No offer after your summer internship? It does happen.
Some years it happens a lot. For instance the 2020 Covid summer, the 2011 World Financial Crisis Summer, or further back the 1998 currency meltdown / Russian debt crisis. Some years it is a miracle if a summer internship translates into an offer. In 2010 summer interns at Lehman and Bear Sterns got offers. Then their banks failed.
Even when the global economic environment isn’t working against you, sometimes you can feel the offer slipping away from you in the first week. It might not be a booze-fueled flameout. It could be that you are having a hard time finding a mentor. It might be the deals (or lack thereof) that you are getting staffed on. Perhaps you can sense you aren’t a “cultural fit.”
At some banks, it happens a lot. In a typical year, some banks only make offers to 30-50% of their summer interns whereas others make offers to 80%. –A stat worth considering if you are choosing between offers for a summer spot.
Are your dreams of a high-flying career in finance doomed if you don’t end up with an offer at the end of the summer? No. Not at all.
If you are still in the middle of your internship you can salvage the situation. Here are our pointers on how to secure your offer. If you need more help don’t hesitate to reach out we can help you devise a customized plan of attack. Also, please don’t consider any crazy advice that has you delaying your graduation date. Read on! You can still enjoy a fantastic career in finance.
If you don’t get a full-time offer from your internship, will things be a little more stressful as you look for a full-time job? Yes but you can get past this. Plenty of folks do. It is time to dust yourself off and come up with a plan of attack for your job search.
A summer internship is a season-long interview. By the end of the summer investment banks have a pretty good idea of your fit. It is a trial run for both them and you. The number of summer internships is never a perfect match to the number of full-time jobs the next year for a variety of reasons:
Some banking interns try it and decide banking isn’t for them. Some interns go to other banks. Some banks don’t have summer interns. Some banks end up needing more analysts and associates than they thought they needed.
What To Do If You Don’t Get An Offer after Your Summer Internship
After you take a breath, take an honest look at what happened. Be prepared to take an honest look at yourself.
Did you slack off? Offend someone? Quant skills not up to snuff? End up in the wrong group? Deals that went nowhere? Or even have a booze-fueled flameout?
Your answers will help you know what to do next and give you an idea of what questions you will need to get ahead of before you go into a full-time interview.
If you can swing it and your education doesn’t get in the way an off-cycle internship in the Fall is a great way to put the negative association with your summer behind you. Interviewers are MUCH more likely to ask you about anything at the top of your resume than something that is one notch down. [Shamless plug: Getting the Offer maintains an updated list of off-cycle finance internships for our clients.]
How will you answer the questions about your summer internship?
You are dreading it but unfortunately, your classmates are going to ask and so are your interviewers.
So long as you didn’t flame out, or there was a major issue like the bank shut down a business line or there was a global pandemic, you might just be on hold. Saying you are “on hold” is marginally better than getting an outright “no.” It is kind of like getting waitlisted for college.
Having a great reference or two from your summer internship goes a very long way here. After you get the word from HR that you are on hold or won’t be getting an offer call up the people you did get along with and will have good things to say about you and ask them if they would be a reference. Work it into the conversation. A gal in my summer program managed to leverage those references into a permanent job at the same bank that initially didn’t give her an offer. Yes it took an extra six months. But the bank was in the middle of a hiring freeze and wasn’t making any offers.
References aren’t a silver bullet. When a bank (or industry) is in crisis mode and is laying folks off the people who might give you a reference might be looking for a new gig to cover their mortgage and car payments.
If your bank sharply reduced its hiring for the following year be prepared for follow-up questions that really hold your feet to the fire. People might want numbers. They might want to know if even one person got an offer and ask you to speculate why. Their best buddy might also work at that bank and have the inside scoop so don’t be tempted to lie. If you were the only intern placed on hold don’t try to say no one got an offer.
Sometimes spinning your experience is the best bet. For example: “I got experience in the Healthcare group but I think I would do my best work in M&A” If you say it with confidence and speak definitively that can forestall a lot of questions.
Develop a Plan of Attack
Now that you have figured out what to say. Let’s consider what to do. Hopefully, you have maintained some of your networking practices and have been sending out helpful and interesting articles to your network throughout the summer. If not it is time to get back at it so your first point of contact isn’t a giant ask.
If you were lucky enough to have received multiple offers for your summer internship last spring, circling back to contacts at the banks you didn’t go to is a good idea. These banks saw something in you so this is a nice time to remind them you are still on the market.
It goes without saying you should reach out to your career development office and do as much on-campus interviewing as possible. Concurrently looking at smaller banks and those that are a little off the beaten path geographically is important now. Many small banks and boutique firms don’t have summer interns or participate in on-campus interviewing. Get in front of them. Be prepared to be patient. These types of firms might not make an offer until the spring. If you are located in the same city offer to work part-time until you graduate. If not, see if a part-time remote gig might work.
If you think you need help devising your plan or beefing up your interviewing skills let us know. We’re here to help.
Still in the thick of your internship but feeling things slipping away? We’ve got you. Check out these tips or reach out and we can come up with a customized plan to save your summer.
How Can Prospect Rock Partners Help?
We understand the financial recruiting landscape and have extensive experience working with hiring managers at Bulge bracket banks, Elite Boutiques and Private Equity firms. We can help you pinpoint what went wrong and help you course correct so that it doesn’t happen again. Do you want customized guidance to help you secure an offer? We are here to help!
PRP Services
- Clean-up, reformat and retarget your resume so that you can secure more interviews
- Linkedin profile analysis
- Sample mock interview questions
- Sample technical interview questions
- How to Break into Banking Networking Tips and Tricks
- Target Company recommendations
- Target Company Prep Exercises
- Mock-interviews
- Develop a customized networking strategy
- General guidance and support
We know the banks and know what they are looking for. With our guidance and support we will help you navigate this ultra-competitive job market and land your dream role.
