I failed recruiting. No backup plan.
I go to a semi-target school with a strong alumni presence in BB and EB firms. My grades are solid, and I’ve been gaining experience through an internship at a small PE firm.
For the past six months, I’ve thrown everything I have into IB recruiting. I cast a wide net, built as many quality connections as possible, and drilled technicals relentlessly. I felt like I checked every box.
Yet, every day, I see another LinkedIn post from a classmate announcing their offer. Meanwhile, after all this effort, I’ve received just one interview— a superday at a regional boutique that most wouldn’t recognize. I was genuinely excited about the firm and the people I met, but even there, I haven’t heard back while others from the same superday have already gotten offers.
At this point, most superdays have come and gone, and I know the odds of hearing back from the bulk of my applications are slim. The hardest part is the disappointment—I put in just as much effort, if not more, than others who landed great roles. I went all in on IB recruiting, and the thought of restarting the process for another field feels exhausting.
I’m not looking for sympathy, I just want advice. Has anyone been in this position before? Where do you go from here?
I know it may seem like the end of the world but to be honest it’s really not. I graduated from a (very) non target and didn’t even know what banking was until after I graduated. Zero finance internships or connections. However, I was able to leverage experience working in a different industry to break into banking later down the road. It wasn’t easy, but I did it.
Everyone’s path is different. Life is not fair and will kick you square in the dick multiple times throughout your life (like it is now). Winners get back up, develop a plan, and execute. Who knows, you may even find another career you’re more passionate about. As for your fellow classmates who have secured roles - congrats to them, they got a head start at discovering how overrated IB is.
Keep your head up and keep fighting.
I'll approach this by first saying, life can be unfair, it sucks, and I can sympathize. Network your ass off for the next 1-2 months to make sure all legitimate stones are unturned at BB/MM (even lower like Nomura, HSBC, etc.) If that still doesn't work (by May-June), take 1-2 months off and relax. Life is not over, you're going to be alright.
Assuming you're not weird and can check off the behavioral part of an interview, then what you should be focusing on is securing any IB internship (you can cold email plenty of boutiques) for your junior summer and gearing up for full time recruiting. I made a post on how to prepare for it, see below. In certain cases you may also have to do "geography arbitrage" (ie. there are certain banks in satellite offices that do FT recruiting but have way less demand relative to NYC). Bottom line, find a way to get a seat... somewhere. Even if you strike out with FT recruiting, if you land a small boutique, there will always be opportunities to move upward and lateral.
The bottom line is to ensure that you don't burn out during this process, so check in on yourself and only sprint when you need to sprint (ie. now for the next 1-2 months and starting in April of your junior year for FT recruiting).
https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/how-to-navigate-ft-recruiting-le…
I unfortunately didn’t consider a career in banking till my senior year, by which I had missed most recruiting opportunities. I decided to take a shot and found a unique job in the industry I was interested in and got a few years under my belt. During this time, I gained a lot of hands on experience with the type of projects I work on now.
I had in fact forgot about a job in banking till I was about 2 years in and realized I wanted to refine my technical skills. It took a bit more legwork to network and explain my “why” but I crushed the interviews since I was able to leverage a niche experience and talk about real situations. Lateraled into a top coverage group with other competing offers. Don’t give up and remember careers aren’t linear. Focus on building experiences…granted everything has a timeframe. So take this as an opportunity to try something different and think about how you can use it to strengthen your case. Or… get an MBA later on.
What role were you in pre-banking?
Feel free to dm. Hard to describe without risk of getting doxxed
Capital markets and S&T still recruiting at the BB Levels
how come? what banks?
You haven't failed yet.
I highly suggest you just get good at L/S. Write stock pitches on VIC or something. There are several long/shorts prob 1bn who would hire someone w/ u conventional background if they are good.
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