I applied to 4 elite boutiques in London, for which all initial screening processes are handled by third-party recruiters. How can I stand out in my application or/and in the first round phone interviews?
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Yo what elite boutiques did you apply to? Is this for FT?
do you go to a target? If not that answers it all.
Initial screening is heavily dependent on your degree course and university. Very difficult to stand out otherwise.
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Dartmouth Partners are just notoriously anal about screening. If you don't fit as close to exactly what the ideal candidate looks like, you'll get auto-dinged.
Wiser is a bit better.
I would say both of are them are pretty similar with CV Screening, if you have previous experience at prestigious places /target you should be relaxed
what is their "ideal" candiate?
PWP/CVP/HL/Evercore?
PWP/CVP/HL/Evercore?
DP, Wiser, Freshminds etc are all ridiculous and are completely out of touch with what a bank actually does. I was told by an associate at one of the firms using these HH, that he just wanted a competent grad given the last 2 grads that these HH recommended after 6 months couldn't master power point. To think these morons at the HH firms decide if you interview or not... and then have the balls to recommend legitimately shit candidates...
I got asked by one of the 3 HH "why M&A?" despite interviewing for a RX analyst position. After taking the L, my feedback was I didn't express interest in investment banking, given I highlighted my interest for rx and not m&a (for the record, I already had an rx internship) Note this bank did not run a generalist program. They really are thick as shit and its a tragedy that such incompetent people dominate recruiting at the intern and graduate level.
So OP, its all luck.
wow tf? sounds like the HH firm didn't even read the job description before interviewing candidates
DP, Wiser and Freshminds are about as consistent as sunshine in the UK. Their reasoning behind their decision making makes no sense and it seems when they reject you once, then all future applications are rejections. I have seen people 2 years out of uni get placements yet have received feedback saying that they want penultimate years when I applied as a finalist. They do one thing and then they say another. slimy fuckers.
bump! In the same spot
Agree with the above, all the recruiters are awful, DP, Wiser, Freshminds, Linear Partners. If you aren't an exact fit, you're out.
I ended up in PE because the firm did recruiting themselves instead of outsourcing... It really is frustrating working with recruiters. I can't believe how integrated some of them are i.e. Dartmouth and CVP.
My advice would be trying to go around them i.e. figure out who the staffer is and drop them a line
Tried this ages ago with a MM PE - I applied thru DP and got rejected within a week, standard response w/ no feedback. I then applied to the firm directly - The moment I did this, I got a response from the firm and also from some dipshit from Dartmouth Partners about 2 days apart. The firm wanted to interview me (had 2 recommendations from associate and manager) and then DP rang me asking me for an interview slot - when they told me the role, I said they already rejected me. Literally, its as if DP actually don't know what they are doing / read the application.
The incompetence is astounding
do WISER / Freshminds handle PE recruiting too (after banking)?
Freshminds does a bit for PE, not sure on Wiser. For PE, Blackwood is quite good and same with KEA
From a semi-target school with a BB internship, I passed screenings for almost every EBs, but never arrived to the AC.
My last feedback from Dartmouth Partners was like:
"- You were very well prepared, you were strong on technicals, you had very good knowledge about the M&A market and the current economic environment, you seemed very motivated and were well informed about the bank, you have strong CV with relevant experience
- Thx, but so why am I not selected for the AC?
- I did not manage to really feel who you are beyond banking
- But you only asked me questions about banking...
- Yeah, it is very competitive."
what the fuck is that response lmao jfc
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