feeling kinda sad, need advice, 2021 recruiting
Hey, I'm a sophomore at a semi-target. I have a 3.6 GPA and I come under a minority recruit I guess. I recently applied to 2021 IB internships, and I only got first rounds for 2 banks (I applied to a ton). It's so weird because the companies that want to interview me are ones that I didn't even network with & I networked with a lot of other firms that did not give me first rounds.
I don't know - It makes me feel like the only two I got were flukes, and I don't know how to proceed from here. I'm here thinking is IB even for me, maybe the people who said I won't make it are right? Sorry if this sounds dramatic, i'm just going through it right now. I was wondering if you had any advice or words of wisdom, and how I should proceed. I really want this. I've been working hard but I feel like I'm not making it far at all.
“Those who think they can and those who think they can’t are both usually right.” – Confucius
That's all I got for you on this one. It's going to come down to you and nobody else
means a lot. thank you :)
How did you already have two first rounds? That's great.
:') on campus recruiting. we had like 15+ firms on there, i have one alternate (which idk what that means) and 2 first rounds. everyone on here has like superdays, and tons of first and second rounds already so feeling kind of defeated
alternate means you’re waitlisted
My advice:
1) stop comparing yourself to others, this never goes well. Focus on the value you bring, your accomplishments, the fact that you were able to secure interviews. I see this even in professionals with many years of experience “well Bob did X and I did Y, I think I should get paid more”, how about you just tell me about yourself? Comparisons leads you down the wrong mentality, and will never make you the best, either you are down because you perceive someone as better or you get lazy because no one around you is good, make yourself the best you.
2) your attitude will be your downfall. You have interviews, which means you have an opportunity to secure an internship, but you are focused on why you didn’t get more. Guess what? You can’t change that, but you can prepare for the interviews, you have full control over how that goes and whether or not you crush those interviews and get a job.
3) as others have said it is a crapshoot. I had fewer interviews than you, I didn’t secure an IB job out of school, hell my all in comp my first year out of school was 1/50th of what I made ~10yrs later. Focus on self improvement.
You should always be both excited about the opportunities ahead of you AND pissed off that you aren’t better. And I do mean pissed off, not sad about it, not down about it, celebrate your successes but then make sure you find the areas you still need to improve, if you have that mindset you will be ok. The best people I know across disciplines are confident in their abilities, happy when they succeed, but more importantly laser focused on the things they still need to improve, they are happy but never satisfied, you need to think like that.
Dude IB recruiting is a crapshoot. You can absolutely kill interviews and get nothing, you can absolutely kill networking and get nothing. At the end of the day, it’s a mix of “you’re the right candidate” and “I got really really lucky”. Recruiting is FAR from over, and you can easily get in the later waves, as long as you don’t give up. BAML/JPM/GS haven’t even opened their apps yet. Evercore has recently opened and will be conducting multiple waves - I have a buddy who got NOTHING until Evercore’s final wave, then killed the interviews and got an offer. I have another buddy (3.96 GPA at a semi-target) who only got offered 2 interviews, and he absolutely crushed it + got an offer at GS before he could do his first round at the other bank. Just keep pushing until the end, then consider learning from mistakes and either doing FT recruiting or push your graduation by a semester to recruit SA 2022.
mentality is everything. just keep plugging away and ditch that defeatist attitude - think about how u can maximize those 2 first-rounders u got instead of doubting yourself!
still extremely early in the process. Be grateful that you got 2 first rounds... more to come just keep your head down
There are a lot of people on here who haven't got a first round yet but won't admit it. Macho guys will brag endlessly about successes but will try to avoid admitting that a failure even axisted.
Just keep putting yourself out there and talk to as many people at banks as you can.
I had a freshman in my city reach out to me 3 years ago for coffee. Even though I knew he was 2 years off the recruiting timeline, I met with him and he kept in touch every 4-6 months. He didn’t land an SA offer with us. Fast forward to 3-4 months ago, we got a new slot for another 1st year and his name popped into my head immediately. Fast-tracked him and he got the spot.
Morale of the story - recruiting is super random. Meet as many people as you can and leave positive impressions; you never know when an opportunity will present itself.
Never seen so many obvious non-targets commenting on one post
Wow you're really killing it with that comment huh! How helpful, you must be so proud of yourself.
nothing is given, everything is earned. keep working hard and things will fall into place
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