Graduated back in May, what am I doing wrong?
Hi everyone - I'm a May '19 grad (non-target, ~3.5 gpa, double major, relevant extracurricular) and I'm having trouble securing interviews of almost any kind in NYC finance. Had a summer internship last summer in corporate treasury back in my hometown but recently moved up to the NY area. I've broadened my search scope to pretty much anything I can find that remotely relates to financial analysis but I've had essentially a 0 response rate in terms of my applications. What can I do to figure out what I'm doing wrong? Is the gap in my employment (May 19-now) dinging me? Is it just extremely competitive for out of area, non-targets to secure anything?
Robert Half is just a headhunting firm. Yeah sure - go to them too if it helps. They might know temp work as well.
I generally hate headhunters and think they are a bunch of useless people, but you have to explore every option, so give them your resume too and be nice.
You're going to have to settle for something at some point, so think about that and what it means to you. Sometimes the right unpaid internship can get you to where you want to be. When you accept that you might need an unpaid internship to get experience, you can present yourself in a different manner to potential companies. Do well there and even if they don't give you an offer, you have a glowing recommendation which could help you to get that FT offer.
Just keep the forward momentum. Keep on sending out as many apps as possible. When you're not knocking on doors, think of what doors you can knock on next. Get lists of firms and hot startups and all the emails of the management and cold email them too and everyone. Email as many people as you can. There is a lot of stuff in the NYC area, you should be able to find something.