Do I Have a Chance at Full-Time Recruiting if I Have no Relevant Work-Experience?

Hello,

I am a third-year student at New York University Stern and I have a 3.94 GPA, but I didn't have any experience/good networking/good interviewing skills and I think that's why I couldn't get any internships at banks. What do I do? Should I read Vault or the guides at WSO? Also, what other jobs/internships should I apply for right now? I'm afraid I'll be the 2% of third-year students who won't get an internship.

6 Comments
 

The good news is that you have all of second semester to recruit. Network and try applying to every boutique you can. Make sure you're prepared to nail all your technical and fit interviews.

 
Most Helpful

No work experience isn't a big deal, especially with your GPA and school. You need to work on interviewing skills and networking over anything else. Behavioral questions you should have down perfectly, technicals to the extent that you can.

Have you been applying places and not gotten interviews? Either your resume (doubtful with a 3.94, but what did you do this summer/are you in any clubs, etc), or not having networked in. Good news for you is most remaining jobs are boutiques, so the networking and interviewing is less intense/competitive than BB jobs.

Have you gotten interviews/superdays and not converted? You should be able to pinpoint why. Were you not answering the questions correctly, didn't have technicals, etc - sometimes other candidates are just a better fit, but you should be self reflecting after every single coffee chat, interview, or superday.

Best of luck. You have all of spring and the advantage of being in NYC already. Start emailing

Array
 

I have literally applied to over a hundred internships all over the country, even to position/companies I didn't even think of. I got a few interviews with wealth management people. I interviewed with SMBC (a Japanese investment bank) and HFF. I thought I did pretty well, but I have not even had one superday. Like Jesus. Yes, I do have a 3.935 GPA, but I don't know if I can maintain that for long lol. Shit happened during the summer, and I was pretty inactive. Pretty embarrassing but I'm still working on school and internship applications. I'm in a finance club, but I'm not in a top role (I'm working on that). Which boutiques do you think would still be hiring in spring? Care to drop names?

 

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