Will 2020 Recruiting (FT and SA) be accelerated or be more relaxed?
Besides Gugg (Heard their 2020 process already kicked off), will other banks be pushing back FT and SA recruiting for the 2020 class?
Not really. Sure the WSJ article from this past Fall brought awareness and the process will probably be a little slower this year, but all of my contacts are indicating or openly sharing with me that things are still going to ramp up hard this Spring.
I just went on office visits to virtually every BB/MM/EB a few weeks ago, and was given the scoop on recruiting as part of my university's program for select students pursuing careers on the street.
The general consensus is things are still accelerated. I know a lot of places are going to start phone screens next month.
Here's what I've gathered from my trip, this is 100% from reps/HR at these banks:
What I've gathered is that those pursuing SA '20 need to be ready for their interviews by the end of next month. Hopefully you've been networking, because you'll need your contacts in the coming months for resume pushes and the like. People who haven't networked at all when Spring comes around are basically screwed and are gonna have to rely on being the huge minority that get through from virtual resume screens alone.
I agree with @champagnepaki" - I don't see it slowing down that much from when I recruited (last year). From the the guys on the Street I networked with, it sounds like Sophomore Spring/Summer recruiting is becoming the new Junior Fall. From what I've heard at my target, most EBs (Moelis, PJT, EVR, probably more) will continue to start late Spring, while most BBs will kick off Spring and go into Summer (similar to this year there will be Early and Regular processes). That being said, I expect there should be places up for grabs in Fall but less of them.
It's not hard to see why this is happening - moving first in recruiting has a lot of advantages. The kids ready to recruit in Spring are usually the rockstars at the top of their programs, in finance clubs and with prior finance experience already under their belt, and they're given narrow deadlines to respond to offers so they can't shop around (sometimes only 1-2 weeks). Banks waiting too late in the process to begin are going to lose out on some of this talent, so as soon as a few banks start pushing up their timelines, there's incentive for everyone to start doing so.
As a student of course, it sucks - many interviews my friends and I had were before we had even started our sophomore summer jobs. This means there's more attention paid to what little else is left on sophomore resumes - Freshman summer, your grades and your ECAs - which is a depressing turn of affairs. Good luck, feel free to PM for more info.
Man am I glad I never have to go through recruiting again when I see threads like this; best of luck