What am I doing wrong here?

I am a junior at NYU and I have applied for around 30 ibanking internships this summer. I have heard back from about half of them (all of the bb) and I wasn't offered an interview anywhere. I was selected as an alternate for two banks, but other than that I got nothing. My GPA is strong and I have spoken to myriad people in the industry. At every bb I submitted my resume through my schools recruiting website as well as through employees at the bank. Any help/ideas? I'm disheartened to say the least about this, do I have any options for this summer outside of ibanking that will give me an edge to enter ibanking after my senior year or will I have to find a job elsewhere in finance and hope to break in after I get my MBA?

12 Comments
 

Mistakes? You did spell "Stern School" correctly, right? Alumni might be annoyed if you put "Sturn Skhool of Busyness" on your resume.

 
gonsenheimYes, I have my resume in the correct format. In fact I had someone from vault look at it and recommend edits etc.

I have looked over my documents and there weren't any errors (and I am in the Econ program at the college of arts and sciences...could this be my downfall?)

Check your PM box.

 

How about your covering letter? Your answers to the online questions? What is your major and for which positions have you applied? These might all have an influence on the outcome of your application, although it is quite strange that you have received this few results.

 

I think it might be that you're not in Stern. Most of the NYU kids I've seen in banking were in Stern. I'm not sure that NYU's other schools get much recruiting attention. As such, you may need to have absolutely amazing qualifications if you're in NYU non-Stern to get interviews.

 
Best Response

I am an Economics major. My cover letter was also done very well...as far as online questions go I wasn't required to fill any of the online applications out. Everything was done through NYU's career center. Since my last post I was offered an interview with a prominent bank that I am very excited about.

As far as the Stern thing goes, this is what I'm worried about. Some of the guys I met during the recruiting events were from CAS, and everyone I spoke to said that being at CAS was no disadvantage. The econ program at NYU is top ten in the world. Something I've heard twice already is that I don't have any prior banking experience (although I've worked in finance my entire career up to now) which is disconcerting...should I have been looking for banking jobs as a freshman and sophomore?

 

You shouldn't have banking experience, but it's possible that because you're in NYC recruiters assume that you must have had the ability to call small boutiques and work for free.

 

Is your resume totally boring??? Half of the people on my desk start from the bottom up when reading resumes for interns. If your interests (as in things you do for fun outside of work) are "building financial models" we wouldn't necessarily call you back, because we want to hire someone that we actually want to work with and can engage in a 2-way conversation. Best of luck to you...

 

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