I am a junior at a target school, and get emails about banks coming in to give information sessions / presentations here on campus. I was just wondering if these are useful in any way other than getting information about deadlines... in the end we're all just going to be submitting our resumes through OCR. Any thoughts?
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Useless
As a non target student, not sure if I've heard a dumber question.
Ok, so it's pretty amazing that you're a junior at any school and don't know the answer to this. But I'll at least try and be a little helpful.
No, they are very important. The sessions are a way to get to know the company more, and a way for you to get to know the people reviewing your resume. Seeing a face at multiple sessions shows interest and motivation. Asking insightful questions shows even more. And when your name comes up in the resume screen, it will greatly increase your chances. During the fit portion of interviews, they will ask you why you want to join this firm specifically. How are you going to answer that without knowing about the company?
Depends.
If you show up, sign in, watch the presentation, and stand around in a group of 8 wide-eyed underclassman and ask a stupid question about the economy or something then yes they are meaningless (though they sometimes have some nice free stuff, the pen I got at the DB one is the fanciest one I've ever owned lol)
Best advice would be to wait 20min or so after the presentation ends and then approach people after the crowds have significantly die down. This is a great chance to speak one on one and get some solid facetime.
I agree with you sentiment but I doubt that the crowds die down after 20 mins... or maybe that is just the case at my school
GO THERE AND AT LEAST SIGN IN. They monitor this and I was specifically dinged by Barclays HR because I hadn't signed in to their event and they asked me why...
That's not why you were dinged...
First off when you are looking through a stack of 200 resumes to get the best 20, you don't cross-check the event sign-in list and you don't let HR decide your candidates
Well I hate to break it to you but it did happen. This was in 2011 OCR and my first round was an HR phone screen. Interview was going great until she asked me why I didn't attend their on campus presentation. I said I was there. (I was) She presses me on it, asking why I hadn't signed in and says I must be lying. (I wasn't) I repeated that I was there and that I had spoken with XX banker there and must have forgotten to sign in. She repeats that I'm lying and says "I think we will conclude the process here."
I was flabbergasted and felt treated like a child.
I've dinged people for not coming to an info session before. If I'm looking at 200 resumes and I've already filtered out all the obvious dings and end up with a pile of 40-50 potential interviews, I'm not trying to spend any more time analyzing them than I have to, and trashing resumes from people who didn't come to the info sesh is a good way to cull the herd.
If you've reached out personally and I liked you, then you're getting an interview; if you showed up to the event and made a good impression, you'll probably also get an interview; if you showed up to the event and I don't remember you, you might still get an interview based on the merits of your resume, but if you didn't show up, it'd be tough to justify giving you an interview over any of the other previous candidates (assuming similar quality of experience/GPA/whatever).
Pretty useless at targets. Really hard to stand out at the events and crowds never die down lol. I went sophomore year and just signed in, ate the food, got my swag, and left.
They're kind of useless, but I would definitely go to them just to get some contacts. The people at the information sessions are probably going to be the ones that will be going through your resume, so getting their business card and following up can be very beneficial.
As mentioned earlier - they're pretty much a waste of time. You can always just look up alum on LinkedIn and email them for informational phone interviews - when you speak 1-on-1, it can be much, much more beneficial.
It's difficult to stand out, and crowds don't die down in 20 minutes - I've been at info sessions where groups of 10 kids gather around each professional for an hour or more (or until the event ends). Pretty much a waste of time.
I've never had a problem getting interviews without going to informational events, so I'm not sure how much signing in actually matters.
To OP, they are not the most useful, but they can definitely be helpful. At the very least, it's worth it to minimize your chances of not getting an interview (even if only by signing in). If you're the type of person who makes good first impressions, then it could be even more helpful.
Probably the best way to utilize networking events is to talk to people, get business cards, and then follow up later for a one on one chat/coffee, but you should note the timelines may be tight for this approach.
Having been through several resume screens at my previous BB while in banking, can safely say it has minimal to zero importance. Best advice is to sign your name (sometimes people will cross check resumes submitted with who attended the session to gauge interest, however useless this is) and leave. From there, cold email alum from your school and make an actual connection with people if you want to network in; info sessions are just not the place to do it.
Thanks for all the input guys!
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