How Much Networking for FT?
I'll be a senior this fall looking to recruit FT for consulting. My school is a target and has on-campus recruitment from most of the major firms(inc. all MBB). My career advisor told me that consulting does not require much networking and even just the resume drop is fine, so I'm wondering how much extra it helps to network for consulting. I'm interning in IB this summer which obviously is very networking heavy and Im more used to that recruiting process. I want to network for consulting with the time I have before my delayed internship starts but I'm not sure if its ok to just talk to a few people at different firms more for a better understanding of my interview answers or if the goal should be to get referrals which I've heard are very rare.
My friends in consulting networked with 1-2 people per firm that they planned on applying to. The point wasn't necessarily to get a referral, but to get a better sense of the firm (which helps a lot with your interviews). Particularly for internal consulting roles, networking proved to be very beneficial as oftentimes these roles are less clear-cut than their MBB et al. counterparts. Especially for those with strong backgrounds like yours, networking should be very straightforward and so it just doesn't make sense to me not to do it.
Makes sense. I didn't mean whether I should network or not, but whether networking is used heavily as a way to filter into a first round for consulting. I had no luck with consulting recruitment last fall for internships at least by the time I had to accept my offer. I know its much more competitive for internships and my resume is stronger now with a better GPA and an IB internship, but after the rejections I was wondering if it was just my resume wasn't strong enough(esp with how competitive the internships are for MBB/Tier 2) or if it was the lack of major networking. Did not do much more than the info sessions and one or two coffee chats. Also now with the uncertainty of how their class sizes will change with COVID and pushing back their current FT dates.
As the previous comment said, you should network with 1-2 people with each MBB to learn more about the firms. Networking may be a bit more important at Bain since they care a lot about culture. Referrals from networking are not too rare but are not at all necessary if you are at a target. Networking with T2 firms is more important for two reasons. First, these usually smaller firms have smaller interview invite lists. Second, they are a bit insecure about winning cross-offers and want to see your interest.
What kind of bank are you interning at this summer (BB/EB/MM)? Might be preferable to just take the return offer you've got given the pandemic.
How do you think the pandemic will be affecting consulting FT recruiting?
Probably reduced slots, not sure. I'm also a rising senior interning in banking, and considering consulting as well.
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