers have very little to go off of given your limited experience, and your old team not wanting you back is always going to be a red flag. Your skill set as a college student is still pretty limited and isn't going to outweigh the lack of offer for teams who have a ton of choices on who to hire.
I would move downmarket, MM type banks and also consider some non-banking roles. It's very late to be trying to land FT IB.
I
What year did your friends graduate if they broke in without offers? Really anyone from 2019-2022 had a MUCH easier recruiting experience, banks couldn't hire fast enough. This year there are almost no "extra" FT spots available. You are also honestly about 2-3 months late to FT recruiting - most banks run the entire process in the last few weeks of August, so you are competing for the scraps right now.
I think it's less categorical inflexibility and more just that you have 1 real work experience and the binary result was you didn't get asked back. Imagine you were applying to Harvard and had a 1100 SAT score but were brilliant... that latter part is just harder to show off to decision-makers when the only tangible data they have is not in your favor.
Also worth asking - what is your story for why no offer? It's a tough line to walk in that you want to give honest, true feedback and not just "there wasn't headcount" but you also don't want to seem like a slacker.
I don't think you are precluded from IB, but it's late in the season and it doesn't seem like you have gotten past first rounds. I would certainly aim your sights lower than BB/EB (think MM, regional firms, etc) and consider "IB adjacent" paths like corporate banking, valuation, credit risk, equity research, small IB/PE boutiques etc. You have a long career ahead and a year or two spent stepping stones back to IB is ultimately a total non-issue.
Labore molestias maiores animi veniam quam fuga nisi neque. Eos quis id veritatis et quia rem. Voluptatum eius non dicta numquam.
Temporibus modi est earum. Minima nobis illum quibusdam accusamus earum voluptatibus qui. Et voluptatem quas eum ut odit enim vel.
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