Hey everyone!
I’ve been looking through this forum recently and was wondering if someone could offer some advice. Either on this thread or via PM. I’m very confused about what to do with my life at the moment. I want to work at a top tier firm in the IBD/M&A division as an analyst but it doesn’t seem to be working out. Here’s an outline of my current situation:
Good points:
- Ivy league UK university
- Leadership experience outside and inside university (president of a good society etc)
- Founder of several investment banking events
- Captain of a sports team
- Awesome CV (recruiters who come to my school say this) and quality answers to application questions (again –recruiters have checked these)
- M&A experience in two boutiques (London and New York)
- Awards/challenges etc – several of these inc top in class, student of the year awards, finalist in bulge bracket competitions etc.
- Finance is a core part of my degree and ill definitely get a 2:1 /good a levels (all A’s)
- Valuation and financial modelling training in NYC while doing my internship
- Voluntary work (for 3+ years) while studying + doing ECs
Bad points:
- I’m in my final year so have to choose between summer/grad roles which is difficult as some firms only allow you to apply for one - I’m guessing lots of places are full?
- No languages other then English ( ie no other European language). But I know people who don’t know EU languages who get in. I also know people with 5 EU languages and nothing else who get in. I’m willing to learn... but fluently in < 1 year?
- I don’t play a musical instrument? (apparently that’s a bad thing….)
- I did apply for spring weeks – 0 interviews. Summer internships last year – 1 interview at DB but then they became ‘full’ so I got rejected. Straight rejections from everywhere else.
Can someone please advise me what to do? I don’t really want to work in a mid-market bank ‘and work my way up’ as really think I wont enjoy working their – long term - at all. I was reconsidering IBD given my bad luck but I really don’t see myself do anything else because of the way I work/my interests etc. I may sound crazy but long nights etc is a norm for me given the amount of stuff I do so not doing that will just feel weird.
The most bizarre thing is that I apply early, do the tests (and don’t fail – I checked), and then my application remains on hold forever. Then I get rejected on the basis that the program is full rather then I suck. I’ve used all my contacts to get interviews (mostly didn’t help), attend loads of presentations, basically tick every box I can think of. I do chase it up with HR and get automated messages. I did go to the careers service and they are clueless why I get rejection after rejection.
Is it just bad luck? What would you advise?
Sorry for the long post… needed to relieve myself
(and don't bother googling me because this is a made up username!)