Struck out SA 27
Did 1 year at CC, transferred to lower semi target. Was only able to get three interviews and one superday, which I unfortunately did not land. The superday didn't go bad at all, and one of my interviewers said I did a great job so I can't pinpoint a reason other than it just wasn't meant to be. Given my current situation, I have some questions.
1. What firms run another process typically, in the summer or early fall. I've heard DB does, but do you know anyone else?
2. How hard is to land FT? Should I be targeting boutiques for SA 27, to try to lateral to another bank for FT? How should I go about this.
3. Are there any notable firms that haven't started they're process for SA 27 ? (LMM Firms most likely)
4. Should I just extend grad date by a semester (Fall 28) to recruit for SA 28?
Any information would be really helpful.
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Sitting in the same boat as you rn. But here are some things that I've been doing.
A tip to find smaller job openings; Search something along the lines of: "Investment banking Summer Analyst" and change the posting date to past week/past 24 hrs. I do this every morning to make sure I'm not missing anything. You can play around with boolean strings using LLM to optimize searches. The majority that will pop up will be useless jargon from shitty AI job boards, but the good stuff is on the college job boards. If it sends you to a HandShake link, just try and find the posting somewhere else. If all else fails, try finding someone in HR to email, or network within the firm (Success w/ HR emails is variable, not many responses; I've found myself even calling the firm to see if anyone would chat w/ me)
Additionally, using LLMs to find lists of small firms – 10-50 employees – going onto their websites, trying to find career pages, then seeing if they have an internship. Cross reference w/ LinkedIn to see if people have already accepted offers for 27' and if they haven't, apply then network.
Doing this, I have found myself in a couple of different IB/PE processes all MM/LMM.
Not all hope is lost. Hope this was helpful, best of luck.
Thanks for being so thorough, will definitely implement this strategy. Just curious how has calling people worked out for you. Definitely a ballsy move so I’d think someone would respect it.
Has its ups and downs, lots of downs. Have had bankers hang up after I say that I'm a student, they might even take 3 mins outa their day to yell at me about how disrespectful it is and how busy they are. But then you have positives, hopped on a cold call w/ an MD and he put me in their process.
Medium risk – high reward.
If you end up doing it, I'd say something funny/clever when you hop on the phone.
When I was recruiting I remember seeing almost every firm open up positions post summer. Obviously less positions available but still possible, you might get asked about why you didnt get an offer. One of my buddies got into LAZ in March before starting in June/July
I struck out for SA26. Had first rounds and superdays at EBs and BBs, thought many of them went well, never got an offer. Ended up getting lucky and landed an offer pretty late at a MM bank (Stifel/Piper Sandler/HW type).
People will end up renegging as well, and even multiple UMM (think Blair/Jeff/HL) + EBs + MFs had spots open up from August ‘25 - Feb ‘26 (yes, even 1 year later they still had spots open up). Just keep checking Handshake everyday.
If you’re interested in the buyside, there are firms like Accel-KKR that run their process over the summer. I would suggest you start looking into those as there’s still time for these places.
Even though I struck out and knew I was capable of landing an offer somewhere better if I delayed my graduation (given I made it to EB superdays), I don’t think it’s worth it. From speaking to alumni and upperclassmen, at the end of the day banking is banking and there’s no point in chasing prestige (but I understand if you are) as long as you truly enjoy the people you’re working with, even if you end up at some random LMM firm. Plus hypothetically, imagine you delayed your graduation and still didn’t land an offer down the line. I would suggest continuing to grind to land an offer wherever you can, and then just rerecruit for full time roles if you don’t like where you’re at.
Best of luck, at the end of the day it’s not about prestige but about making sure you’ll be happy at where you’re working
Prestige is one of the things I care the least about tbh, so I feel like you're the perfect guy to reply to this. I mean I guess maybe I'd like people to atleast have heard of the bank, but honestly that doesn't really even matter than much to me. Atp idc abt deal flow, idc abt prestige, I can figure everything out once I have an offer, I just want to get my foot in the door. As for buy side , tbh idk if my school is good enough to where a someone from KKR will take a call with me lol, but I guess it's worth trying. So my question is should I just start cold emailing MM banks, and then just keep my eyes peeled for if/when they release more applications? I honestly would rather graduate on time and just recruit FT if I don't like my SA 27 placement. For the reasons you said.
he said Accel-KKR, not KKR. Accel-KKR is a MM PE firm, completely separate from KKR (started as a joint venture but then became independent), but they are one of the strongest software MM buyout firms. there’s also tech investing platforms like peakspan and spectrum equity that run their processes late summer / early fall
Yes, I think you should continue cold emailing MM/LMM banks (whatever you can find on linkedin, handshake, etc) and networking to try to land an interview wherever you can. In the meantime, continue to check Handshake every day in case there's ever an opening. When spots do open due to things like renegging, they typically fill up that spot super fast (1-3 week turnaround).
As other user said, I was referring to Accel-KKR - they have top percentile returns in the MM software buyout space from my understanding. Saw their process run over the summer but already signed somewhere else by then. Maybe try networking there now and pray for the best. Good luck
Do you have any input on what they were looking for in those first rounds or super days? Do you think you’d have gotten offers from those if you’d done something differently? If so, what?
I think it was technicals. I was always pretty solid on behaviorals and felt like I got along with my interviewers well, but in every interview I had there would always be at least 1-2 technicals that I'd mess up. I've never been that solid with technicals and they're pretty much the bare minimum so make sure you're sharp on those
Bro if you’re really serious just delay grad a semester so you can re-recruit and lock in
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