Now that a lot of offers are being extended (Jan 10 @ 5pm) - how did recruiting go for you? Happy with the results?
Edit: Per LakerBanker's suggestion - it would be helpful to list your tier of school (M7, T15, etc.).
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nope, didn't get an offer unfornately :( . Heard offers were down this year but idk if that's actually true or not.
They could still call later tonight or you could be on a waitlist.
What school do you go to/undergrad gpa/GMAT score? Also what was your pre MBA work experience, and what do you think are the main reasons for not receiving any offers yet? Lack of networking, rusty technicals, bad undergrad gpa?
Not as many jobs available
After dreaming for so many years about working in IB, my dream is dead. I could not get an offer and it is over for me. I am now struggling to get some other internship off campus.
What school do you go to/undergrad gpa/GMAT score? Also what was your pre MBA work experience, and what do you think are the main reasons for not receiving any offers yet? Lack of networking, rusty technicals, bad undergrad gpa?
dude. stop posting the same question over and over again. Here's my experience. during banking interviews, they really focused on my undergrad GPA, they wanted undergrad GPA by major, by class, and asked me for my grades coming out of pass/no pass classes too, and asked me to recalculated my GPA on the spot, without a calculator. it sucked. it was the hardest technical question ever.
Anyone here from M7? How'd y'all do? Only asking cuz I'm heading to one this fall and will be recruiting for IB.
Best of luck to all who are going through the process!
First round interviews with 6 banks and made it to 3 Superdays. Haven't received an offer yet, though I did get "wait listed" at my top choice bank.
But I think I lucked out. I have a first round interview coming up (Corp Fin) with a company that I am incredibly excited about in a city that I know I can settle down in. At this point, I would probably be happier working for that company and having a nice life/solid comp/great benefits, than "chasing the dream" in IB. Maybe it's for the best?
What school do you go to/undergrad gpa/GMAT score? Also what was your pre MBA work experience, and what do you think are the main reasons for not receiving any offers yet? Lack of networking, rusty technicals, bad undergrad gpa, only applying to BB's?
This thread would be more helpful if people were posting:
+1 Agreed
This thread probably isn't in that format because most people posting probably aren't MBA business schools">M7 or T15
T15 MBA. First round interviews with 6 banks and made it to 4 super days. Got one offer from BB in NYC.
Overall offers for my school seem slightly down this year.
Congrats man. Is that a pretty standard funnel (6-->4-->1)?
nice work
Did undergrad gpa come up in any part of the process for any bank? Did you have it listed on your resume? What was your undergrad gpa/GMAT/pre MBA work experience? Did you apply strictly to BB's or would you have settled for boutiques or MM's?
Stop posting the same damn question so many times.
Yes it is common. Most people ended up with 1-2 offers. There are a few top candidates who get 3-4 offers.
T15 MBA. Six first round interviews with BB/EBs in LA, 3 super days, accepted 2. Decided on MM.
nice work
T25 MBA, 5 Superdays, 5 Offers. I was very lucky but put in a lot of work. I think overall offers were down, tough hiring process. My class was overall very successful for the most part.
Sounds like McDonough ;-)
Top 15, background in asset management, good grades/GMAT.
9 super day invites (6 BB, 3 MM) but due to overlap could only do 4, received 3 offers. Turned down BBs for a MM. Very fortunate.
While big portion of group was successful, others who seemed equally (or more) qualified struck out or are waiting. Hearing that offers are down overall. Majority received 2-3 super days and 1-2 offers. Hoping some friends still get calls as dominoes fall in the coming weeks.
congrats! anything stick out as to why those that struck out did so? or just luck of the draw.
A few seemed relatively random (which is scary) but for the majority who struggled it came down to personality.
Associate level on up they want to get somebody who is smart, but the greater emphasis will be on client interaction. The surprise to me was how little an advantage a top undergrad/work experience earned you vs. being able to demonstrate likability and networking well.
congrats!
Did undergrad gpa come up in any part of the process for any bank? Did you have it listed on your resume? What was your undergrad gpa/GMAT? Did the banks care about your MBA grades or not really since they weren't even official yet?
In your head how do you define people that are equally or more qualified than you?
GPA / Networking Attempts and Success / Pre-MBA experience?
Not sure this is what they meant, but when I recruited I ranked in my head through a combo of:
Bucket 1) Resume-type credentials (work experience/GMAT/undergrad institution/GPA)
Bucket 2) Personality/networking (can this person hold a conversation easily, make light jokes, interact with peers and bankers)
Example of a bucket 1 peer I know who struck out: top 15 undergrad with honors, CFA, consulting background, 720 GMAT. He had all the resume credentials you could want, but found networking and interaction difficult.
Bucket 2 peer came from a non-target undergrad (with mediocre scores/grades) and had worked in tech sales, but could strike up a conversation easily. Extremely personable. She was wait listed at first (clearly they had concerns about the quant aspect of the gig) but eventually got an offer.
If you had only seen the resumes, bucket 1 peer would have been picked 10/10 times.
Personally, I was a combo, but much stronger in bucket 2 than bucket 1. I had unimpressive work experience and undergrad prestige--but good grades, a strong GMAT, and interacting with people comes fairly easily. I did much better than peers who had better bucket 1 credentials.
T15 MBA. Was scheduled for six first round interviews with EB/BB, but had an early offer from a BB and took it - would have had 10 first rounds if I hadn't taken the offer and didn't drop applications to some banks.
Prior job function was in engineering
when you say, early offer do you mean you recruited pre-MBA OR this BB's process was super early?
Neither. Normal MBA recruiting process for me and bank, but when speaking with the bank toward the end of the process they asked me if I would take an offer from them if they made one. I said yes, they made one, and I accepted.
Curious if anybody else has updates, particularly among the top 15 crowd. Hearing my school had lower conversion than in past years--I'm wondering if it is the quality of candidates or if other schools saw fewer offers too.
T15
Got my top choice so shut down my recruiting after that. Had 6 first round interviews lined up before I cancelled those.
Did undergrad gpa come up at all in the process?
anyone here recruited for Restructuring or LevFin groups? Are numbers down here as well?
MBA business schools">M7 student here who struck out - as did about 30% of my class who seriously recruited until the very end. It was mostly international males (myself included) who ended up without offers. No correlation to talent/effort or language/accent/culture though.
Personally, I got 5 first-rounds and 4 superdays at top BBs and EBs mostly in SF. Got rejected everywhere.
Recruiting numbers are significantly down at my school and, anecdotally, at other schools as well. It’s a nightmare to be honest.
A lot of great international candidates in our program didn’t get spots either. Banks, even BBs, seemed very cautious about taking on non-US persons.
Do these people usually go to HK or SG if they couldn't make it in the US?
Quite surprised to hear 30% of your class at an MBA business schools">M7 didn't get offers. I'm at a T20 (towards the back of the 20 honestly) and our first years had about an 85% success rate, and most of those that didn't get offers were international students that had visa requirements.
Perhaps those at M7s cast too narrow a net?
if youyre getting 4 superdays then being international isnt the reasib fir no offer
Thanks for coming here half a year later to shit on me while not even taking the time to put together a straight sentence. I never claimed I was perfect, but my basic premise still holds: all domestic students got offers (though not all necessarily at BB/EB) and those who struck out were exclusively international. This forum sometimes makes it seem like IB recruiting at the MBA level is a piece of cake and those who don’t get anything are internationals with thick accents, major cultural issues and/or body odor. My point is that this is not true and some people are just shit out of luck.
When I applied to school I knew what MBA business schools">M7 included, and what S16 schools were, but how do I reconcile T15 with S16? What's that one special school that's always considered THE #16? Anderson? Darden?
T-15 is generally considered to be Duke, Cornell Johnson, Tuck, NYU Stern, UCLA Anderson, and I guess Darden, depending on the ranking you look at. Maybe I'm forgetting one or two, but these are the usual suspects
Damn, that's rough - sorry to hear. As a Canadian male headed to a finance target MBA business schools">M7 this fall (Wharton/Booth/Columbia), what can I do to make sure I maximize my chances of getting recruited, from your guys' experience this past cycle?
I am a second year at a MBA business schools">M7 heading into a top NY BB. As part of the IB club I tracked IB recruiting data in detail for Class of 20 (intern, FT) and 21 (intern only) in my school. Here's a complete picture for you.
On a macro level, numbers are going down gradually each year, because 1) the industry in total just don't need as many people. That's just a general trend, but at the same time, 2) across all top schools, talent pipelines shrink simultaneously, because way more people now want to recruits for consulting (higher base salary than IB, work few hours, get your weekend, and MBB name carries more prestige than, say, ugh, Moelis/PJT/Evercore because who the f have ever heard of those names). Evidence: across your top finance schools, McKinsey or BCG (sorry Bain) are bound to be the top recruiting firm, pretty much no exception.
Now, in general, as MBA business schools">M7 student, you have 80-85% success rate at landing a good IB offer. Here's the insight that I found by cutting the data multiple ways, if you have English-speaking developed economy work experience (this is a key, Ivy league undergrads are the exceptions, they can work in Kenya and still get a shit ton of offers, also women almost always get offers), YOU have 95% plus success rate at landing at one of your top three choices in the US. That special 5% is reserved for people who cannot crack the technicals, or are socially awkward, or assholes who sharpelbow other candidates during recruiting. On the other end of the spectrum, if you DON'T have English-speaking developed economy work experience, your rate is 70%-75%. A lot of people have confidence issue, cultural issue, language issue, dress code issue, body odor issue. Some people say visa is the issue, I disagree, because now all top MBAs offer STEM degrees. The key really comes down to, let me say it again, English-speaking developed economy work experience. One of the Indian candidate I worked with was a brilliant guy. Smart, polite, finance savvy, IIT graduate, but he was soft speaking. He did not get anywhere because he was soft speaking, but got Google and Facebook PM role. Super awesome guy. This is the reality of US IB Associate recruiting. It's more like a fraternity pledging process.
This is fantastic insight - the very type of info we come to WSO for. Thanks so much for taking the time to explain this in detail. SB'ed and sent you a PM as well
Excellent overview and largely in line with my experience as a first-year. I do agree with everything but one statement: “confidence issue, cultural issue, language issue, dress code issue, body odor issue” are real for some people, but those got hit with reality fast and in some cases did not even get first round interviews. However, at my school at least there were a bunch of folks who were just unlucky and didn’t receive offers despite being technically strong, having proper appearance and a near-native level command of English. It’s just substantially harder for international males, period. STEM or not, a bunch of banks do not consider internationals at all, so the list is smaller to begin with. Then there are banks who officially hire internationals and say so, but unofficially they don’t. Add all that together and there are some people who get unlucky despite not being smelly and quirky. Similarly, while all Americans at my school got offers, many did not get their top (three) choices. It’s a competitive process and I’ve seen HYPSM grads go to MM banks as well (and not by choice).
My point is just that — at least at my school (M7) — the notion on this forum that you just walk into the process and pick your offer is unrealistic. Most people will get an offer, most definitely all American who seriously follow the process will get an offer, but not necessarily at their top choice.
Appreciate the insight. Since you mentioned it, can you shed some light on which banks officially claim to hire internationals, but don't actually do so? Have heard that Canadian banks (RBC, BMO) and a couple boutiques (Greenhill and Guggenheim), don't take internationals, but genuinely curious to know which others. Thanks in advance
Suffice to say that a mid-ranking BB with its HQ in Lower Manhattan left a lot of bad blood on my campus.
Most banks are upfront though. Which is frustrating, but fair.
That’s very Shiti of them
must be citi
The plight of the international student continues. It's tough to see.
They can go to HK/SG which frankly are not bad options.
Seats can be limited, especially with international students from all elite programs quickly pivoting to opportunities abroad.
Not every international is chinese lol
Speaking as a 2nd year going to a BB from a T20 school. Overall we got more offers than last year. Some new banks came on campus because of how well my class placed so that helped. However, I saw the same trend as people mentioned above, international students had 0 success at my school. It’s already a competitive process to begin with but even harder when cultural/social things along with visa/sponsorship issues get in the way during networking and recruiting. Congrats to everyone that got offers.
0 success?! That is disheartening to see.
Yeah... it was tough since we all tried to help to improve our overall placement as a school but this was simply out of our control
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