You could just drop resume. But what do you do when there are 120 people for 10 spots? Do you take your chances or do you network? I would do the latter.

Don't leave anything to chance - control the process where you can.

To the starving man, beans are caviar
 

It's definitely still worth it to spend your time networking... come on, you only go through junior year recruiting once, might as well maximize your odds. Unless you have a flawless resume it will be critical to network - even for someone at a top target (consider how many other people from your school you will be competing against).

 

Network 100%. Some firms receive so many applications that they don't even look at applications from students that don't 1) attend their recruiting events and 2) ask questions in person and follow up afterward through e-mail. This is coming from a student that just finished OCR for FT at a top target...Also, a lot of times the people that come to the OCR events end up not only being instrumental in pulling your resume for an interview but end up being the interviewer themselves. I can't stress how likely this scenario is, as it actually happened to me in two or three of my FT interviews.

 

Ask yourself one thing: can it hurt?

The answer is obviously no. There actually is a small chance you could come off as rude, awkward, or otherwise as someone who might not fit with the firm during an informational interview, but if that's the case, then you're likely not getting an offer even if you get an interview anyway.

So go for it; network to your heart's content. Or until you get an offer you want.

 

Interested in this as well. I've never tried to contact these people. I'm not really sure how it would be viewed, or if they would actually be interested in speaking.

Curious to see if anyone has any experience with this.

"They are all former investment bankers that were laid off in the economic collapse that Nancy Pelosi caused. They have no marketable skills, but by God they work hard."
 

Recruiters who come to schools are meeting dozens (probably hundreds) of kids each time they visit a campus. The bigger issue here is not making yourself stand out over email, but making youself standout INITIALLY when you meet them.

Do whatever you can when you first meet them to really make an impression. Then, when you do email them to follow-up, tie your email back in to meeting them originally.

So, say that you interned for George Bush and you were the first midget to ever have your commerical pilots license. Be sure to tell them this kind of stuff upon first meeting them, and then in your email, remind them of who you are. (I know that was an extreme example, but I'm trying to make a point).

 

^^^ Great advice.

I'll give you a more apt example on how to make yourself stand out -- something that actually worked for me.

GSAM came to my school for a recruiting/networking/informational session. Wanting to do everything I could to at least get my foot in the door being that it is GS we are talking about, I read as much as I could about current deals, news, etc at GSAM. So after the presentation, as everyone usually does, I stood in line with the rest of my eager classmates in order to schmooze with the GS presenters. The guy that I happened to speak with was with GS's RE funds.

While everyone else was asking "chalk" questions, I asked him about some of the issues (at the time) GS was having with their RE funds. Ballsy? Yes Risky? You bet. Did I get a call back from the recruiter at the event? Yessiir I did.

 
Best Response

Don't sweat it so much. I just did a recruiting session at my alma mater a couple of weeks back, and this is how I remembered people, ranked in order.

1) Did I know you in college/did you do an activity that I did? That's usually a check mark - I'll say something nice about you. Always go up to a recruiter who you have some connection with - even a 10 second conversation will help.

2) Did you say something remotely interesting during the conversation? The answer to this, by the way, is generally a big fucking no. Most people are boring as shit during these things - funny, but asking me my opinion of how Bain McKinsey and BCG stack up to each other makes me want to stab myself in the eye. Or the ear, because then I don't have to listen to that trivial bullshit.

3) Did you send me an interesting followup email? Again, this is generally a no. Those who didn't get in their stupid-ass "Do you travel a lot?" question during the conversation portion of our program try to shoehorn it in here. Yes, I fucking travel a lot. Congratulations, you know what consulting is. In fact, if you send me one of these emails, I am likely to ignore you.

4) Did you send a short, concise email saying it was nice to meet me, stating in one sentence how makes you want to do consulting, and asking one intelligent question ("You said your last case was in healthcare - do you ever feel like you're getting pigeon-holed, or does the staffing process keep you rotating through cases?")? If yes, congratulations. I will flag you as a normal human being who might be worth interviewing.

Obviously, you want to be an interesting person with a great follow up email. But don't force it. If you're naturally as interesting as watching paint dry, don't inflict yourself on me - know your weaknesses and just send a polite brief follow-up email. That will help your chances far more than telling me some retarded story about saving seals in the Gulf of Mexico (this is a joke).

Remember, this shit is like college interviews. If you have the stats, the objective here is to leave a brief but pleasant impression; you can only fuck yourself over.

If you're a champion networker or a hot girl (sorry, but it's true), leverage your assets to make a great impression that might make up for your shitty resume - I won't see it, so my comments will be based solely on how well you present yourself. Having a champion in this process if you're a good networker? CRUCIAL. You can be an inbred retard but if someone takes a shine to you, you'll get an interview.

Final points - I'm obviously exaggerating for comedic effect, but the principle is sound. Remember all these people were in your shoes not long ago; none of us think we're masters of the universe, and we want to see people from our alma maters succeed. Good luck with the process.

 

I never went to recruiting sessions at my school, never sent anyone a follow-up email, clearly. Applied when everyone else did and got myself number of interview sand eventually landed a job with a company that recruited on my campus. They never even asked me if I attended the campus event.

 

He's right, nobody cares or remembers anybody they met from a 30-second (or 5-minute) soundbite at an info session. If I did it all over again, I wouldn't go to a single info session; it just doesn't matter.

Your time would be better spent doing case prep so you stay calm and nail the interview.

 

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