When to start recruiting for FT?

I am a junior at H/W working at a brand name credit hedge fund this summer, and I'm both interested in keeping my options open with consulting, as well as concerned about hedging for return offers. When is it acceptable to start asking friends to put me in touch with lead recruiters for my school at the firms I'm interested in?

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I worked in banking this past summer before recruiting for consulting (along with Asset Management, equity research, and a few other fields). The full-time recruiting process for consulting isn't nearly as rushed as it is for banking. Most of the time, you can basically wait until September and simply submit your resume to most consulting firms through OCR. This is especially true if you go to a target school.

You might not even have to network! Assuming your GPA is good, then brand-name hedge fund experience + a target school name should be more than enough to get you interviews from most consulting firms in full-time recruiting. I networked quite a bit, but in the end, only 1 out of the 6 interviews (including McKinsey, Bain, and a few mid-tier firms) I got was through networking. The rest were through OCR, and I only go to a semi-target.

That said, if you want to network, you might be able to start right now. Just say that you're "excited to work at so-and-so hedge fund this summer," but your "long-term interest" has always been in consulting, and you're interested in "learning how you could best position yourself to recruit for consulting," come next year.

Alternatively, start networking around July, and say that "you're enjoying your experience at so-and-so hedge fund so far," but you've realized that you're "more interested in advising and improving companies in the long-term instead of passively monitoring companies in a portfolio," and etc. etc.

 

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