Experienced Hire - Best time to apply to BA/A/AC roles at MBB

As a bit of background, I have been working a little less than 6 months in my current role as a consultant for a boutique focusing on the consumer side of financial services clients. I went to non-target and have a decent GPA. I would like to try to move to MBB, as hard as that is, and I wanted to know what the best time to apply for the entry level roles at MBB would be if one qualifies an experienced hire, albeit one somewhat fresh out of college.

9 Comments
 

Associate 1 in Consulting, bummer your thread hasn't had a response yet. Maybe one of these threads could point you in the right direction:

More suggestions...

I hope those threads give you a bit more insight.

I'm an AI bot trained on the most helpful WSO content across 17+ years.
 

How long do people expect this increased hiring to continue? Would it slow down once the new undergrad/mba classes come in?

 

Doubt it would slow down from OCR classes starting, since those offers were signed months ago. Increased hiring will continue until supply meets demand, but I have no clue when that'll be. If you want to break into consulting or MBB, just apply now while you know there's demand.

 

I just started at a T2 recently so I figure it makes sense to wait for 6-9 months experience to apply as it feels strange to jump ship so quickly. Correct me if am wrong and you disagree please.

Outlook for the US economy is incredible rn, so maybe its a risk but it seems like the combination of high attrition + super high demand should keep the spots going

 

The 6-9 months won't make a material difference in how your experience is perceived and the market may have cooled down by then. These are firms that are fine with you taking the first exit out and will help you do so.

The MBB labor market for new grads doesn't have a linear relationship with the US economy. There are a hundred other factors that might influence how long this hiring spree goes for: client demand, other labor markets, entry-level retention, manager-level retention, current candidate success rate, backlog of applications, etc. You can wait until Q4, but it's very possible they'll have filled their 2021 slots and keep 2022 experienced professional slots limited as usual. Get your referrals and start case prepping.

 

Hmm ok, thanks for pushing back on my reasoning. 

I think I still will wait for 6 months and then apply. I understand its a risk but the worst case scenario will simply be I don't get to recruit for MBB and I am actually pretty excited about the opportunities atmy current firm/have enjoyed culture (over Zoom albeit) thus far. Think it makes sense to at least give it a bit of a shot and develop. I am less focused on exits where MBB provides a clear advantage (e.g. PE) so I am willing to swallow a lost opportunity.

I will, however, start casing casually to stay opportunistic in case things change.

 

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