Hi Cassie,

Genuinely admire your spirit. I don't know the correct way to go about things, but don't give up!

To the rest:

1) It is difficult to articulate why I want to work in a bank. For me at least, it's not about the money. Maybe a little about the prestige. Truth is, I have friends working in banks who share stories about their lives, and I want a job there to discover why this industry attracts so many people, and whether the high pay is justified (is the job really that tough, and are the people really so smart??).

2) I wonder how many people commenting here entered the banking industry 3 years (or less) ago. I don't know how much the banking landscape has changed, especially in terms of job availability and level of capability of applicants, but in recent years the ratio of applicants to job vacancy is can be 200:1 for back office or middle office roles, and 1000:1 for front office roles. Analysts positions usually require prior working experience in banks (chicken and egg, anyone?), and because of the sheer number of candidates applying, even internship positions which do not explicitly require prior banking experience end up being filled by those who have already interned at some other banking role before. Because of this, to get a step into a bank - in literally any role, no matter how irrelevant - may just open doors, because without it your resume is dumped immediately. I'm not saying that an irrelevant banking experience will help secure another banking job, just saying that without it is becomes like 2 million times harder.

Sorry I'm very long winded, but in summary I'm trying to say: please don't judge people for not being able to get into 'the most basic jobs' like branch sales or BO. Even there, competition is tough. If you've worked in the bank for quite a while, I'm not surprised that you don't know this, because when hiring managers conduct interviews, they probably don't realise that thousands of resumes have been screened and deemed unworthy by HR. Anecdotal evidence: I once had the privilege of speaking to line managers via the backdoor about a possible internship position. They looked at my resume and expressed surprise. In their words, "With your resume you should have at least received a few job offers. Why didn't you send your resume to our HR?" I sheepishly admitted that I did, and HR probably screened it out.