On-campus recruiting

Go to some non targets and find some of the elite. This late in the recruiting season you will be getting the analysts from targets who couldn't secure a job eslewhere, which should tell you something. But if you go to other schools you probably will get every top finance kid interviewing and can have a few rounds to really pick the top candidate.

Thanks, but that's not really what I'm getting at. I've done this for long enough to know the recruiting process better than most, and the relative merits of target/non-target candidates.

My question is more focused upon how each of you perceived this year's recruiting season - was bank interest stronger/weaker than expected, more/fewer offers extended than expected, how many people are still sitting on the sidelines versus signed up.

Frankly, I am undecided on whether to do on-campus recruiting at all given that I only need 3-4 analysts, versus a resume drop or other approach.

I received a PM asking why we were focused on on-campus recruiting versus graduates with some experience. The answer is that that decision has not yet been made. There is a very compelling argument to be made given the situation that we may very well go in that direction in addition to or in lieu of OCR. This debate forms part of the genesis of my original question.

On-campus recruitment for the class of 2011 was very good. Banks had lots of open positions and most of the motivated/qualified kids had landed jobs by the time FT recruitment was over in October (including SAs who signed back).

With the majority of the talent already scooped up, I'd say you'd be getting generally weaker applicants if you were to run another round of OCR.

I am an underclassman at a top target. To be honest, seniors here always complain about how hard the recruiting season is, but I'd say almost every senior I know here has at least one offer or some place to go. The thing is many may not have gotten an offer that truly matches their interests. I'd say that plenty of graduating seniors here would jump at the chance to do M&A at a respectable firm, but not everyone was able to secure such a position. I suggest that you contact career services at these top targets, you can list an add on OCR sites, and you WILL get some hits from seniors. and from there you can decide where to go.

A datapoint for you. There was an extremely high percentage of slots filled this past summer from our SA class (much higher than usual), and from my bank only maybe 10-15% of slots were open for FT recruiting, so we gave very few FT offers relative to normal.