Has anyone else just... not heard back?

Midwest target, although not at "connections-up-the-ass" business school. Slightly lower GPA (3.4) in Math+Econ, which probably hurt me a bit. Sampling through the non-b-school kids I know, it's not that any of us got rejected, it's just that we literally haven't heard back after resume-dropping with GS, MS and BlackRock (I had some side applications to JPM, BarCap which had similar results). The only things people seem to have heard back from are BoA (not ML, they don't recruit here) and RBS (statement deleted since people seem to be misunderstanding me).

Anyone else noticing this?

 
jos.a.bankhard:
eriginal:
Really, "RBS (lol?)" when you have a 3.4 GPA? You'll be lucky to get a call back from any BB in a hiring market like this. Half of the threads on this site right now are students with better stats than yourself getting shut down for first round interviews.

"lol" at you seriously referring to RBS as a legit BB

I never said that...

 
Best Response

I don't think the market is really the issue when it comes to SA recruitment. For example, I know one regional BB cut back from 5 SA spots to 4. And if anything, they will just give less FT return offers.

Main problem is people have not networked enough or not effectively to get themselves in front of the right people. What WSO say about HR is mostly true. They screen for 1-2 items on your resume, and if it doesn't make the cut, your CV will get tossed.

For example, with the OP, 3.4 is good enough of a GPA to get a first round interview, you just have to network and get your story down right. However, if applied online, your CV will get screened out by software before it even reaches HR.

Try boutiques.

Good luck.

 

I just interviewed an undergrad who started off the interview apologizing for and explaining his "disappointing" 3.5 GPA.

One of the other candidates (of five total) had a 4.0 GPA (plus two nice looking internships) and the other competed in international math competitions and received the scholarship for "top math student" at his large west-coast University.

The 3.5 kid was super talkative but ultimately it's just really tough out there. These were non-targets by the way.

 
gamenumbers:
I just interviewed an undergrad who started off the interview apologizing for and explaining his "disappointing" 3.5 GPA.

One of the other candidates (of five total) had a 4.0 GPA (plus two nice looking internships) and the other competed in international math competitions and received the scholarship for "top math student" at his large west-coast University.

The 3.5 kid was super talkative but ultimately it's just really tough out there. These were non-targets by the way.

Were you the one who ultimately made the decision of who to take? If it was your decision and you liked the 3.5 kid a lot, why didn't you hire him? Wouldn't you rather be working with a guy like that who you know you can work well with and seems like a nice/normal guy?

 

Since my boss didn't even interview the candidates, my recommendation will have lots of weight given this is just for an internship (so I am expecting they will choose the guy I preferred).

After we are done interviewing, the recruiters ask us to submit formal feedback on each candidate. In my case, I basically rank-ordered the applicants #1-5 in order of most-preferred to least-preferred, with some additional comments about each of them.

Any time you are interviewing someone who could join your team, you will have plenty of say who is ultimately chosen. This is doubly true if you are an alumni who is involved with recruiting / interviews from your former MBA / undergrad. I only get involved with formalized university recruiting; no experience with senior level hires or anything like that.

To answer your last question, it is incorrect to assume the 4.0 GPA and Math champ applicants are not nice / normal people.

 

responding to a couple comments:

@eriginal: First off, note my statement concerned the lack of responses to a sample, not just me and my 3.4 (which I admit, is noticeably weak) (I also didn't apply to RBS because I wasn't interested in the programs they offered). To be fair though, I am a math major at a pretty famous sequence (well, at least in the grad school sense), at a target. The "lol RBS" thing was me commenting on a friend who had a noticeably higher GPA than I did with some pretty insane stuff (in my program, so he was doing pretty damn well in PHD classes). My apologies, I'm not trying to seem like some hot stuff with an obviously poor GPA.

@Whiskey5: Well, what bugs me is we haven't even heard back from companies which our school had a resume drop with. Our career fair has a resume drop with GS, MS, WF, Blackrock, UBS, BoA; I've heard of one person getting an automatic rejection from UBS, one getting a rejection from GS, and BoA actually responded. It's just that we haven't heard rejections from the other guys which has me a little confused.

 

dude, if you haven't heard back by now, it's a terrible sign...

a lot of kids are getting to Superday stage and some even got offers by now... so if banks haven't responded to you yet for first rounds, it probably means you got rejected.

 
Sexy_Like_Enrique:
dude, if you haven't heard back by now, it's a terrible sign...

a lot of kids are getting to Superday stage and some even got offers by now... so if banks haven't responded to you yet for first rounds, it probably means you got rejected.

my OCR deadlines ended about 2 days ago. Some are still taking resumes. So it depends on the school. targets...probably yes

 

Is your school actually a target (ie the banks do interviews on campus) or did they just have a resume drop through your career site?

If it was just a resume drop without scheduled on-campus interviews then you won't necessarily hear back if rejected.

 
JWR34:
Is your school actually a target (ie the banks do interviews on campus) or did they just have a resume drop through your career site?

If it was just a resume drop without scheduled on-campus interviews then you won't necessarily hear back if rejected.

this.

I go to a target (Ivy) and some banks didn't even respond back to me last year after I applied. Some banks reject you but don't bother to let you know about it.

 

@JWR34: That's actually a really good question. My university has a pretty famous business school (I think by this point you guys could probably figure out where I go with some of this information), which had all the big guys doing on-campus interviews. I'm not sure if arts and sciences gets their own interview session later, or if it's just a resume drop. I'm starting to guess it's the latter, so thanks for telling me to expect that.

@Sexy_Like_Enrique: I'd find that really funny. I mean, JP took the time to reject me for not even finishing my application (I found out I couldn't work last summer), so them not responding to a full application is just a humorous thought. Maybe they just enjoy shooting dead horses?

 

yeah, banks and consulting firms get shit tons of applications, and sometimes they fail to notify people about rejections.

However, they usually have courtesy to let you know of your rejection after interviews. for resume drop and screening, they sometimes don't bother to send out rejection emails.

given your gpa, it will be pretty rough to score many interviews... i know many kids at my school with 3.6+ gpa who didn't land more than 2-3 first round interviews.

there was a thread here by an analyst saying that his bank automatically rejected applicants with anything less than 3.6 gpa this year....

 

It's not unusual at all for banks to not respond to applications (especially those submitted online). I got Junior SA interviews this year from several banks that still haven't responded to my applications to their Sophomore programs last year haha.

 

So, I just checked and it seems we have on campus interviews. Anyway, in regards to the GPA, yeah, it's rough. I'm not really sure how relevant the minimum GPA posted by these banks on our school's career pages were, but it's worth noting they were rarely higher than a 3.2 (only MS Finance, with a 3.5. Humorously, institutional equity only asked for a 3.2, what?)

 

I keep seeing this all over the place so I just feel the need to post this:

I'm not sure where you guys are located but I'm at a school (I'm assuming target?) and although formal OCR resume drops were pulled at the middle/end of last week, actual interviews for BB's and stuff began today (first round). Thus, at my school at least, those who've gone through OCR have yet to have a super day.

I also reached out to a recruiter who confirmed their finalizing the group of people from my school they want for super days and will reach out to us next week:

So, my answer is: it's still early in the process for some schools, so just keep checking in and seeing what's going on. If you dropped your resume via OCR online, if it's like my system, you'll get notified if your accepted, rejected, or an alternate or wait list.

GOOD LUCK!

 

Same here man but essentially the problem is a supply/demand factor...stagnant if not decreasing supply of jobs with an increasing demand from new graduates. Those who get in do so out of luck. I went through the same process and it sucked even though I had good GPA from a good school, 2 good internships, blah blah blah

What I did? I decided to bail out of the finance industry for right now. I always wanted to work in solar (the fastest growing industry in the US) and that's what I do now as a project finance analyst. What I do is very similar to a PE/HF/Banking but with less hours. So I don't get paid $70k...at least I'm happy.

My advice is be creative. It doesn't matter how good your resume is nowadays

 
givemeajobplease:
canas15, if you don't mind me asking, what school do you go to? Man that is waaay earlier than us -- I just confirmed the earliest 1st round my school (Columbia) had interviews with OCR and BB'S/MM'S was actually yesterday (24th).

BX and some other places aren't interviewing until middle of next week

Some groups handle their own process. Typically targets can have alum's that want to get their guys a shot and will do a couple rounds. Recruiting can be very much discrete in nature.

Ace all your PE interview questions with the WSO Private Equity Prep Pack: http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/guide/private-equity-interview-prep-questions
 

We saw A TON of resumes this year. Top Ivy's with dual majors in incredibly tough technical degrees with stellar GPA's (3.8-4.0, that's impressive for knocking out a engineering physics and personalized economics track) to #30 - #70 ranked semi - non targets with mediocre GPA's (3.0 - internships, drive and clear demonstration of aptitude to get them offers. Our top picks where extended right after our "round table" debriefs (i.e. same day or within 24 hours). We had the typical number of kids come out for the super day (10-12 I think) and four where brought back for the final and one last minute invite to the final round bringing it to 5. We handed out SA offers to all 5. One of which was a non - target kid (one with a GPA ~ 3.3, IMHO crap school), the others where the top kids.

The one non - target kid I mentioned, her / his resume would've been tossed immediately during the initial screen if she / he had taken the "half - ass" approach. But that person didn't. They cold emailed one our associates back in late September, arranged calls with other Associates and analysts; really displayed a lot desire and interest to work with the group. On top of that, she / he flew in from out of town on her / his own dime just grab coffee with some of us on a Friday in December. Really impressed everyone and we got this person out to the super day. The kid did great. Was dressed really sharp, nailed her / his technicals, was confident / poised during the interviews (and trust me, so of the more "white glove" sr's really wanted to wash this kid out) and was the only one who handled one of our doucher team members stupid brain teasers with a solid delivery. After the super was over, instead of scampering off as fast as they could to go home, she / he asked if some of the folks she / he interviewed with could grab a quick beer latter (ballsy move). I couldn't make it but 1-2 folks took this person up on the offer and even one of our saltyer VP's went as well. Everything about this persons resume at first glance screamed "my summer job is going to be lifeguarding at my home town rec center,". Now this kid is going to be working in a deal heavy IB group at a BB and I'm personally excited to work with this kid and want to get her / him working with me right away on some of the deals I'm pretty pumped for coming up this summer.

Moral of my work-procrastinating ramble is that don't get stuck in the mindset that there's only one way in "the door". If you really want one of these gigs, show some balls and make it happen.

Also, to address the point of the thread. Typically, if you didn't get an offer within 24 - 72 hours you're either A) back-up or b) no offer. Anyone else who conducted interviews feel free to chime in.

Ace all your PE interview questions with the WSO Private Equity Prep Pack: http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/guide/private-equity-interview-prep-questions
 

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