Are the days of networking being virtually useless in consulting over?
Maybe I am reaching with the title given hiring is so dependent on economic cycles and other factors. But as a class of 26 student with what I was consistently told was a great resume, high gpa and test scores, and semitarget school, I failed to get interviews for Summer 2025 internships at any MBB, T2, or strong boutique firms. I know many many others like myself as well. Even despite referrals/support from a few very tenured people at some of the T2s.
Is the talent just that strong nowadays? Was it just a result of hiring conditions? Is networking in consulting really not as superfluous as it’s commonly viewed?
My post may come across as a stretch but I am looking for any answers to succeed next recruiting cycle for FT roles.
Got into two MBB processes without knowing anyone when I was recruiting. It felt extremely structured imo. My school was a target for MBB offices in that region and I had IB and PE on my resume.
Congratulations! You seem like the ideal candidate between your experience and school.
I suppose my post was more with regard to candidates like myself (high stats, semitarget, strong name brand internship but not IB/PE)
Maybe I am not as strong of a candidate as I thought if those finding success are like you with IB/PE experience…
Most ppl in the process with me did not have IB or PE on their resume. I think it comes down to your school. My school had a recruiting captain from each of the MBB so we were guaranteed to have interview spots so ppl just had to be more impressive than the next guy at the school.
Do you mind if I PM?
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I’m the client-serving recruiting lead for a couple target schools at a T2 and networking is extremely important. Having said that, we’re only able to interview about 10% of people who we network with (and 5% of those who we don’t). Don’t sleep on how competitive the process is … every year we get 100 resumes at a typical target school for fewer than 10 interview slots. Keep your head up and don’t take it personally.
Thank you for clearing up how it works on your end! That helps a lot!
Think it heavily depends on where you’re at for school
Interview invites are barely out for consulting firms. Not sure I'm tracking why you received rejections already
Browsing this forum will tell you that is not true...
Hate to tell you this if you were hoping to recruit this year, but MBB/T2 processes for 2025 are pretty much all done.
Whoever told you networking doesn't matter for consulting gave you atrocious advice. If you're at a "semi-target" they're probably not interviewing that many students, and a referral goes a long way towards getting the first interview
Last time I was involved with sourcing for campus recruitment it wouldn't be uncommon to have a 10:1 if not higher rate of candidates to interview slots, most of them decent, and at that point your primary objective is to filter out resumes vs filter in
networking experince was mixed. got interview at bcg purely due to network, but basically nowhere else I networked. but maybe I should've explicitly asked for referral
high gpa, lower target (t20-25), 2 internships but nothing crazy
Manager a T2 and heavily involved in recruiting for my office (large office tons of grads each year). It depends if you're at a target or if you're part of the open app.
Generally our recruiting team has a tracker for: Count of networking events attended, count of coffee chats (recorded by a practitioner) in the system, Networking score (recorded by practitioners in the system) and resume review score.
We have a solid rule that if you're at a school where we hold networking events and you haven't been to one then it's a no. Doesn't matter if your resume is a 10/5 we hold 6+ events per school prior to the application close and if you don't come then you're out.
The review call is long and starts with the team asking if anyone wants to discuss standout candidates etc. Everyone asked to review a resume is invited and can drop in during the 2+ hour call.
Typically we filter for high resume scores (4 or 5) and walk through who reviewed them, why they gave them what they did and anyone can chime in to discuss their experience with them at a networking event / coffee chat if applicable. Generally we favor high resume + High network score (this does depend on whoever you talked too actually going into the system to input your details) but resume will trump all else.
After this we look at 3 and then the networking really comes into play, people will speak up for people they liked and at this point its anyones game, usually manager and below are typically the folk attending the call and managers word carries more weight than an associate for example. Above manager people never join and only time i've seen it matter is partner throws their weight around and lets the recruiting team know that a candidate is a yes no matter what.
Happy to elaborate further
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