Off Cycle Recruiting at MBB/Interview Prep

From what I've heard, most off-cycle hires are for people coming from industry, not directly from school, although if anyone has had other experience, please correct me. I suppose if someone were to leave early and unexpectedly, there could be an opportunity for an off-cycle hire, but I'd imagine you'd find out about that through networking rather than just dropping a resume online. How are you planning on applying? In terms of interview prep, try to find some of the case prep materials from the top b-schools; each puts together a guide, although I found firm websites, Vault, and Case in Point to be pretty thorough.

Thanks for the reply. I'm not really quite sure how to go about applying and was hoping to get advice on that as well. By now it's close to on campus recruiting so if I went that route I would have to start in summer/fall 2011. And from what I hear, there isn't a shortage of people at these places and if anything they are laying qualified people off. So I was just going to apply online and was wondering if anyone would happen to know/have any experience with the process as an aug/september off cycle applicant without any industry experience or particular skills wanting to start right away. Also, any advice on which offices would be better bets in terms of getting hired?

I applied off cycle as an APD candidate last late August. I did not get invited out for interviews until January. I applied online.

Thanks for the reply! APD=advanced professional degree candidate right? Did you apply to all 3 of the top consulting firms? I'm also a bit confused about how the interview process works, how many rounds of interviews are there at each of the firms respectively and how far spaced out are they? (e.g. were all the interviews done by january or did they drag out until june for instance)? Also, did you end up getting any offers, and if so, when was your assigned start date?

Unless you can think of a good reason to not apply to all three, I definitely would. I'd expect two rounds of interviews, the first with 2 cases, the second with 3-4. You'll probably have a couple weeks in between rounds. Full-time recruiting generally happens from the beginning of school in the fall to December, but for APD candidates, it's a bit different. Some offices hire them year-round. Most start dates are in the late summer to fall.

Thanks for the reply again...would anyone happen to know which of the MBB offices in the US are more likely to hire at the moment and are more realistic bets for someone without experience? I don't think I count as an APD since I just have a non-related master's. Also, since you can generally apply only once a year to these places, I want to make sure I'm prepared for the interviews when I get called...how long would it take to prepare assuming fairly full time preparation as I'm currently unemployed but no current knowledge of the industry? (e.g. 2 weeks, a month, a couple months, etc., or perhaps more accurately, how many rough hours) Thanks again!

Hey,

Thanks again for the helpful reply. I will check out those two things, I've dipped in a bit but honestly it all seems like a foreign language to me now and it's all quite overwhelming..could I ask when you ended up getting your offer after your January interviews and when the earliest was they allowed you to start (e.g. would Feb/March have been ok even though the classes start in summer/fall usually?) Also, would you feel comfortable saying which firm/office you got the offer for and if this is typically how off cycle recruiting works for that company? Thank you very much again!!

There were 3 rounds of interviews. The first round was late January. I received the invitation to the next round by phone about 7-10 days after the interview.

The second round was in late February. I received the invitation to the next round by phone 2-3 days later.

The third round was mid-March. I received the offer phone call 1 hour after getting home from the interview.

The earliest I could have started was June, I think.

I was part of a group of candidates moving through the process, so I think this was part of their normal recruiting program... which is to say that if you apply in August, you will get rolled forward until January, at least for this firm. Also, I got the invitation to the first round by email in the first week of January.... so you may have to wait a bit.

Thanks for this information, it has been very helpful. Could I ask also whether anyone knows if MBB offer off-cycle internships (for 3-6 months) to post master's students? I know McKinsey is supposed to be picky about this and requires students to be currently enrolled in an academic program but does anyone know about BB?