Wall Street Oasis’ Post

Transcript

Just a little primer on timeline. So I'm primer the base in the US or for the US cycle, a lot of the first rounds have come out already for sophomores and, and most of it is through a rolling basis. So if you've applied that first week of January for a lot of these firms, you should have already received a first round invitations. This is post higher views and all the other stuff. And then I know for some of my students have gotten into more of the specific roles like global markets. Some of these firms have already extended full-time offers as well. So just be mindful of this and. Yeah, obviously if you haven't applied yet, please apply as soon as possible because the the spots do window as the timeline drags on. There's a difference between the automated processes and then the actual interview. OK, let's let's start from the beginning, right? Let's say you you submitted your application but haven't gone any form of application. And then you can tell them, you know, reach back to your contacts. Hey, you know, I'm really excited. I just applied I'm eager to participate in the upcoming cycle and just tell them I haven't received anything of yet, but I'll keep you posted right. Just be very clear about. What you've gone through and expressed excitement in the process. If you've already submitted the higher views and assessment, Some firms do assessment parts like the numerical logical reasoning tests. No, same thing, right? Still reach out to them and then just update them. You know, you know, I recently completed the higher views. You can, you can, you can say you did a good job or not. It doesn't really matter because they can't really tell. But it's like, you know, at that point, tell them you've done that and then say, let me know if there's anything else that I can provide on my end. To help accelerate the process or make it easier on, on your end or something like that, right. And so now you're attaching your resume and you can attach your resume through all sorts of process. The point, the goal of it is now that you finish the, the filtering process, now you're giving your, your connection a very clear path to push you forward, right? That's why you're attaching your resumes. Like, is there anything I can do? Is there anyone that you can refer that I talk to to celebrate this process? You know, and then let's say you've already done the first round, you know, reach back to your first round interview. Thank you for interviewing me, you know, and point to specifics. So part of the interview process, remember, you're all also connecting with your interviewer is not just an interrogation process. So understanding who your interviewer is and what are the specific things you talk about, that's really important because you can use that in your follow up e-mail and say thank you. I really appreciate your advice on XYZ. I thought this was fascinating. Thank you for talking to me about the culture. Looking forward to the next stage of the interview process. You know, let me know if you need anything else from me. So follow up is really the key. Follow up, fortunately they have a saying fortunes in the follow up all the time is a little bit different, right. So even in the US, the New York timeline is very different than LA, although in Toronto is slightly it depends on the front, but in general, right, it's slightly slower than the the US processes. Then again, I say that and then RBC starts in September. So you know it's very different. So just just be on top of it with your connections, you leads, you know the people who actually work there will give you the best insight as to at what stage. So let's say. And this just came top of mind. Let's say you're in the process and then you know, some, some of your friends heard back, but you haven't heard back. Would that probably means is they're in the first round and then you're in the, you know, like the second wave of candidates, it could be you applied late, they applied early, or it just means they may be a stronger candidate. And so they're, they're given priority in process. And just to give you a preview, right, because a lot of you will be receiving offers at some point. So I also want to talk about final rounds and the offer process. So a little bit on the final round. Most of the time you'll be on their campus, like in the office doing something like this. So obviously dress code applies. If you need clarification of what that means to you, please ask. You want to bring physical copies of your most updated resume. Not everyone's going to ask for it, but it's a really good touch. Some people have printed their resumes on a slightly textured resume paper. Not your standard flimsy A4. You know, you could do that. It's just, it's fine, right? That's probably the copy that they have, but you don't want to be too dramatic. Like you don't wanna like really hard cardstock is not like wedding invitation or like a car, right, But just slightly different. That could be a good touch just to stand out just a little bit. Like think of it as you don't want to draw attention to it in a dramatic way, but you want to draw attention to it from a quality standpoint, right? Like imagine if you're presenting something to a client. It's not flashy, but it's like, Oh yeah, this quality, you know, let her stop whatever. So have your most updated resume. What ends up happening is they probably will have a a version of your resume on hand. Sometimes they don't. It's a really good touch to like go into the office, like, yeah, you know, here's my latest updated resume. It's just like, it's like, oh, yeah, great. I didn't have it on hand. But even if they had accepted, and it's a good gesture, just makes it easier on them. And then you're probably going to be talking to a lot of people from the office, just getting to know everyone, probably starting from more of the junior level as you're talking to more senior people. What they do care about is less so of the technical. They do care about the technicals, but they're not going to grill you on the specifics on the technical model, for example. The more senior you get, they really want to know that A, you're really interested in the firm and B, this is something that you're really passionate, like the career field, right? So a lot of the questions from a more senior level will revolve around like why cat markets, Why banking, right? Just to make sure that your answer is very specific. It's not generic, like, Oh yeah, like the culture, like the hard working team. But really it's like they want to make sure that this is the right path for you. And then also if you're interviewing. War is, but this is especially true for boutique firms, like very specific firms. They're going to ask you, hey, what are some deals that you followed from our team, right? Like what do you like specifically about Mollis New York? So make sure that you also know what deal the company has done, that group has done and just show very specific interest in what they do. So I made this mistake where I went into a like a PE role and I was overly qualified on the technicals, but like I just wanted a job, right? It was really clear that I would have taken another private equity. There's a there was, so I wasn't as interested in the deals. And he's like, yeah. So granted it was a very small firm, so they didn't have any public information on their deal. So but the guy, and this was like the CIO, the chief investment officer of the room, He's like, yeah, he said tell me about some of the deals that you followed. I'm like, so I know you guys are not very public, so I didn't find them much online, but this is what I basically I did. I like, I did a very brief overview, but it was nothing detailed. And that was the round that I got killed, you know, everyone else that I was a great fit. Let's see, the the higher up you go, the more acute they are to. Did this person actually pay attention to this specific firm or am I just one of the many that he or she is applying for? OK, so that's the final round. If you're going to any of these interview rounds, make sure it's a conversation where you find out more about your interviewer because that's going to improve your quality of your follow up e-mail. OK, so you can ask this a lot of people if you're experienced, you'll find ways to. Converse with the interview during the interview, for example, if they say, Oh yeah, I also did this, right? Go into that. You know, they may have questions that they want to ask you, but they're more important, right? The interviewer is more important. So find ways to engage with the interviewer. And then sometimes towards the end, they'll ask you, hey, do you have any questions for me? Right. This is a great opportunity to ask more about their themselves personally. So, you know, I noticed that you worked here for two years and you were an analyst to associate promote or three years and you were. Also associate, I just really curious what that path was for you, right. It's a very specific question to them. Now you can bring that up in your follow up e-mail and that's really how you snuck out. Oh, and then the the second portion of this is getting offers. So yes, you will have exploding offers. That is very, very common. So when you get to that point, please work with a mentor or you know, sometimes in the slack channel, not everyone reads all the messages in the second. It gets to be a lot. So if you have a dedicated. Editor or you come to office hours, you know, you can speak to someone personally about your situation that would be best. A lot of the times what will probably be happening is once you get the exploding offer and let's say it's for a week, you want to go back to all of your other processes and tell them, hey, thank you for whatever just happened, right? Thank you for doing the first round interview. I'm really excited to be going through the process. Just as a heads up, I wanted to let you know that I do have an exploding offer from you don't have to say the bank, but I do have a. Floating offer from a competing firm that they're looking for me to make a decision by end of week and I know you know XYZ bank is still my port priority right so you're wanting to demonstrate that that firm is still your priority and I just want to know if there's any way to accelerate the process right so you're not demanding them to hurry up but in a sense you're saying it you know like I I would really appreciate it if there's a way to celebrate the process because I really want a shot at this bank and we'll refine it right but just just to give you a. Foreshadow of what's to come so it's, you know, get caught by surprise.