What happened to west coast talent?
Essentially the title, it feels like students nowadays expect everything to be handed out to them and I have noticed it so much more with schools like UBC/UofA/SFU/UVic. I take the time to have virtual chats with these kids just for them to ask the most generic questions.
So often it falls into the same profile of individuals as well;
- Already in their 3rd4th/5th/6th year (Yes, I met a 6th year going into 7th looking for an off cycle) with no major internship upcoming.
- Search funds/fake internships/unpaid internships
- Below 3.5 GPA and using some other form of GPA to cover it up (Finance GPA, Major GPA, "Core" GPA)
- Surprisingly openly sexist and blame diversity for being the reason they haven't done anything with their life yet
Genuinely, what is going on at the career centres for these schools? Do they no longer emphasize the importance of preparing for chats or respecting the time of people who go out of their way to speak? It feels like rather than speaking about anything related to the field, we spend so much of the time with them just asking me "what should i do"
Is this a generational thing? I don't see it as much with kids from Toronto, albeit since I came from the west I still see more requests coming from kids in the west.
Can't just blame the kids, have to blame the awful recruitment process and the terrible decisions being made on the other end as well. It started off with an accelerated schedule, which is now 14 months ahead of internship start, and then you got things like PLUM profiles, banks taking those 6th/7th year kids you mention, and GPA floors have been removed. You want to know why kids with that profile think it is easy? It's because kids with that same profile are getting in these days, and it so obvious when they land for their internship that they could not have been the best in the pool.
On one hand, you got the actual hungry kids with a 3.8+, know the technicals by heart not memorization, and are showing up to chats prepared, leaving the chats with someone who will go to bat for them. On the other, you got the 3.3 6th year kid who pestered an HR contact or alumni so much that they get an interview just to shut up, but know that when they get that interview, one deserving kid did not as a result. The pool of candidates didn't get worse, but because of the blown out emphasis being placed on cultural, the "charismatic" (has been through 4 recruitment cycles) kid is weaselling his way in.
It isn't the schools, it is literally us.
Can most definitely blame the kids, why are they sitting there consistently reaching out to the few alumni that their schools have, just to show up with the planned agenda being an awful attempt at shooting the shit. UBC kids have no excuse either, they literally have like 5 finance clubs that they can get the help they need from, it really is just about giving a fuck. The other schools are just in bad states overall, UofA is terrible unless you want O&G and SFU literally places 0 people in big 5 these days that aren't already balding and approaching their 30th birthday (I hear the #6 in Big 6 shows them some love though, makes sense since they can relate over always being in the shadows).
Worst interview I have ever had to sit through was with what I can only assume was a nepo daughter coming from SFU. She bombed every single technical even after being given a 3rd chance at a first round, spent forever bragging about covering the biggest sector for the school fund but then was unable to pitch a stock, literally was in her 4th year, had a ~3 GPA, and her past internships seemed made up (claimed equity research but it was a money transfer agency). Safe to say, we haven't batted an eye at the resume of anyone from SFU since then.
Shoutout to all the flops in life that end up accepting roles with scotia and national bank, if it wasn't for you guys the mid market of Canada (LMM by US standards) would never have advisors.
I am sure your PLUM profiles did a great job at showing how you were most qualified to be a part of these organizations that shouldn't even be called banks!
Wait until you hear about how the reason you see that is becausebanks are consistently taking in students that they think will create the best culture. The literal way incels are created is by giving an opportunity to someone who doesn't deserve it, all these high egos that are made as a result, are covering up the fact that they know they don't deserve what they got. I am looking specifically at you west coast big 5, always bringing in 6th and 7th year interns, how can you genuinely sit there in an interview and take someone born in 1999 over someone born in 2003 that has the same level of skill?
What's wrong with being older?
There's a plethora of reasons why someone would still be in undergrad at an older age than average and many of them aren't malicious.
Bruh the only quality school in the west coast is UBC and even then only select few are actually into it. Majority of the finance kids are going to Ivey/Queens
Hard to even call UBC quality these days, can't help but look at all the failures happening here as well. I could easily rip into PMF and the downfall it has had, but that has happened enough times on these forums. The problem with UBC right now is that everyone think they are on par with Queens/Ivey whereas in reality when it comes to finance, not even top 5. Sure there is Westpeak, but that program is being carried by alumni and we all know none of the kids in the program are really all that. They get interviews just because they are Westpeak, the same thing that was the case with PMF and even SFU's BEAM.
It creates a cycle, kids get lazy because they'll get interviews regardless, they bomb the interviews, program's downfall begins. PMF/BEAM are long gone, sure they still get interviews but there is no shot we see them go across the border at any point. Westpeak is being carried right now by a few alumni contacts, the benefit it has is that students are the ones who run it, whereas for the other two it is all run by professors with a facade that students do.
Please elaborate for those of us who haven't had a chance to read up on all the drama.
Please do rip into the downfall of PMF
This makes sense, when you look at those two schools, most of the awful chat experiences I have had were actually kids in those 3 programs. It is like they genuinely think that they made it to the top of the world because they knew a guy who knew a guy who could get them in. Decided to go check out their pages on LinkedIn and to no surprise, a lot of people who aren't even interning in the summer. There are less than 3 total across both schools it seems that actually landed a semi-decent gig for this summer, and a whole lot of research nerds spread across the board with quite a few fake investment bankers (no name shops with <5k LinkedIn followers) or mid market maestros to compliment the circus. It is actually way worse than I thought
Lol same in the east coast. Bar the actual top candidates with top profiles, the rest are bottom of the barrel. There's no in between.
Trust me, the west is awfully worse. The top candidate bar doesn't even exist since the few actual smart kids at UBC either go to Toronto or the states, meaning that it is the bottom scrapers left out here. And at the same time, no one from a Toronto school that is smart has any intention of coming to Vancouver, so the only Toronto applicants that come this way are the ones who are desperate.
Oof sounds rough
I'll tell you why these issues exist, every single interview these days is focused on finding the right personality hire, but anyone can fake a personality for 30 minutes. Banking is dying fast in Canada, look at the decreases in number of positions, wouldn't be surprised if Vancouver shops close up soon given the very low caliber talent that exists there. Vancouver banking, home of the short and chubby folks that didn't make it out of the city.
I dont think its just driven by personality hire, I believe you do need high gpa/solid grasp of technicals to get interviews/offers imo. I'm saying that based on my experience as I didnt get any interviews in Van (im from westcoast school) and I thought it was my low gpa lol. Most of the people who got into IB here have very strong grades and do seem competent.
I do agree that banking is dying in Canada and its better for students to try London/US. I've personally had more positive experience networking outside of Canada.
You must be speaking of a different time then, I think people are really fed up with the processes over the past 3 years. No joke, the only bank to take a 2nd/3rd year in Vancouver now is TD and even there I know some interviews were wasted on 5th/6th years posing as 2nd years after transferring schools. It is disgusting that these people are still in school, even more weird that when they do land something, they develop such an ego. Know a 2000 kid at my school who was handed interviews because of the club he is in, didn't get a single position until someone declined the offer and they came back to give him one. He ego'd everyone so hard as if we aren't 3-4 years behind him, it is the equivalent of me looking for Summer 2028... Vancouver is a dumpster fire, the recruitment here is atrocious and most of it also exists within school clubs - ie. 6th/7th years get in and then the following year they bring in other 6th/7th years to try to normalize it in an attempt to cover up their insecurities. Great job jerks, you guys will now be in extracurricular clubs as fucking 24/25 year olds... only took you 7 years to make a baby step - Schools in Toronto see through this shit, but once again Vancouver falls behind because we have terrible administration and professors to close the full loop of issues with the west coast
del
Came here to comment “what the fuck are you guys talking about?” until I realized halfway through the thread this is about Canada. Makes a lot more sense now.
Same, I stared at those schools for waaaay too long trying to figure out what was happening.
Carry on, Canadian friends
The UofC cope on this thread is unbelievable
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