Waiting - Penultimate year undergrad
Hello guys,
I'm a penultimate year undergrad wanting to secure an internship in IBD/M&A somewhere in London I've applied to approx 15 places ... most names you can think ok (and some you probably can't) .. and I haven't received too many answers (and the ones I've got were not positive) I'm thinking this might be because I don't come from an Econ/Business major, but from an technical one (but one can come from any degree background.. or so it's advertised) .. and I'm not British either. I did ask someone to check my CV and CL, I've answered the online questions with great care, I have a pretty decent CV (5 uni honours, leadership, another internship - albeit in an unrelated domain, non related work experience, great grades/First class etc ..). Someone working in the industry also said they both look great.
I guess, I'm a bit disappointed no one gave me the chance to prove myself ... and I really don't know what I've done wrong (nor am I able to obtain feedback) ...Waiting won't get me anywhere. Should I phone banks up and ask them to let me know if they are interested or not ... and if so, where do you suggest I'll find most relevant info (who to call/email and their details). Networking doesn't really work in the UK ... or there are not that many chances to network (that I know of).
I have a really bad feeling I won't be able to secure an internship (and this means there is no chance of landing a FT position next year either) and I must do something to correct this.
Any suggestions welcomed!
Dont worry just yet, London recruitment happens a bit later than its US counterpart and interviews for SA might just start for some banks. I interviewed for all my SA stuff late january and february and got offers somewhere in the end of february. Others might have started earlier but since you applied to 15 places there should be some that are still in the process of recruiting interns.
Which major you have is generally also not a big issue as long as your grades are good. Sure maybe GS wont interview you because you dont have strong pre finance experience but there are plenty of other places that might give you a chance. Given the fact that you are not British is actually a good thing if you speak some languages and go to an ok school. Stick in there.
You applied to 15 places - that's really not enough.
law of increasing probability
"IDB" will give you lots of interviews bro
Upload your CV (blacking out any private details) on Razume.com and post the link here.
thanks guys! I go to one of the ancient (but NOT posh) universities if that matters in any way. (ancient as in ancient British uni - just realized some of you may not be familiar with the term) applying to 15 was quite a big effort .. out of curiosity how many have you guys applied to? how did you speed up the process? (I already have some 5 nos so there are only 10 left and out of these only 5 are BBs) And if you applied to that many some will be less known .. is that helpful in any way ? (clearly better than nothing)
can't really upload my CV, I happen to have some pretty particular experiences and a small amount of googling will tell you what shoe size I wear, but it roughly looks looks like this:
Education: First class - Good uni unrelated degree
Work: internship with blue chip (unrelated) 2 more bullets with interesting work experience
Societies and leadership positions (3 bullets)
some pretty decent awards/honours fluent in another lang / some knowledge of a few others
Upload it and black out anything which would make you personally identifiable. If you're getting constant dings, it's the least you should do if you want people to try to help you. The format is just as important as the content.
15 is def not enough brohan, not in this shit can of an economy. Total applications I made this year (banking + corp fin + consulting) = 80 (and even that wasn't enough) not to mention the countless emails, phone calls/cold calls, trips to NYC etc. You gotta hustle out there, can't just sit at home and blast of online apps... which is what I did in the beginning and wasn't getting much traction at all. Def get that SA position, it will be much easier to move into FT later on... I learned that the hard way also. Post your resume as people have suggested so that we can help you out, maybe there's something fundamentally wrong with the shit you wrote on there... but seeing how you're in London, the format (CV vs resume) will surely be different. Good luck going forward
If you use the M&I template it will work everywhere, and yes only sending out emails is going to be difficult in this climate. Let people check out your resume to make sure thats not the part where you are getting dinged or no replies. Then its starting to check your alumni database and contacting people ASAP. Since you are already in the UK its gonna be a bit easier to make trips to London to meet people also. Google around for career panflets from Oxbridge to get more contact details for boutiques where you could still apply, or even just reach out to. As I indicated there is still hope but you should also grind it out a bit more as suggested by others so you wont be there in the end without an internship.
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