BofA incoming FT offered mid-May part-time start. Accept?
An email sent out today by HR offers incoming FT analysts the option to start early part-time. Any hidden advantages or disadvantages from accepting/rejecting this?
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Honest guess is that they want part time workers so that they can make their summer internships virtual and offer automatic full-time offers.
Yeah I would agree. Seeing as many banks are pushing back intern start dates to July (when you'd expect interns to start being able to do something) and 2nd years will be leaving in July, they'll need some sort of buffer for that June/July period to balance out the shortage because new virtual interns are going to be even more useless than new in person interns (was a former intern and can attest that we were quite useless at the beginning). Having incoming FT start in May gives them time to "warm up" again and be ready to go in late June and into July when the interns come so the interns can be the new 1st years' problem and not the problem of seasoned analysts starting their 2nd/3rd years.
I would say "only advantages," if COVID lockdown continues to your old start date. As someone previously mentioned, this is probably an attempt by the banks to soften the blow of top 2nd year analysts being replaced by virtual summers (oof), not a nefarious scheme to cut a bunch of FTs.
The only real upside to starting in ~July (or whenever) was traveling, taking a breather, etc. before hitting the desk. If COVID's still screwing that up, there's probably not a ton you can do with that spare ~month-and-a-half anyways. On the flip side, it's going to be a TOUGH stretch -- in terms of both job security and comp -- at IBDs for a bit. Starting work early, getting a reputational and experiential head-start, etc. could be massively beneficial, to say nothing about the added pay (which you can plow into your favorite growth MF, or save up for an apartment deposit for when you actually move).