McCombs MBA for IB/Consulting?

Hi

I have an admit from the McCombs MBA program at UT-Austin. How strong is the IB/Consulting recruitment here? Over the past few years even though MBB and BB IB's have come on campus, the number of students recruited (SA as well as Full-time offers) have been significantly low ( around 5-10). There is a private equity track at McCombs which does look very interesting. There is also a dedicated private equity 'Research center'.

How well does McCombs place in PE/IB/Consulting?

Thanks!

 

Most of the consulting and IB positions from McCombs are for the Dallas and Houston offices. The Texas companies are fiercely loyal and if you can convince them that you want to stay and work in Texas, they will select a McCombs or Rice MBA over a Top 5 MBA. If you want to work in New York City, it is better to try for Cornell and CMU which are in the same tier as McCombs or maybe Stern and Duke which are in slightly higher tier.

 

You aren't going to get to PE from any MBA without previous experience, except for perhaps small shops.

IB and consulting recruiting as been strong as far as McCombs' share of the market (i.e. there are maybe 25ish IB summer associate spots in Houston, and this year McCombs captured the majority of them).

It is mostly Houston/Dallas offices (though im not sure why that would matter in the case of consulting).

There are students who make it to new york, and there is a strong network there, but that requires more leg work on their part. I would look elsewhere if that is your goal.

Also bear in mind the program is relatively small (~520 total 1st and 2nd yr) and attracts a broader array of career interests, so there arent as many students who want to do IB or consulting either. For those who seriously pursued banking, the majority came away with an offer (assuming they spoke english).

 
Cartwright:
You aren't going to get to PE from any MBA without previous experience, except for perhaps small shops.

IB and consulting recruiting as been strong as far as McCombs' share of the market (i.e. there are maybe 25ish IB summer associate spots in Houston, and this year McCombs captured the majority of them).

It is mostly Houston/Dallas offices (though im not sure why that would matter in the case of consulting).

There are students who make it to new york, and there is a strong network there, but that requires more leg work on their part. I would look elsewhere if that is your goal.

Also bear in mind the program is relatively small (~520 total 1st and 2nd yr) and attracts a broader array of career interests, so there arent as many students who want to do IB or consulting either. For those who seriously pursued banking, the majority came away with an offer (assuming they spoke english).

On a side note, is there any chance of getting into PE after an MBA (ideally Columbia or NYU) and work experience in a quantitative field (Cat. RIsk Analyst) or is it impossible? If YES, is it possible to snag a post MBA IB job and then get into PE?

 

First, congrats on McCombs! When I visited I found the students there incredibly friendly and warm.

I disagree with the statement that Houston/Dallas BB IB firms will choose McCombs/Jones over a M7 student with strong ties to Houston, family, went to undergrad at UT/Rice, etc. and shows they will stay in Texas. That said the majority of M7 grads will choose not to live in Texas which makes competition against those resumes way less.

I also heard that McKinsey hasn't hired a McCombs intern in a few years, but I could be wrong on that one.

 
electriclighto:
First, congrats on McCombs! When I visited I found the students there incredibly friendly and warm.

I disagree with the statement that Houston/Dallas BB IB firms will choose McCombs/Jones over a M7 student with strong ties to Houston, family, went to undergrad at UT/Rice, etc. and shows they will stay in Texas. That said the majority of M7 grads will choose not to live in Texas which makes competition against those resumes way less.

I also heard that McKinsey hasn't hired a McCombs intern in a few years, but I could be wrong on that one.

Maybe that's true...but you've built in quite a few IF's in that statement. The facts are that the person you describe just doesn't exist, except on very rare occasions. Probably because if you know you want to be in Texas, you go to Texas (that was my story anyway)

Point being, there are not enough the people you describe to keep McCombs (and Rice) students from capturing the vast majority of the offers.

With respect to consulting, it is true that McKinsey has not hired anyone since 2009, though they still conducted OCI. However, we have placed one or more students at Bain, BCG, (and Booze, Deloitte, ATK, on down) both in my class and the class above me.

Again, as I mentioned in another thread, the numbers are also a function of the types of students that come here. Maybe only 20 kids are doing summer IB, but there were only 30 who really put the effort in, and only 25 (houston) spots to go around.

Careers are split pretty evenly...lots of marketing, lots of entrepreneurs, lots of energy finance (but they dont want to do banking), and then the typical IB/consulting crowd.

Best of luck with your decision.

 

Thank you everyone for the detailed responses!

@cartwright: How strong is the 'PE track' at McCombs? The HMTF center has attracted a lot of my attention.

How challenging is it to get into the Texas Venture Lab? Since I do not have a VC/PE background I believe it will be much more challenging for me to join this club/organization at McCombs.

Thanks again!!

 

It is true that those types of people are rare (the people who went to UG in Texas, family/spouse, or the person who've had prior energy experience), but a lot of people in the BB IB realm in Houston are not from McCombs too (I've seen bankers to associates from all sorts of top programs), so I believe resumes of students from those schools also have some weight when competing against McCombs students.

But like you said, the numbers of those outside of Texas who do choose to go through Houston recruiting are not enough to put a dent on the McCombs/Rice students so it's a safer bet that if you're going to McCombs you have a great shot of getting an IB offer in Houston.

 

I've seen those bankers...but at the junior level (associate/vp) it was maybe 1 out of 10 who either didn't have an MBA, or didn't get it from McCombs/Rice. At the upper level it's a lot more variable, certainly.

@Spencer...They recruit on campus for both undergrad and MBA...they just havent hired an MBA since 2009 (though they hired 3+ in the 2 yrs prior than that...maybe those people sucked..who knows).

I have no idea about the undergrads... other than they look like a student council from Beijing and have terrible shoes.

 

I am a current McCombs MBA. McCombs is all about energy banking which is doing very well on a relative base. The exceptions are JP' consumer in Dallas and BAML in NYC. If you can convince people that you want to stay in TX, and you have a good background. You will get into IBD. 10-15 (most are from TX) go to energy banking every year, and McCombs has only 250ish student in one class. This may sound wired, but the chance to get an IBD job is higher at Rice since its a much smaller class.

For consulting, it is still mostly energy related. Booze, Bain, BCG each hires only a few (3/y) Deloitte ( hire 10+/year). Mckinsey does not hire on campus. There are many other smaller firms (FTI, Capegemini, etc). You will have a decent chance to be in consulting.

 
yellow_fin:

I am a current McCombs MBA. McCombs is all about energy banking which is doing very well on a relative base. The exceptions are JP' consumer in Dallas and BAML in NYC. If you can convince people that you want to stay in TX, and you have a good background. You will get into IBD. 10-15 (most are from TX) go to energy banking every year, and McCombs has only 250ish student in one class. This may sound wired, but the chance to get an IBD job is higher at Rice since its a much smaller class.

For consulting, it is still mostly energy related. Booze, Bain, BCG each hires only a few (3/y) Deloitte ( hire 10+/year). McKinsey does not hire on campus. There are many other smaller firms (FTI, Capegemini, etc). You will have a decent chance to be in consulting.

IBD is higher from Rice in Texas? Can you expound on this?

 
Best Response

I'd rank those three cities Austin, Dallas, Houston.

I lived in Houston for a year. People are friendly, but city is extremely spread out, rent in the good areas is skyrocketing, and the heat/humidity is hard to deal with. That being said, you can drive down the gulf very easily. Not a lot of people ever venture out west of Galveston to the other beaches that are not overcrowded and allow drinking, grilling, etc.

Austin is the most livable and would hands down be my choice. Great social scene, strong job market, and probably the best weather of the 3 cities mentioned.

Dallas is a good city as well, more of a big city feel than Houston, but still spread out. Lots of lakes in the area if you like to fish.

Girls in all three cities are pretty good, but Austin's social scene is superior. Traffic is a factor in all three cities since there isn't much of a public transit system in place. If you're from the north, the heat will take some getting used to.

 

The only reason I said stuck was because I dont know if I would like living in Dallas, Houston, or Austin as I've never been there. But its automatically up there for me as I like the heat, low cost of living, and no state taxes.

Anyone know what the OCR is like there? Can you pretty much get any job within texas or do they import other MBAs?

 

Gotcha. That makes more sense.

All three have their own benefits and drawbacks, though I've only lived in Dallas and Austin. Moving to Houston relatively soon though.

I can't speak to MBA OCR but BBA/MSF OCR is great. McCombs has every bank in Houston come in for SA recruiting, I'd assume that it's the same for MBA too. If you want to go to NYC/SF, there is also OCR for BB/EB positions too. FT is a little more sparse, at least it was this last year because most guys that got offers accepted due to the current energy market. If you're thinking about RE, there's been a lot of activity for REPE shops lately.

You will be set in the state of Texas. Ivy MBAs sends guys to Houston IB but I'd guess that it's about the same amount of Rice/SMU/TAMU/TCU guys going IB. From my experience recruiting, I'd say it's about 50% UT, 25% M7/Ivy, and 25% other. Someone may have a better answer though.

 

Thanks for the response. I've sent out some messages on linkedin to UT Austin MBA students and Ill probably visit UT Austin. I feel like I'm in the range of MBAS between 10-20 as I dont think Ill get into Columbia/Booth/ Kellogg/ or Tuck. But we'll see after round 2. It doesnt take a lot to make me happy in terms of location, So if UT Austin will get me a better job in Texas than any of the 10-20 schools in their respective region I would strongly consider going to UT Austin. Plus Ive heard great things about the social life at UT austin which is also a big plus.

 

BHP fares much better than the regular program. Both are recruited, albeit not as much as some other schools, but you'll especially have offers in Texas/ the southwest which with some effort you should be able to leverage into FT offers in NY. With some hard work you should be able to land an offer in a BB firm.

 

McCombs is pretty much the absolute best school in the nation to get energy IB in Houston, bar none. Every bulge bracket there recruits almost exclusively here (including GS, MS, JPM, etc. as well as elite boutiques like Lazard, Evercore, Greenhill etc.). A few people go to NY every year as well. This year, people have gotten offers from Goldman, Greenhill, Evercore, and JPM NY among others.

BHP is great. If you can get in, you'll be in a really good position. However, regular McCombs definitely places people into top BBs. This past year, regular finance majors have gotten Evercore, Greenhill, GS, BAML, and JPM (that I know of, I'm sure there are others). In my experience, BHP helps, but isn't a huge factor in making decisions and if you have a stellar resume, you'll get interviews at top banks whether or not you're in the program.

As far as consulting goes, MBB all recruit here as well and hire a pretty decent number of students. I don't know as much about it, but if you have a good resume and great grades, they're in your reach as well.

 

Crux basically covered it all, but I will add a few items of interest.

To reemphasize, BHP does give you the stamp of approval, but there are other ways to get that. Try to get into the Financial Analyst Program (FAP) that is run by Dr. Kamm. This somewhat like a "track" within finance and helps to show your interest in high finance positions. You will need an A or A- in FIN357 to do this. Also join IBA or UIA which are both targeted to students wanting high finance positions.

If you don't get into BHP, make great grades. The people I know who are also doing I-banking and are non-BHP have great grades that got them the interviews (3.75+). Yes the +/- scale makes this difficult, but study hard. All you need is your foot in the door.

Houston does cover 75-80% of the positions for I-banks but NY and Dallas and a few others are here as well. An interest in Energy is a big help to grab these interviews. Consider the "Energy track" in finance or an energy focused student group. Consulting is more broad location wise, but MBB does recruit here and some of my good friends will be there this summer. Hope this helps. Hook 'em

"Now watch this drive." -W.
 

You're a sophmore in HS....why do people ask these questions 6 years in advance....there's plenty of tim (decades) ahead of you to worry about this stuff....enjoy life for now...best advice you gonna get trust me

 

Also just to throw you a bone...I currently work at a top MM doing M&A / A&D in the E&P sector here in Houston and I went to UH and did energy consulting at a top firm for 2 years before coming over....so there's always a shot

 

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