Graduated 4 months ago, Can't land a job

Been lurking the site for a bit, but this is my first post.

I Graduated off cycle(December) in Finance, non-target school with subpar GPA (3.2). Had decent internship experience, the last being buy-side equity research at a pretty big asset manager ($55B+AUM) and was able to do that for 6 months. Also active in school fund, IB club, etc.

I thought I was looking at a full time offer with this regional equity research firm, made it to final round then told they went on a hiring freeze, but I'm still in consideration when they decide to look into hiring again in the "near future" (been about 2 months now).

So outside of that I've been applying for IB roles(I know thats a long shot), equity research, S&T, pretty much anything having to do with capital markets. I had interviews for equity research positions at a MM and a BB not getting past the 2nd round. Got flown down last week for a final round with a commodities research firm and not getting any responses to my follow ups/thank you emails, even from HR. But I do have a interview next week with another MM for equity research.

I've pretty much exhausted my contacts list, I do cold emails just about everyday which hasn't landed much success.

I'm back home with my family, very little social interactions with friends as they're all out of state. I try to get out of the house at least to exercise at the gym and other than that just trying to stay busy with various projects (GMAT prep, reading, coding, pretty much anything productive). I'm starting to get discouraged as I'm the only one of my friends that still hasn't landed a job(others got IB, Consulting, etc.) and I'm just trying not to let it affect me. Student loans are coming up in a few months and I'm pretty much feeling I'll have to just go and settle on a job that doesn't interest me.

Anyone been through something like this? Or any advice on what I can change or start doing?

Sorry for the long ramble, just looking for words of wisdom

Thanks.

 

I'm in the same position man. Try credit analyst positions, ops positions, corporate dev, investor relations, and FP&A. You can lateral from all of those area's. You'll definitely get calls back 100% on everything above except for investor relations and corporate dev. And if you have equity research experience investor relations shouldn't be too difficult to get into. I've personally had a lot of luck on craigslist too (I know you would think this would be the last place anyone would post a front office position, but trust me man some boutiques will).

 
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