Hey guys, I am really curious about one question. Why do banks offer Summer internships only to sophomores and juniors, and not to seniors? I mean, isn't it more logical to hire a senior or a recent graduate for SA and after the internship either give him/her full-time offer or not, without having a gap of 1 year between SA and a full-time job? This way: 1) banks will bear less risks because during the gap year between SA and FT economy may change, or bank's need in FT workers may change, or the worker's interests may change (he/she may decide to switch to another job function or another bank) 2) banks will not cut off a huge part of high-quality students, including Master's students and undergrad seniors. Any thoughts?
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I'd imagine seniors would be very hesitant to take an 2-3 month internship with the chance of not actually being employed after, so the applicant pool would be smaller
It cannot get smaller because sophomores and juniors are not going anywhere. The applicant pool can only and definitely would get larger. An internship in IB even without FT offer opens doors in front of you.
It's not like some banks wouldn't hire someone in final year for a SA position, I know a few people who have extended their degrees in order to do SA recruit if FT positions were scarce.
How can one extend his/her degree?..
At my school, it is a 4 year Bachelor of Commerce program, students who do not have a job by the end of the 4 years often do 5 or 6 in order to hit the recruitment cycles. They normally try to enforce a 6 year maximum.
For the same reason that PE shops recruit first-year analysts and not second-year analysts: to lock you up ASAP. Why give candidates one extra year to think about whether or not the hours are truly worth it? Plus, since the U.S. is largely a right-to-work nation, banks can simply fire you if they over-hired.
Yep, people grow with time (especially it's significant when we're talking about college kids), so one extra year is helpful to learn what you want, get mature, and prepare for the recruiting.
Firing people is not that simple.
"Firing people is not that simple"
says the college senior with no internship experience?
Most people get their full-time jobs in the fall semester of their senior year (or early spring semester). If they had to recruit for a SA position at the same time, they would most likely take the offer for a FT job upon graduation over an SA position that could leave them unemployed after 3 months
I mean you have no chance applying for FT if you have no SA, so those seniors who have no SA but want to work in IB would apply for an SA, if they had an option.
True. They would apply, but would they take the job if SA to FT conversion rate is less than 100%? (Assuming they have quality enough resume to get an IBD SA, they would also have multiple other non-IB FT job offers)
Its the same with recruiting for college sports. Think basketball: Duke, UNC, Kentucky - these guys are recruiting kids who haven't even stepped on a high school court yet. Like banks, athletic programs survive on attracting the best talent, and in order to compete, they need to lock promising talent down as early as possible before someone else swoops in. The process is starting earlier and earlier every year. I think its ridiculous, but thats the evolution of recruiting for ya.
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