Navigating on-cycle with group unsupportive of recruiting
With on-cycle likely about to kick off, how would folks that have gone through recent processes recommend interviewing if current bank / group does not support recruiting? In today’s climate, some banks have completely banned recruiting, while other groups look down upon it.
Have see posts that recommend finding 1-2 associates that will cover for you, but frankly do not feel like I can ask any in my group to do so, as they have stayed on for ASO years and look down upon recruiting. Appreciate any advice, as I am concerned how I will even be able to leave work for extended periods of time without risk of ruining rep / being fired in an absolute downside case.
If you know you want to go to the buyside: you kind of just have to do it, for most people it’s a 24–36 hour sprint. Given how late this on-cycle is, there will almost certainly be more offers handed out than in prior years. I know my firm is planning to give out offers for vast majority of our spots, when we only gave out very few last year (rest went in early '25). The ideal outcome is having your associates cover for you; if that’s not possible, you do what you need to do, make a reasonable excuse, and apologize afterward. If anything slips, you apologize and over-communicate. It’s very rare for someone to seriously damage their reputation, let alone get fired, over one day, especially if you’ve been solid otherwise.
More importantly, on-cycle is the only moment when the market fully clears and you get maximum breadth of looks at top firms all at once, along with real signal on where you stand. Even if you don’t land an offer, the information and experience of interviewing are valuable. Off-cycle recruiting usually takes more time and effort, not less, and very hard to get as many interview reps and info in.
peRRmashoRRt
I think - at least in my experience when I went through the recruiting process - you’re unlikely to get fired if you’re absent for a couple of hours every so often. At least at my old bank, if you were getting fired it was poor performance over at least a few months, rather than a couple of isolated incidents where I was unreachable.
I was in a similar boat where my group was very unsupportive of me leaving to do interviews and basically I managed it by just having a lot of “doctor/dentist appointments” for a couple of weeks and ultimately for interviews where I knew I’d be gone for a few hours, just making the decision to go.
When are people guessing it kicks off?Sometime next week assuming seniors still on vacation is my guess
Would bet a lot on next week
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