Advice on FT Recruiting Timeline with respect to internship

Hey, apologize if this is a dumb question but I’m a bit young in the area and wanted some clarity on this.

Context - I am a rising senior at UNC breaking into IB, and just started my summer banking internship. Going great so far, interested in a return offer for sure I would say. However, I’ve always believed in leaving my options open and even had tried maintaining some sort of relationship with a couple firms I had to decline post-current firm offer acceptance where I could be interested in FT.

Simply put, I had a strong understanding on the typical timeline for IB internships last year. BB starts in early months, super days, but MM/boutique can be more in the summer which was my route. But what is the typical FT recruiting timeline for my first job post-grad? Less strict?

Hope this isn’t too convoluted, maybe a better way to phrase this is should I be doing some light recruiting WHILE in my internship or not?… or if not, like relationship upkeep/cold email bearing in mind it’s not formally applying? Obviously I want to focus on my experience at hand, but am not sure what the typical window would be to accept a potential return offer and if I could leverage others… trying to mitigate “pigeonholing” here if that makes sense…

3 Comments
 

Sed sit illum praesentium ducimus dolor magni aut. Sapiente eum deserunt quidem totam hic cumque ea. Sit sit hic sint est nihil.

Career Advancement Opportunities

September 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.5%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.4%
  • Goldman Sachs 01 97.8%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.3%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

September 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.5%
  • Morgan Stanley 02 98.9%
  • Evercore 01 98.4%
  • Banco Santander 02 97.8%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.3%

Professional Growth Opportunities

September 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.5%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 98.4%
  • Goldman Sachs 01 97.8%
  • JPMorgan No 97.3%

Total Avg Compensation

September 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (16) $429
  • Associates (51) $260
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (26) $182
  • Intern/Summer Associate (14) $159
  • 1st Year Analyst (84) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (76) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
3
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
4
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
5
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
6
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
7
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
8
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
9
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
10
bolo up's picture
bolo up
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”