Investment Banking Recruitment Dying Down... What are my options?

I've been on this forum for a few years now and the advice I've gotten in regards to recruitment this past year was instrumental in my ability to land interviews/superdays these past few weeks. That being said, some advice would be appreciated moving forward as I feel "stuck" in my pursuit of making it into IB.

Some background on myself: I transferred to a very strong semi-target (Wake Forrest, UNC, Kelly) this semester as a Junior. Through networking and a little bit of luck, I interviewed with almost every bank and PE firm that recruits on campus and even made it to a number of superdays despite having a relatively low GPA on my resume. At this point, I am without an offer and a bit discouraged as I still have my eyes set on IB.

I know a lot of threads like this exist and I can ensure you this isn't another WSO sob story. With this year's recruiting timeline being so early, I am unsure what my options really are and if I should I already be considering alternative career paths. I've already begun networking for full-time opportunities for next year and reaching out to local boutiques in my hometown but if anyone has any advice, in the context of this years recruitment climate, it would be much appreciated.

Also.. if anyone here needs any advice on transferring schools for IB reasons feel free to PM me as I would love for others to learn from my mistakes and experiences.

 
Best Response

“I know other threads like this exist” yes, and your story doesn’t seem any different. If you had used the search function you would’ve gotten answers. However to answer your question

1.Cold email boutique banks, honestly FT recruiting is a crapshoot so you might need to lateral in the future but this gives you the best shot dor FT

  1. Relatable areas such as ER/AM/corp finance at F500 harder to go into Ib but still possible with a solid story

Also reflect on your interviews and be real with yourself. You made it to interviews/superdays. Clearly it wasn’t the GPA holding you back. Was it your attitude? Underprepared? Arrogant? All things to really look back and work on it.

Good luck.

 

What would be better for securing a full-time IB role? Doing a summer at a no-name investment bank or a summer analyst at a place like AQR, Point72, or a middle-market PE/growth equity firm?

 

I guess I should have framed the question more as "What firms and roles are still recruiting" as it seems as though big(ish) name IBs have wrapped up recruitment even for back office roles. I figured someone might have something refreshing to say since this was the first year recruiting happened so early.

 

Please don't take this the wrong way because I don't mean to be a jerk, but this stood out to me in your post: "...made it to a number of superdays despite having a relatively low GPA on my resume."

If you have wanted this so bad for so many years and even transferred schools to achieve it, why is your GPA low? I understand situations where someone just fooled around for 3 years and then found out about IB their senior year. Yes, I get that the GPA might be low in that situation, but I'm confused on why that is the case here.

Maybe, this is not the answer to your immediate problem of securing an internship but for next year start hitting the books a little more and working on your technical expertise.

 

Really not getting the monkey shit here guys... If I got a bunch of interviews but couldn't seal the deal, my thought process is to reassess what I might be doing wrong or reassessing my weaknesses. You gotta be a little self-critical in this world and be able to accept some helpful criticism.

Sure, one solution is to get more interviews. The other solution is to make sure that you get the job the next time that you do interview.

If you're getting a lot of interviews but are not getting the job, you are either very unlucky or you could be doing something better. Unless your resume is perfect, it's likely that latter.

Personally, I got into IB by constantly improving myself throughout the application process. Don't know how you snowflakes plan on doing it....

 

No offense taken man. In hindsight, I recognize the things that hindered my ability to land offers... Fucking up an easy technical because I was nervous, not sounding polished enough, being thrown off by behaviorals that I should have been prepared for, etc. But at the end of the day, I believe a lot of it was out of my control and that luck definitely factors into the ability to land offers and that all I can do is hope that I kill the next opportunity that comes around.

 

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