How close are MD’s to the recruiting process?

For target colleges and universities, a managing director (or several) will be involved with informational interviews and corporate presentations on-campus, especially if these senior bankers are alumni.

Weekly management of the recruitment process is typically handled by one of the more junior associates. For "high touch" banks, this includes maintenance of outreach trackers and compiliation of feedback from bankers who have interacted with candidates throughout the recruiting process. Some banks expect that candidates achieve a certain number of quality interactions before being considered for the next round of events and interviews. An established threshold assists bankers in determining a candidate's fit with their group while simultaneously providing some sense of candidate interest in the platform and group. This is highly dependent on the platform, of course.

Generally speaking, while a managing director possesses a large amount of absolute power in shaping an interview list, associates can direct and shepherd preferred candidates to various bankers to ensure that the preferred candidates are interacting with enough members of the group prior to the finalization of interview lists.