No return Offer - How to Explain
I recently interned at a BB and unfortunately didn’t get a return offer - main reason was I didn’t network enough
How should I explain the no return offer in interviews i.e. should I give the true reason or blame it on the economic climate / headcount issues
Also will non-banks i.e. consulting firms, Corp finance also ask if I received a return offer or not or just other banks?
You should not blame it on the climate or economy. My next question will be "Well did any other interns get a return offer?", then you'll say yes, and I'll ask why weren't you one of them. You're back to square one, and it looks like you tried to clumisly obfuscate the real reason. You don't need to remind bankers of the economic climate.
My advice would be to use the actual reason (unless it's a bad reason, by which I mean something you did deliberately or which is hard or impossible to fix. Your reason isn't actually so bad), explain what you did wrong and learnt, and explain how you'll correct that going forwards. It'll show transparency, honesty, and self-awareness. If possible, give an example of how you've already taken action to amend based on the feedback. Imagine you're an MD at GS trying to explain to the Head of IB why you lost the sellside to JPM - the economic climate?
As for consultants and other firms, they'll probably ask, but it'll depend more on the firm and individual.
Thanks for the advice!
How would you recommend I could best show I’ve tried to improve based on my feedback about not networking enough?
Perhaps you could explain that you've reached out to over [ ] bankers since leaving the BB and already had [ ] number of coffee chats? And that's compared to last year where you only had [ ] coffee chats
Use the truth.
Say something like, I was so focused on learning the job / modeling, I neglected the networking aspect of the internship. I thought since I was able to land the internship, my soft skills were strong and I focused on my hard skills. I was wrong to neglect networking, and learned a valuable lesson.
Then throw some axiom in there. My dad always tells me it’s not what you know, but who you know. I will make sure going forward I put equal energy into both learning technical skills and networking.
How many interns got offers vs those that didn’t?
Not networking enough sounds like a bs reason.
~70% of interns got offers which was lower than previous year averages (~95%). My feedback otherwise regarding work and attitude was very positive so I don’t know - I suspected one analyst in my team didn’t like me but he asked to stay in contact before he left for his holiday so I don’t really know
It's person dependent but non-banks will likely ask at least once in the interview process. People are aware headcount is down and may not push too hard, but you can't just say "it's the market" if other interns were ranked above you and got offers.
If you are targeting IB, I would say your feedback was that you performed well, but return offers were very limited (if 50% or lower, say that... but don't tell me they were limited if 70% of your group got offers) and you did good work but didn't dedicate enough time to networking. I would be careful leaning too hard into this and maybe work on some alternate wording around culture fit or something, as it's kind of unlikely for a very technically strong intern to get dinged for just being quiet/not networking... that doesn't really matter at all once you start FT and hiring teams know that, so sounds like may have been a broader culture fit issue.
If interviewing for corporate finance, I would just answer this very indirectly - say you liked the work and received excellent feedback about your work product, but decided the hours and lifestyle weren't for you - you're happy to work hard and enjoy working in finance, but the 100 hour weeks made you realize that wasn't the path for you full time
Thanks for the advice and well noted on the corporate finance interviews
Building on your culture/fit remarks should I perhaps attribute the being quiet towards this to give the reasoning more depth?
Yeah absolutely - it's totally fine to say you were just a bit quiet in the beginning, and got better as you got more comfortable but it's such a short internship that you were kind of out of time
Similar situation (and similar reason for not getting offer in that it wasn't really related to performance) Have interviewers gone easy on you so far when you've had to explain this?
Have yet to have any interviews - asking in anticipation
You need a better reason than "not networking enough." That sounds lame. The ideal explanation would make it sounds like things were out of your hands. Your rationale actually puts the blame on you. maybe if you had better judgment, you would have networked like the other interns that did win offers.
I would say that you learned a ton and did great work, but it came down to fit. There were a limited number of slots and you simply didn't click with the full timers as much as a couple others. Ideally you have 2-3 full timers that will back this up.
Yeah that makes sense - thanks for the advice!
To be honest although this wasn’t in my feedback I do feel as though the fit played a part
I have two full timers who would back me up so should be good
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