DexJnr said:
Had KPMG and PWC interviews/assessments and got rejected for both..
seriously lame, but its tough competition cos there's not many places as compared to graduate opps.
Whilst its true that there's more places generally available come graduate apps since many companies don't have summer programs, if you want to work in a particular firm which DOES have a summer program, it's actually a lot tougher to get in come graduate recruitment, in terms of the applicants to places ratio, which may be up to 3x as large depending on the firm
Reasons:
1. Vacation programs are only open to penultimates, whereas graduate programs are open to anyone from final years to those who graduated in the last 18 months.
2. Less people apply to vacation programs because people may have other plans over the summer vacation period, but a full time job after graduation is a necessity for most
3. Most vacation programs do not have 100% full time offer rates, so candiates who do not receive an offer or do not wish to remain at their organisation return to the graduate recruitment cycle.
4. More and more organisations are focusing on vacation programs as their primary source of graduates, rather than the grad recruitment drive. Many top tier law firms and investment banks don't even have formal grad recruitment programs anymore and recruit in an ad hoc basis to fill available grad spots. The big 4 are closely following that track.
So if you know where you want to work and that place has a summer program, you should by all means try your hardest to get your foot in the door through the summer vacation program.