Summer Internships... have I messed it up?

A bit of background info:
-A*AAA at A Level (underperformed my predictions/expectations and these results were average for my school)
-3rd year Economics at LSE
-Hold a senior position within the SU
-Limited experience as a Finance Intern at a local firm

I'm beginning to become concerned because I was very late to IB (didn't know what a spring week was at the time) and committed the cardinal sin of applying just before all the summer internship deadlines last year, and didn't get one. This year I have been rejected at first stage within half a week by JPM and MS despite spending days on each application. I know these are the very top employers but I am worried if the fact I applied last year will harm me throughout my applications?

Thanks for any help/advice in advance

10 Comments
 
Most Helpful

They won't hold it against you for applying last year unless you did something extreme warranting a blacklist. Are you sure your CV was formatted correctly? Perhaps you failed the MS psychometrics? Tbh, if you're quite late to the game its very possible your CV is just very underwhelming compared to your other LSE applicants since LSE is known for having probably the strongest and largest finance scene in the UK. Any of these factors can be worked on and are in your control - I wouldn't think it was that the banks are holding previous failures against you.

 

Thanks very much for your response. On the MS, and in psychometric tests in general, this is my strength but my CV may be my downfall. Would you mind if I sent it to you for any quick pointers?

 

I would recommend you anonymise your CV and post it on r/fc and the r/fc discord server.

 

You’re probably getting rejected right away because of your graduation year. Focus on off-cycles and you should be fine. 

 

I initially thought this was the case but I've explained on my CV and in the CLs that I plan to complete a masters after my degree so am worried it is something more fundamental

 

Even if you flag in CL / CV certain applications will cut you if you input a graduation year that is the same as this application cycle - this is certainly the case for JPM but don't think it is for MS.

 

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