Hey there,

This is a tough question to answer without knowing your resume.

Having

• referrals
• applying for internships

definitely should increase your chances to get to the interview stages.

If you are not from a target school, you can still balance this in most offices by

• strong academic performance (GPA, duration of studies, multiple studies in parallel)
• experience abroad with internships or exchange semesters
• extracurricular activities such as running a non-profit, etc.

DM me your resume and I can give you a better estimation of your chances!

Cheers,

Florian

A referral makes sure that your application is being put on top of the pile and a recruiter looks at it critical. If it (and specifically your CV) meets the basic requirements, you'll get the interview. 

To make sure it does, you'll need to think through 2 aspects:

• Content: If you're applying this summer, it's probably too late to pimp the content of your CV. If you plan more long term, you will need to think through the right internships, work abroad, relevant brand names of schools/employers, etc.
• Presentation: You will want to have an expert look at your CV and give you feedback. Feel free to post it here and ask for suggestions. Presenting your experience in a strong way is critical to make sure that you'r CV is considered to meet the bar.

In times of diversity and inclusion priorities, I would say, a strong profile from a non-target actually puts you in a slight advantage over a "typical" profile from a target school. A lot of it at the end of the day is luck but I would focus on two things:

1. Polishing that CV further where you want to make sure your achievements are cystal clear and the 10/10 readers would agree that you have a strong profile

2. Continue networking, also with recent offerees/new joiners who can also give you recent advice on the process and their individual experiences

Good luck!

(edited)

Hi there,

While I don't have full information as I don't have your resume in front of me, I would be very shocked if you did not get any interview from all of those 3 with referrals. I would say your odds are good to have a interview. That said, you've done everything you can and maximized your odds to the best of your ability.

Continue to focus on things you can control (i.e. your case/interview prep) and try your best to not spend time worrying about things you can't control. Now that you have submitted your resume, you just have to leave it to fate :)

Fingers crossed for you!