Graduated with Master's in Finance in winter 2024. Also have Bachelor's in Applied Math.

I have one internship in data analytics, and another internship in market risk at a bank.

I'm not too salty that I finally got a job after 1 interview.

I'm more upset with the fact that a company can make me go through 6 interviews, with the final round being an on-site superday (interviewed 10 people at the VP level and above, 6 hours total, I was *generously* given a single 15 minute break), reject me, and refuse to give any feedback!

The junior analysts I interviewed with earlier on were complaining that they'd been interviewing for this role for several months. They said that they, along with the hiring manager, were "very in favor of me", and that I "just had to make it pass the quants". 6 hours of ruthless technical questions later (which I know I answered the majority of correctly) and I get a generic rejection email. And every single person I could contact refused to give any feedback (in the form of not responding to any of my emails)

I know the hardest part for me was receiving unsolicited advice from family and friends that really did not know what they were talking about.

"Have you tried updating your resume?"

"Have you considered applying to jobs in a related field?"

"Did you ask questions at the end of your interviews?"

"Did you send a follow-up email?"

...yes? Do people genuinely think this is not a given? Being asked these questions week after week definitely affected some of my relationships. If you have a loved one going through the job search right now, try to give them the benefit of the doubt, have some empathy, and certainly don't ask questions that can come off as treating them as if they're totally incompetent.

Anyway, I'm focusing on moving past all the negative feelings. I'm extremely grateful that I finally have a job! Good luck to everyone that it still trying, and never stop believing in yourself.

Tracked job applications since graduation 21 months ago