No Offer Post Internship: What to say next

talk to someone you know personally at the firm and ask them for a specific reason why you we're offered a job. just be honest and specific when talking to other banks.

I'm in a similar situation. I thought about it extensively. The approaches that I'm juggling with are 1)ambiguity - imply that I was given an offer, but never explicitly say I have an offer. However, they might keep prodding so I'm still trying to figure out a story 2)switch approach - loved banking, love everything, however spent time exploring other areas of the bank since i'm not sure what I want to do. as a result, at the end of the summer b/c of my confusion, i was not given an offer because I did not have passion for it. but my work was great. but after my internship, i know what i want and that is xyz and your firm is awesome at it. like i really love restructuring and bankruptcy, so I want to go to Credit suisse because they're number 1 there. 3)blame the markets

And avoid negativity. not sure how helpful it is since i'm going through the same thing.

Find out about the culture of the group you're interviewing for. If the group is full of jocks, talk about how you didn't fit with your previous group because they were all academics and you're more of a sports guy. Reverse it if the opposite is true. Don't blame the markets because it just shows you weren't good enough to cut it, even if the bar is a bit higher now.

I think your best way of handling this depends on what group you were in during your summer. For instance, market difficulties would be a plausable reason for no offer in S&T, and many research departments don't have an active on-campus recruitment process (all on an as needed basis).

First, the fact that you did not get one is a bad sign, or maybe it was politics.

Second, lie. When banks ask you why not GS tell them that you have an extended offer but are shopping around. Say that the fit was not good or something to that effect.

play it ambiguously. gs is notorious for being shady with their post-internship offer process (one of my friends didnt hear until end of october).

Make sure you can get some great recommendations from some MD's/VPs you may or may not have worked with. That way they can at least vouch for your aptitude and maybe personality.

Are you trying to get into Asset Management again? Like an above poster said, it is very plausible that you didn't like Asset management, were too pre-occupied with shopping around other areas of the bank, and ultimately received a 'no' offer to switch divisions which then resulted in a failed offer in GSAM.

I wouldn't worry that much, just make sure you have a good, solid story.

And don't lie or be ambiguous. Respect the intelligence of your interviewer.

same thing happened to me. spent a summer at gs-ibd, w great feedback. when offers came out a month and a half later, didn't find myself in the 40-50% from my office who received offers. after 2 weeks of intense recruiting, i have the opportunity to choose between a few offers at other top IBs.

things to be aware of as you go back into recruiting: while your not getting an offer will make things more difficult (interviewers will be seeking a deal-breaking flaw), it is not impossible to end up with multiple good offers, if you choose to stay in the industry.

1. don't lie. while banks don't "talk," bankers do. anything you say must have a seed of truth.

2. get champions. find people from your internship office who are willing to fight for you and vouch for your performance. offer references openly. interviewers will rarely care to speak to them, but just knowing that you have them ready comforts them.

3. study, study, study. ultimately, bc you didn't get an offer, interviewers will be more suspicious about your ability to do the job. they will likely judge that you are smart enough (obviously, you beat out the other kids at your school just to get the internship), but will wonder if you have the talent to back it up. show them you do. as you go back into recruiting, you have some of the best training and best experience on wall street. use this to your advantage. know your stuff. be confident about what you learned. chances are, you'll find that your peers weren't pushed to do half the stuff you had to do at gs/ms. make sure the interviewers know how much you've learned/grown.

4. make known the fact that you had other offers you could have accepted in place of gs/ms. i went into my summer with 4 internship offers from top IBs. play it along the lines of-- while you didn't get an offer from gs/ms, you had other options. and perhaps you could have gone to a firm where you probably could have gotten an offer, but didn't want to compromise the excellent training that you knew you would receive from gs/ms, simply out of fear of not getting an offer. let's be frank-- for the most part, it takes more to get an offer from a place like gs than most other firms.

5. be aware that the places you turned down MAY hold a grudge. be prepared to get grilled on-- why did you choose gs/ms over us? i was asked this question, verbatim, numerous times. figure out something diplomatic, case-unique and make it sincere.

recruiting will be painful, but know that you'll end up in a good place. the next little while will just be something you have to endure before you get there. keep your chin up, and don't get discouraged. fight for what you want. you'll have it soon enough.

Awesome advice, but I would say with market conditions, be careful and apply to some other jobs outside to IB at BB