Comments on: Weekly Reader Q&A: Hedging Your Bear Stearns Summer Offer, Who Really Reads Resumes And The Value Of A Master’s Degree

By: Inquisitor

Inquisitor — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 03:58:10 +0000

Nick: Generally it’s tough coming from a non-target and getting into a bulge bracket unless you’ve 1) Had an internship before or 2) Have done a lot of networking and know lots of people in the industry. If neither of those is true, I would go for the MBA.

By: Nick

Nick — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 00:26:18 +0000

will a high GPA from a SUNY school (plattsburgh) get me into a bulge bracket firm or should i go on to get an M.B.A (cornell or U of chicago)?

By: Inquisitor

Inquisitor — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 00:24:43 +0000

Sure thing. Yeah, if you had a previous summer internship with Bear I think it might be better just to go with the truth or a close version of the truth because it’s going to look highly suspicious if you make up some other story… they know what’s going on, and there’s no shame in saying that because of the situation there, you’ve had to look elsewhere.

By: The Prince’s Weekend Audience - Paulson’s Big Day | Prince of Wall Street

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 22:50:20 +0000

[...] Weekly Q&A - Mergers and Inquisitions - "Hedging your Bear Stearns Summer Offer." Indeed. [...]

By: BS

BS — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 19:02:56 +0000

Thank you for the speedy reply.. it is difficult to come up with a reason because the summer internship was with Bear. I’ll be trying to harden my conscience to be able to use ur advice… And I wanted to make sure that, pretty much, there arent any other viable options out there…thank you again!

By: Inquisitor

Inquisitor — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 18:53:30 +0000

BS: As you’ve pointed out, it’s harder to do this with full-time offers because it is so late in the process. Pretty much all FT recruiting is done now and even at smaller firms/boutiques it will be difficult to get offers.

That said, I think it is worthwhile to hedge even here and look into boutiques that may still be hiring.

As far as an excuse to use, it would be difficult to come up with one if you’ve had a banking internship… if the internship was at Bear, I think it might be better just to tell the bank your FT offer was revoked/is not being honored due to the disaster at Bear.

If you did not have a banking internship, you can always just say the usual about poor market/hiring conditions and still being on the search for a job… plenty of people I know are in that position.

By: BS

BS — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 08:53:40 +0000

Thanks for the insight on hedging the summer offers. How about full time offers? Does the logic differ because 2 year contracts have been signed and no ‘official’ word is known yet? Also, going by earlier advice, and common sense, the smaller firms one might consider shouldnt know of the full time contract with Bear, but what good excuse can one give for not applying earlier, especially if one received their full time offer after an internship?