How Many Rejections Are Normal for Internships?
I'm getting decently concerned about the number of rejection letters that I am receiving for summer 2021 summer internships. I've sent out 50-70 applications in areas such as IB, CF, PE just to cast a wide net here since I'm from a non-target. I still haven't even got to a first-round and have already received about 30 rejections letters and that's excluding the firms that just dont respond. Is this normal? Not going to pretend I'm a stellar candidate got a 3.4 cumulative, athlete, and a current internship at an IB. Writing this cause I'm kinda sad two more rejections were in my inbox this morning.
Just keep applying. I was in a similar position as you, I had sent out around 100 applications for my junior year internship and in total I had 3 first round interviews/super days. I was focused more on S&T and IB though. I had one super day in July at an EB for IB and then two super days in late September, both BBs but one was for ER and the other IB and that’s it. So just keep applying, trying to improve you’re resume/cover letters and networking.
Also try not to get discouraged by the rejection letters. I still get random rejections from those applications I sent out like 2 years ago to this day
Some people never get an offer
Maybe a typo /formatting inconsistency on your resume?
Wouldn't focus on the negative rejections. The only number that matters is 1 - the number of SA positions you can have.
Stay positive, keep grinding and push on. If you are seeing a lot rejections, step back and critically assess what you are doing and how you can change / evolve. Is you cover letter simple and to the point without sounding "needy?" Is your resume polished, in the general IB structure and conveying what you have accomplished (supporting with stats) and demonstrating why you would be a valuable member to the team? Have you networked to junior folks as an "in" to get through initial screens and into the interview process? What more can you do? How bad do you want it?
Aprreciate the input. Trying to stay positive and putting as many applications as I can out there. I just reworked my cover letter and starting to rework the whole resume thing. In terms of formatting I basically just copied the templates that were already in the forums. Area I think I was/still lacking in networking. Realistically I was only sending out about 30 emails a day and converting like 10-15% to calls.
You need to network, especially with former athletes if you can find them. I'm talking 100+ emails and at least 20 phone calls.
If you're just applying randomly, the online apps are a black hole that you will rarely hear back from.
Thanks for the input. I was definatly on the phone with more the 20 people. My problem really lied in getting them to connect me with others in the office. Follow up emails went silent or never could get through to the referenced people. Maybe my targeting strategy was bad? I tried to eliminate some of the competition by targeting middle market/regional firms at the smaller offices so I could maximize the percentage of people in the office who knew my name/saw my resume. Not sure if that was a good idea or not.
>definatly
As above guy said, make sure there are no typos or formatting errors on your resume
I'd point to something in your resume (mentioned 500 times, but consider posting here anonymously or getting fresh eyes on it) or issues in your story/calls that got you dinged. College athlete is one of the best paths into IB, you shouldn't be getting ghosted with a decently strong profile.
How do your calls usually go and what do you talk about?
May not apply to you but since you mentioned regional smaller offices - they usually want someone with direct ties to their region. If you're targeting random regions that's a hard sell
Came here to say this. When I was a young naive sophomore I was at a semi with a 3.7 GPA and applied for ~100 internships without networking (didn't know what I was doing). I received 0 first rounds. Networking is key. Every single interview and offer I got was through networking. Target people from your school. Target people from the area you grew up in. And if you have a terrible network (I knew no one in finance when I first started looking for internships), reach out to every single person you can find the email address of or that will connect with you on Linkedin. Try to find some sort of connection with them and ask to learn about what they do. I built up a network of more than 50 bankers and consultants through primarily cold emailing. Even with COVID and everything going on there are still firms in desperate need of interns and analysts. Good luck!
Are you tweaking your cover letter for every application? I sent out 22 applications for Spring Weeks (got a couple) and 14 applications for "sophomore" summer internships and got one. I am not a stellar candidate but every cover letter had pop and showed I had done some solid research into that company. My research tended not to be on deals but rather on HR type initiatives, my logic being I had to get past the HR screen first. I am not a stellar candidate but I put a lot of work into each application and tried to refine my process, learning from what worked and what didn't work. Maybe quality over quantity isn't the way to go but at least I learned some useful skills, I am a lot better at applying for jobs now than I was 18 months ago.
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