Share instances where networking did not help

Have there been instances where extensive networking did not help you for recruiting, particularly for SA? Did you ever get coffee in person to no avail?

I'm heading into SA 2018 recruiting very soon, and even though I attend a top target, my GPA is definitely going to drag me. I've been networking as hard as I can, but I want a realistic perception moving forward. Any stories would be really insightful.

 

Not sure if this answers your question, but networking, in my opinion, is a numbers game. I go to a non-target, in the sense that we don't have any on-campus recruiting, but we still have tons of alumni in IB, PE, etc. I reached out to 70 or so people my junior fall, and out of those 70, I fielded 30 phone calls. Out of those 30, I received 4 interviews and 1 offer. My GPA's not the greatest at 3.4, but I think the most important thing about networking is shooting as many bullets as you can and hoping that one hits someone who you have a great connection with. Networking definitely works, but it's a combination of your own hard work and effort as well as sheer luck.

 
Best Response

This. If you assume "this person works at GS, I want to work at GS, the second he/she likes me and I get a referral I am done" you will get disappointed. Not only will you struggle to get a connection if you are THAT focussed on getting the referral, but not every contact will lead to a referral, and not every referral will lead to an interview.

I have had people that I had a mediocre connection with refer me (and with success), and people that I was having a great time with not be able to provide any value. Additionally, a lot of the people that I connected with did not ever end up providing tangible value or only several years down the line. Try to position yourself to meet and impress people in a certain industry, and play the numbers game.

 

Totally agree.

Also another important point is that it definitely varies by bank/division/firm. I've networked successfully w/ certain firms that have no formal recommendation/referral process, but they make informal moves to HR. I've networked with firms that ONLY give interviews to people with formal referrals which get put through a different process than those who apply online normally.

I've gotten super lucky in finding people on certain teams in different divisions who were directly involved in the recruitment/resume review process. I'd say that talking to everyone is incredibly important; albeit that the more senior they are the more they can pull. That in mind, analysts have and will be able to get you a spot in the recruitment process even coming from a non-target.

 

You are approaching this with the wrong mindset. Yes, we know that you are networking because you want to get a job. But think about all the other students even in your own university that approach us in the exact same way who probably have equal or better grades.

It is unrealistic to expect that just because you got a coffee with me that I will get you an interview. Frankly speaking it is more of a cost than a benefit for me to network with alot of juniors or sophomores because it will just make me leave later that night to catch-up with work. So no, don't go in with the expectation that networking is all that is required. Just meet with enough people and hope that you don't catch them on a bad day so they'll like you enough to refer you during recruiting.

 

Family friends with a Global Head of at a big global IB (Probably not BB, but not exactly a boutique either). Known him for years, arranged calls, coffee chats with people in the bank. Applied to grad scheme, didn't even get a first round interview. Ah well.

 

There's going to be a lot of times, and it's not always factors within your control. For example if you have connections at a certain bank that isn't paying bonuses this year and has a hiring freeze then your "networking" better consist of being related to someone that the bank wants to do a major deal for. Other times your own booster at the bank will have lost political capital internally or maybe an Olympic athlete decided to apply and the group head thought that was cooler than you.

 

Similar to what has been said before me... Numbers game paired with a small shade of luck.

A simple instance is you get coffee with a new contact and you guys simply don't click. It happened to me countless times back when I was in your position. I'd show up, we'd start chatting and it was clear we would never really grow this relationship beyond this one meeting. And to be clear, vice versa. You'll get together with someone and you guys see eye to eye on everything.

 

To touch on your point about GPA, that's an issue that I came across myself. Unless you've had multiple conversations with the person on the other side of the table and they're really willing to go to bat for you(which you should try to make happen), all they know about you is what you told them via a 15 minute conversation. In retrospect, something that I regret not doing is keeping in touch with people that I've talked to. Sure, it is a numbers game. At the same time, treat each person you speak with as the one that might get you the job.

My GPA was within the same ball-park as yours. If you've only spoken to someone once and everyone else applying has .2-.4 of a higher GPA than you, the willingness of the person to push you through diminishes greatly. The key takeaway is that you can overcome a lot of things with networking, but network intelligently rather than just going through the motions.

 

Also important to note that having just one super good connection at a firm may not always be enough. Had someone I considered a close friend/mentor at an EB, and knew I was one of the closest people to them going through recruiting, and thought I had it locked up. Turns out - a) they got busy during resume selections and weren't at the table when choices were finalized and b) too junior (1st year analyst a couple months on the job) to push too hard. Key takeaway, need multiple people to go to bat for you just in case.

 

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