Dartmouth Partners Sucks.
I want to share some thoughts on how Dartmouth Partners handles JUNIOR hiring, which is based on my own experiences and those of my peers. It's quite surprising to see graduates with degrees in anthropology, history, and liberal arts, who lack finance knowledge, deciding who gets to interview with top firms. Many of us, including myself, had initial interviews with them but never progressed beyond the first round. Despite following up and reapplying for roles they managed, it felt like we became invisible.
What's more confusing is that many of my peers and I, who now work at major banks and elite boutique firms, were overlooked by these junior recruiters after the first round—even though we used the same resumes and showed the same attitude and skills in interviews that later landed us job offers elsewhere. We're certain we didn’t mess up. Also when i was a recent grad and wanted to apply to Off-cycles with them, they made me feel like crazy and that i cant because i am not a student anymore, not understanding that these internships are competitive and usually go to people who've already done two or three other internships, especially recent graduates.
It's strange that firms would trust such inexperienced recruiters with entry-level hiring decisions where they can easily do it themselves. This seems like a big oversight that could lead to missing out on truly suitable candidates. I want to clarify that my comments are specifically about Dartmouth's junior hiring practices, I don't have personal experience with their senior hiring.
Nobody values Dartmouth. They are shit.
Firms use them to do grunt work and leg work.
Frankly it's absurd that HR is too lazy to run an off cycle or full time search themselves. But HR isn't nicknamed "Human Remains" for nothing.
couldnt agree more
Ban Dartmouth partners from all IB recruiting
exactly.
& PE lol
I do hate how they write off recent graduates before they even look at their application.
Why would they do that for off cycles when recent graduates make up most off cycle interns?
I meant for graduate recruitment. A few friends have came across this.
They would hire for 2024 graduate schemes but wont consider graduates in the last 12 months. I know a few places are like this but its seems a strict given my friends had few internships under their belt.
E.g. ashmore group EM fund.
because the kids in charge of junior hiring have absolutely no idea how IB recruiting works, according to them the only candidate for an internship should be a 2nd year student
Their recruitment team believes that if you graduate without something lined up, then there must be something wrong with you as a candidate. This was implied by a recruiter when i interviewed with them
They might be worse than Selby Jennings and Mercury Partners!
That’s impossible, Selby is by far the worst
They don’t even know the job spec for the role they’re hiring half of the time. Also come off as very rude, have to be some of the dumbest people i’ve met in the biz.
exactly.
Somehow always late to every call...
Have you / has anyone ever gotten the "sorry for being late, the fire alarm went on" excuse? They did it to me and a friend
I had two people call me at the same time.
Actually did get this excuse 1 week ago lol
Always ~15min as well
Lol which makes the nerve-wracking experience even worse. Got me thinking I'm on the wrong call
Shout to PWP, CVP, Fenchurch, DC, Ares, WP Carey, who still use shitty DP.
I just reach out directly to firms
I reached out to HR at WP just for her to tell me that DP are running the process :/
Do they also run the recruitment process for Warburg Pincus?
Yeah…
Does DP actually recruit for these firms? or do they say they do?? Lot's of recruiters are full of shizz on who they actually have mandates from. They tell you they are working with someone, hoping they will get past the front door with your resume, and then they are rejected.. The lesser companies on the list, probably are the ones where they are working with, but they used the better brand names to get you to pay attention.
Their recruiting processes are outsourced to them, so yes they run it. The following firms use them for their internships and/or grad programs.
Do you know what firms use Goodman Masson? Wanna avoid them at all costs....
Ha, these are the same Lib Art majors you simp for in the LES bars
Yeah but guess what, even if firm HR's did first round screens themselves, it would still probably be run by a bunch of anthropology and poli sci majors. Recruiting systems are always flawed, you just have to learn to play the game.
Dart mouth in the mouth there is dart
It truly is madness
Just sent this thread link through a spam email to one of their junior recruiters. Hope they see this thread and cry, the way they made me lose my hair through their shitty and long processes.
If it makes you feel better a reneged on a Dartmouth offer so they lost their commission
Thank you, brother. Doing God's work.
W
Great space for AI, you don’t meet these ppl in person.
Everyone should send this thread to DP people, they actually need to know from candidates that they're shit and we will not respect them. I've cancelled interviews on them, wasted their time, had friends renege on their offers thus losing commission.
Just done this. Hopefully, more people start doing this too. Will act as some constructive criticism for them.
Excellent
I'm sure they saw the thread and is being circulated internally
Dartmouth Partners fucking sucks. Bunch of incapable human beings.
Reiterating this comment:
"because the kids in charge of junior hiring have absolutely no idea how IB recruiting works, according to them the only candidate for an internship should be a 2nd year student whereas at the same time you see CITI, MS and others recruiting OCs 3 years out of uni and its very reasonable assuming someone wants to transition to IB from another industry or to lateral from a no-name shop, instead of having to do an MBA to get their feet on the door"
It’s a shitty process but use it as good practice for early on in the recruiting cycle - mock hirevue, interview and info session
I went through on-campus years ago and it was mostly the same story. It will never change. But I have done processes with more senior people on their team and they were actually very good. Unfortunately sometimes there are 500 candidates chasing like 5 roles, and a lot of good candidates will be spurned. Sometimes in favour of poor candidates, that’s life. The great equaliser is time. The cream always rises….
HR should actually screen the applications themselves. Partnering with a recruitment firm or whatever Dartmouth Partners is, is ridiculous. Have a hiring team composed of either HR members, current (or maybe former/senior members), or mix of both take time to look over the applications and make decisions on them.
Using a recruiting firm isn’t going to work because you can’t be sure that the firm will actually be able to get you the candidates you want, regardless of that you tell them. They’re just going off the exact phrases or descriptions or whatever you give them, and unless the candidates resumes say these terms/phrases/etc, then they won’t get an interview. The same as using an AI screening system. Though there is likely no discourse over what how the candidates experience and knowledge would actually fit the role they’re applying for.
I had a recruiter there ask me the same question 3 times in a row. They're awful. Selby Jennings is worse, they literally can't even schedule a call, just call you out of the blue.
recruiters are literally the bottom of the barrel in terms of quality of professionals. They couldn't get jobs elsewhere. They are equivalent to insurance sales agents, albeit with a lower barrier to entry.
companies should just post jobs directly / on LinkedIn, save the commission and have more candidates.
saw the title, instantly gave an SB before reading the text...
Curious actually, so many people from varied backgrounds like politics philosophy etc are at top PE firms like apollo or even the smaller ones? Whatsthe catch? And people with decent backgrounds consulting and credit at a global IB not considered.
Another issue I never understood. Apparently bulge brackets would prefer a 2nd year philosophy student who doesn’t even know what ufcf is over a finance grad who knows the industry and has some level of experience. I guess being a day out of uni makes you "too old" or "not qualified" anymore. Makes perfect sense, right?
Bump for visibility 😂
keep the hate alive boys and keep sharing your stories
Had them calling me everyday because I didn't disclose the internship salary to them, which is weird because if they're so "close" with HR they would know..
Got randomly emailed an RFP/IR support opportunity (AM firm in London) one year after graduation despite the fact that I already completed investment internships at PE firms in London/Amsterdam and explicitly stated I was only interested in investment roles....Looks like she couldn't be bothered to check my CV. I aired her email. Don't have time for these clowns.
A guy I know with 9 months PE (off-cycle) internship experience got rejected for the CD&R mandate in London just because he had graduated (target uni too). What is the obsession with 2nd year kids with no experience?....
It is a red flag to have graduated without something lined up (this is the view of a recruiter at DP, not mine)
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