Graduating with no offer. Not sure what to do from here
Looks like I’m going to graduate without a job offer. I go to a non-target, have had 4 IB/PE internships, going to graduate summa cum laude and haven’t been able to land anything. I’m kind of numb to the rejection at this point lol, but I do need to figure out my life.
I didn’t get a return offer from my IB internship this past summer and just have not been able to get back on my feet. Have reached out to former places I’ve interned and nothing. I’m so frustrated, I did everything I possibly could to not end up in this situation and here I am.
I luckily don’t have any student loans, but I’m so frustrated and unsure what to do moving forward. I know the only thing I can do is move forward and keep trying. Would appreciate any words of wisdom from anyone.
Have you tried like pursuing other jobs like finance at corporate companies, business dev, investor relations, or equity research, like non-IB?
I’ve recently been looking into equity research. Also have been looking at accounting roles since my degree is in accounting but specifically QoE/FDD roles and nothing.
I also had interviews for consulting roles too but no luck there. I know those QoE/FDD roles are pretty high churn so either I’ll keep looking for ones of those and hopefully land it or I’m thinking about leaving the corporate scene all together for 2 years to go join the peace corps, I sent in an application last month. I know that’s super high risk.
Wow. Peace corps, a lot of respect if you do that, I do believe that experience could give you an edge later down the line in recruiting. I would say def try everything in regards to corp finance at like big tech or healthcare company. I think getting anything for sure is a great feeling.
I would honestly do the peace corps route, but the only thing that holds me back is that I might be fucked when I get back to the states, and it's probably hard to go straight to a top MBA just from that experience. But I applied specifically for an economic development advisory role in an African country. Seems like a pretty badass way to spend your early 20s.
Yeah I haven't really looked at FP&A roles too much, that's something I will start to look into now. I think IR could be something cool too. All I need is one yes, and I think I could get myself back to IB where I wanna be in a few years.
The fight is not over yet, there are still openings and postings brother at this point land any job in a city you want to be in or if you can't do that take up any job remotely in finance and keep moving forward. In similar boat, 6 IB/PE internships and no return due to toxic factors. Took whatever I could find. Keep on trekking.
Agreed, positivity and strong will prevail !
Your comment inspired me to keep going and ended up landing a LMM IB analyst spot! Thanks brother.
amazing, congrats
Not sure I’d listen to the people encouraging the peace corps. Good on you if you want to do that. But just know that the longer you wait, the harder it will be to break into high finance. Firms are starting to cut back on hiring because of AI and you don’t want to spend 2 years doing something completely untreated to finance if you truly want a solid job in finance. My advice would be to do accounting or valuation. Get real life experience with the fundamentals, learn to navigate a hierarchy, get practice speaking in front of clients. That will be more helpful than anything in attempting to enter high finance. Time is of the essence, good luck out there
Yeah obviously I’d rather have the FT job than go to the peace corps lol. I also have some apps in for MSF programs like Vandy but it all depends on how much financial aid I get if I even go to those. It’s also looking cooked to land an internship for this summer.
I wasn’t planning to sit for the CPA but I don’t think I need that to do FDD roles. It might be a while until I land one of if I choose not to go to Vandy or do the peace corps option.
I’ve heard good things about the Vandy program if you go that route. Definitely don’t study for the CPA unless you’re damn sure you want to be an accountant. I feel your pain man, it’s not easy out there. You’ll find something, just stay persistent and something will give
Widen up the search to non ib/pe/er stuff. Fp&a, corp finance, stuff like that. You’re already looking into valuations/FDD which is good.
Priority should be to find something that’s somewhat related to finance vs graduating with nothing
Yeah I’ll also look into those roles as well. Submitted a bunch of applications over the last few days. I’m going to cold email some firms back in my hometown to see if I can get an internship over the summer too and either go to top MSF and recruit again FT for IB or consulting or turn that into an FT job.
Ended up landing a LMM IB analyst gig a week before I graduate.
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