Q&A : Regional Office Recruiting

For lateral recruiting, timing is different for each firm. Your best chances will be with places you have already spoken to (e,.g. recruited in UG/MBA but went somewhere else) / had some traction, but still should cast a wide net. Best practices are same as general recruiting:

If a bank has a lateral slot, for example if someone leaves, they will first get HR to approve their ability to hire another person. Usually there is a dual-track process: an internal email out to colleagues at that bank to internally move to a group, as well as posting a job opening externally. Usually I see smaller, more focused processes run for laterals and the resumes and candidates are more carefully screened. At least in our regional office and I suspect broadly, HR is not involved in the actual interview or screening; the bankers do it all. We might skip a "first round interview" and go straight from fit-based screening calls to a fast superday with the top 3-4 candidates. Decision is made and offer is communicated same-day.