No Offer, No Idea Why

Is as the title states. Finished up my internship at a MM shop in one of the best regarded groups. Was told by an analyst that I had gotten the offer a couple days before the program wrapped up, and told by another a day later that all of my reviews universally said I should get an offer. Even got a meal with a senior person and they asked me the "if you got an offer would you take it" question, which I of course answered yes.

This turned out not to be true. I went into the HR office and was told although it was unequivocal I showed great improvement and had great work quality and ethic (the only bad feedback was a single review that said I sometimes have trouble with professionalism in the bullpen, but this was clearly stated not to be the reason I didn't get an offer), there were only a certain amount of full-time offers to extend and I was not to get one.

I left the office and everyone in my group + all my interns I've talked to since have been completely blindsided and either didn't see this coming, or at least feigning it and aren't sharing. A couple analysts said that they'd consider me the top intern as well out of what they'd seen from working across industry groups. Of course that's anecdotal but it should mean something. The most I can get from anyone is just that "you got screwed, you didn't deserve this". No feedback, nothing I can build off of.

My full-time analysts are suggesting very strongly I apply full-time, but I don't see why this would have any different result than my internship offer. Apparently I was also the only intern to get cut as well, and I don't know why if there were only a certain amount of offers, why only a single intern would get cut from a class of ~10.

I guess my question is that just none of this makes sense... How do you guys suggest I find out what happened and what I need to improve on? Is something fishy going on?

 

Oh my goodness, that sounds pretty conspiratorial but makes a lot of sense. Like they don't extend me a full-time offer so I'm handicapped for FT recruiting, but still offer to interview me for full-time because they know first-hand I'm a good candidate?

I don't know if it's appropriate for me to follow up with the senior but will ask some of the juniors I know.

 

Not having a return offer may handicap you some, but it's unlikely if you have a decent network since the pool of candidates in FT recruiting would be weaker then where you are currently at. They probably just didn't give you a return offer because they assumed you weren't coming back.

Array
 

i don't know if I agree with you on the return not mattering-- have seen myself that firms will literally ask for an offer letter from your previous firm before even bringing you in for a first round.

As for assuming I wasn't coming in, I told a senior director that I would love to come back. I don't know where they would get this idea. Of course I applied to some full-time spots before I came on for the internship to cover my bases and hedge, but was still clear I wanted to return...

 

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