Burnt out from interviews
Currently a 3 yr analyst / asso. Didn’t manage to find a summer 25 seat so have decided to stay on another yr to do summer 26. Have been trying for the last few months, have gone through quite a number of first rounds across diff types of strategies / diff types of firms across locations but hadn’t have much luck landing an offer at all. Given this market + international status I think I’m pretty hopeless tbh. Hate my current seat at banking and feels so burnt out by both the current job and the ruthless recruiting process so far. The whole process also gives zero feedback and firms never tell you why they ding and I know no one from PE so either I pay for some mentor or I just keep chugging along. Either way feels very dead now and honestly want to just quit with nothing lined up as I’m in such a drained mental state right now but feel like it’d be horrible idea in this market
Hang in there. The days are darkest before the dawn.
It's also important to remember, recruiting and markets like these really come in waves - you may see an opening in late Q4 (think October / November) as people re-think their broader strategy after a bit of post-LDW cranking. There's also a push in Q1 of next year as they're now looking down the pipe of opportunity for the year.
Cast a wide net, network (find any thread you can pull on - former colleague, schoolmates, friends of friend) and go from there. 1% a day of improvement compounds and you can quickly learn more about what's out there in the market so that when the opportunity arises you're best positioned to capture it.
Happy hunting and keep your head up!
I also went through a crazy amount of processes, was super burned out and worn down. I fully agree with everything your saying. Each process is very intense, you dedicate hours of prep, read through every corner of the PE firm's websites to learn about their previous deals / deals your interviewer has done, refresh technicals, mock interview prep with friends--it takes a LOT out of you.
I ended up getting an offer and promise you that it is really darkest before dawn. I truly did not expect for my offer to come when it did. I also barely knew anyone in PE (first-gen college grad) and I networked like a mf'er and found some truly wonderful mentors. Additionally, I asked a bunch of fellow analyst peers about how they approached processes, help with understanding technical concepts / questions, and mock interview prep--not always a given that people can be collegial, so understand if that's not possible for you.
This is all to say, I hope you keep your head up and I'm rooting for you!!!
Thank you for the kind words! I’ll keep grinding. Does networking help lol? I alw just go along with whatever the HHs have given me but I guess I need to reach out to the firm people myself ?
you mentioned youre international, are you in the US? just curious
I'm in a similar a spot although didn't stay on a 3rd year. Definitely hard especially being unemployed but just have to keep moving forward. Worst thing would be to stop trying. It especially sucks making it to superdays, doing well then ultimately just not landing an offer, and it's hard to keep traction going with headhunters too. I got an offer to stay on An3 but declined it because burnout but obviously don't want to say that as the reason so I spin it as a I didn't want to get my bonus clawbacked though some people still view that strangely; I even had one interviewer make me to a risk reward analysis on that as an interview question. I've gotten to the point where it's better for me to just say I rolled off and not mention the offer because some people view it as so irrational.
While the job market is shit, and I am beginning to sweat, I don't regret it. Being able to take the time off and not want to shoot myself was worth it.
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