Interview Question: Addressing Boutique IB Internships
I'm wondering how some of you guys address questions regarding IB SA roles at small, "no-name" boutiques that don't hire their interns? I'm about to start an IB SA role at a regional (i guess "no-name") boutique in a city to which I have zero ties. I have been advised by the firm that there most likely will not be any full-time opportunities once the internship is done. Should I just say that in interviews when asked about a return offer? I'm just trying to plan the best way to approach these questions in hopes of entering full-time recruiting in the fall (December 2017 grad from Big 10 school, semi-target to some, non-target to others).
I struck out in IB FT recruiting during OCR in the fall, and decided to delay graduation by one semester. In the meantime, for the Spring 2017 semester, I completed an unpaid, off-cycle internship near my hometown. I was able to land a paid IB SA at a boutique that'll start in a couple weeks, and will be returning to campus for the fall to finish up my last degree requirements, and hopefully try to undergo FT IB OCR again (though I do understand that the spots are relatively fewer, from both this website and my experience during last fall).
If I would've graduated this past semester (May 2017), I would've occluded myself from one last round of OCR, even if it is for IB FT roles. Similarly, having access to OCR, even outside of the scope of IB, is still incredibly useful.
Getting some more experience has helped my soft skills and technical understanding, but I'm just looking for thoughts on how to explain this non-traditional route. I guess my goal is simply not to confuse the interviewer with my story (jumping from city to city, boutique to boutique, returning to campus, etc).
Any thoughts on addressing rationale behind off-cycle internships and IB SA roles at small shops in cities outside of your school's area/hometown and no return offer?
I'm definitely overthinking it all, and from friends who now do OCR on the other side of the table, the interviewer won't really care very much about where I worked as long as I have strong answers to "why IB?," "why this firm?," and can speak intelligently about what I did at these places. But I was cautioned to not go into more detail and to simply give a high-level overview. And, if probed, to say that "I was made aware by the firms prior to accepting the positions that they do not hire their interns as they look for more experienced candidates when making full-time hires, [given their lack of a formal training program, etc], but I wanted to get more experience to further develop my understanding of the business and technical knowledge, and found these to be great learning opportunities for seeing the ins and outs of being an analyst, as well as what it takes to be a successful analyst."
Looking forward to hearing what you guys think.
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