When I was still an undergrad, I had a networking phone call and the guy told me "be prepared to get a lot of no's before you get your yes" and this has certainly been true.
As an undergrad I probably applied to close to 200 positions, spent hours prepping for interviews, delt with so much stress just to get rejection after rejection. However, I did eventually get that one yes in March of last year.
As I am now looking to lateral, this process is happening all over again. Beginning in September I started to apply to open positions, through December and this month I had several interviews, and just this week I got rejections from 3 firms. I know everyone goes through this so I'm trying to keep my confidence up.
I'm just curious for the rest of this community - how many No's before you got your Yes?
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Well, your mom said no quite a few times yesterday, but in the end we did arrive at a hearty yes, so all´s well that ends well, I guess.
Lost count after 80, probably between 100-200
I applied to about ~30 different investment banks for SA. I got three offers and only after my 8th superday. I applied to like >50 companies full time (honestly lost count after that).
UK masters target - no directly relevant previous experience - non-diversity
48 rejections this cycle. 1 final round at EB
still waiting for that one "yes"
I applied to 2 investment banks for SA. Got rejected by one and then the next week I got a BB offer. Didn’t target to many banks, just played on strong connections at 2 or 3.
Do you go to a target?
It would be considered a "non-target" but I don't believe in that term. About half of my SA class is coming from "non-target" schools. It's about effectively using your resources and finding success.
1/1 during GFC. Didn’t think to apply to more at the time. Signed as soon as there was an offer.
Deleted
400+ emails
50+ apps mostly IB
10-12ish processes
5 superdays
Got Offer on last two
80 networking calls
24 total interviews
10 first round interviews
3 super days
1 offer
(This was over a span of about 8 months)
Probably countless rejections during people mentally thinking No when I networked with them. Don’t give up hope and you’ll land up on ur feet.
So many that I lost count, at least 100+
Count everything except the Nos.
Just keep going .
tl;dr version:
cold called 1000+ firms, and received 1 offer for SA at a Boutique IB.
Long version:
I came to the US from a 3rd world country the better part of 2 decades ago on an F-1 visa to attend college on a full-scholarship. I went to an extreme non-target. How non-target? Not even the Big 4 or F500 companies recruited there. The only “internships” their students had were at car dealerships or insurance sales. Every 10 years or so, an exceptional student might break into Big 4 audit/tax.
Why did I go to this dungheap? Because I had an A,B,C on my Cambridge A-Levels in Maths, Physics & Chemistry respectively. While not a shite grade by any means, it wasn’t enough to get a full-scholarship at any respectable American university even with a 99th percentile SAT score. And while I could probably have gotten into a less desirable degree at a UK target, it wouldn’t have been with a full-scholarship. Thus, my sojourn at Dungheap University.
Through massive amounts of cold calling, I was able to get an IB internship in NYC the summer after my freshman year. This was in the mid-2000s, when the market was frothy, and it was relatively easy to break into IB with a mediocre background.
Back then, I knew fuck all about financial modelling, and only basic excel. But I had cold called 1000+ firms, and eventually a Boutique IB firm desperate for bodies took a chance on me.
After that summer, I tried in earnest to transfer to a better university, and got exactly 1 offer out of 15 applications. Thankfully it was at an Ivy, so I gratefully accepted, and spent the latter half of my time in college there.
Since I already had an IB internship on my resume as a Freshman (very uncommon back then), after my Sophomore year, I was able to land a BB IB internship.
Even though the financial crisis happened around this time, with a couple IB internships on my resume and applying from an Ivy, I was still able to secure the all-important IB SA position at a BB after my Junior year, and accepted my return offer.
Been working on getting sophomore spring IB gig and a summer gig at local boutiques since freshman summer, non target and international. Had like 10+ nos, and two yeses. Now heading into Junior summer recruiting, already expecting to get a lot of nos
Prolly sent >50 emails to even get local gigs. But definitely recommend doing an IB internship before jr SA recruiting. Having IB on your resume defi will get more looks and looks more credible imo
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