Navigating Recruiting at Target Schools

WSO has been of tremendous help over the past couple of years as I went through internship searches and SA recruiting, so I wanted to give back by sharing my experiences of going through recruiting at a top target school (think Stern, McIntire, Penn). Reason I say Penn and not Wharton is because I feel that the difficulty of recruiting at Penn vs Wharton must be similar to Stern/McIntire vs Wharton.

So as everyone who's gone through 2016/2017 recruiting knows, the timeline has been pushed forward to an absurd degree with campus networking events starting in March for me and having only finished the process in mid November (of course diversity/females sometimes finish as early as May/June). This has made Sophomore Spring sort of ridiculous, in that most people had to juggle classes/networking/searching for Sophomore summer internship altogether and just created a generally frenzied experience (I was having friends getting calls/arranging coffee chats and attending womens programs and diversity summits in May, when they didnt even have an internship for 3 weeks later lined up).

Let's quickly discuss Sophomore Summer Internships. Depends on school, but in my personal experience, its incredibly important to have a legit gig, especially in the kind of competitive pool/school that I was in. Later on, I think my sophomore summer experience (SA at lower MM boutique) was what allowed me to stand out/be legitimate in the eyes of the recruiting committees, despite my somewhat lagging GPA relative to my school (think 3.5/3.6 in a school where average SA at BB/top boutique is 3.8 or above for non diversity males). I also didn't get my gig until May, and this was a product of intense cold-calling starting in March. People's experiences vary but if you're confident on the phone like I am, then I think cold calling is always faster and more efficient, especially when targeting firms with people who are interested in the idea of having interns (very common) but have been too busy/lean to have actually ever gone out to search for them. In my opinion, every recruiting/hiring is about 1. is he smart enough for us to teach him the stuff (which is demonstrated by basic industry and firm knowledge that should've come from due diligence and 'technicals') 2. is this guy not crazy and not boring. by cold calling and speaking well, and demonstrating a decent level of social interactivity, you can quickly pass #2 and they'd be ok with scheduling a 30 min phone interview to check #1. I must've cold called 30 different firms in NYC, got 4 interviews, and 2 offers (be prepared for rejections and unpaid offers). Lastly, I can't stress enough how important it is to stay positive and not let rejection get to you. It really kills your vibe, and will hurt your chances at other places. This is key for cold calling as well as the SA recruiting process (when you aren't getting those first round campus interviews as early as your friends).

Regarding pre sophomore internships, experience varies but i think startup jobs tend to be reliable and interesting enough. I did a part time at a consulting firm, which was a joke firm and I will be creating a fake account just to tell people to never join them cause they're not legit. I also quit after about a month, and also did internship in real estate. This lack of legitimacy among internship places is getting increasingly common, and I think scam artists are picking up on this huge naive student demand on 'legit internships' for future IB and consulting careers. Please do your due diligence, and avoid 1-man firms, firms with no offices/remote work, firms that have too much stuff on google about hiring interns/having a good 'mentorship' program but little stuff on actual client engagements, etc.

So the truth about recruiting at target schools. I guess an important lesson to remember is, numbers show very little. I think each personality type excels in different environments, and this is true about IB recruiting as well. I genuinely believe some will end up at better firms if they were recruiting at a non-target vs a target, and some of my friends might have ended up at better firms is they didn't attend my school. Of course there are more (a lot more) spots to go around at target schools, but what people don't mention is that at schools that have so many kids wanting IB with so many alums in IB, networking (arguably the most important part of the entire process) becomes incredibly political. What I mean by this is, my alumni networking email response rates dipped below 20/15% simply because I wasn't in a business frat. Business frats control most BB/EB firms, especially at my school, and many of their alumni analysts won't even respond to you unless you were also in the same frat. When 200+ kids apply for on campus recruiting jobs, many of these firms would only interview 20-25 kids. Of those 20-25 spots, at least 15 will go to the business frats. This is actually made worse by the fact that a lot of the best sophomore/freshman internships on campus are handed down internally within the business frats as well, leading to a vicious cycle where its really difficult to break in without a frat connection. This is why networking is the most important part of the process, because getting the first round is arguably the most difficult part of the process, and it may be much harder to end up in that 20-25 list amongst 200 without frat connections than going through a non-target recruiting process. I actually talked to a non-target whos going into Nomura/Wells/HSBC, and he told me about how he thought his process was much harder than mine but after hearing about my experiences, he was like maybe I had it easier since in his case, at least most if not all alumni responded (I do think targets are easier for getting into the very top firms, like GS MS JP/Evercore Greenhill Lazard PJT). In fact, most of the places I got interviews/offers ended up being where very few people networked at despite recruiting on campus or our school was a non-target to them, and so my resume/experiences stood out objectively (got offer at top boutique in LA - think HL/Guggenheim/Jefferies, and other industry boutiques). At the same time, I didn't get a single on campus first round interview with a NY BB, despite having networking with at least 20-30 people at these offices. If you are a freshman or sophomore, and getting into IB is a top priority, you should join a business frat unless you really hate the kids (like I did).

Lastly, kill the technicals, and study the extra technicals for restructuring if you're interested in that. I only needed a couple weeks before interviews, but definitely taking the month over the summer will have you solid. Read WSJ, and know the basic macro trends, such as low rates environment, and rise of protectionism around the world politically. And be interesting, pick up new hobbies if needed, its really never too late even in your sophomore summer. And really go hard at networking despite what i said and the seeming lack of returns, it really may make a difference and its all about that 1 guy of the 40 people you talk to who happens to click with you and ends up pushing you all the way to the first round interview. it really is annoying to send all those emails, but it also prepares you professionally for when you have to send 20+ emails every day.

Anyways, I'll be going to a restructuring boutique (think - MB/Evercore/Rothschild) in NYC, and am very happy with the placement. Good luck to you all junior apes at target schools, and hope you all make it through.