Looking for a bit of advice, would appreciate anything.
I think I’m genuinely considering calling it a day regarding TC’s:
Last year, I managed to make it to 2 ACs, with the more recent of the two being a huge positive for me. Though I didn’t get an offer, I received positive feedback and fell just short, and it was a significant improvement on the first AC. It’s also worth mentioning this was for a firm with a notoriously challenging AC, which I further took as a positive.
This was around August, so it gave me good motivation to hit the ground running with this cycle. By this point, I knew what I was doing, I’d perfected my strategy when it came to SJT’s, Watson Glasers, so I felt good going into this cycle…
Only to quickly realise that most firms decided this year they want to throw a massive spanner in the works and make their processes 40x harder. Before this, I knew VIs were not my strength, so I thought I’ll just avoid firms that use them, considering I knew I was now strong in written applications and psychometrics. Now, it seems that VIs are an unavoidable fact of TC applications as of this year.
Still, I went into WVS applications quite optimistic. Fast forward to now, received rejections from every single winter I applied to, which was demoralising but I knew it was still early days.
Again, fast forward to now, I’m genuinely considering just saving my time and investing it elsewhere, starting to believe the odds are far too stacked against me.
I’ve completed about 10 VIs for firms this year already, with a good portion of those being selective, so again I know my applications are pristine and my psychometrics are too, but I’ve been rejected from all. I’ve had 1 to 1s with various people to help me improve VI performance, who all said that I was seemingly quite good with them.
I was going into this cycle with AC experience from two elite City Firms and so I naturally felt pretty confident in my abilities, but this year feels regressive if anything at this moment in time. Now I just think it’s ultimately impossible to even get an AC, especially with this cycle quietly coming to the end in a month or so, at least for vacs. I’m now a graduate and so I really cannot afford to keep investing my time into what seems to be a black hole, having told myself I’m going to give it my best shot this year and leave no stone unturned.
And in my opinion - and it could sound convenient - I think the way firms are heading with these new recruitment processes is ultimately starting to diminish the merit that used to be involved in writing an impressive application. Though I know endurance is very important in this process too, it does feel like unless the quality you input is matched with an exhausting amount of stamina, people who were strong contenders in ACs and vacs are now not even being shown the time of day.
But that’s just my opinion. Let me know what you think, thanks.
