Dartmouth Partners is paradise

It’s 6:04pm as you wait for the Dartmouth partners recruiter to join your interview, you have had 6 of these this application season so know what’s coming. She finally joins 10 mins late after already rescheduling 3 times and doesn’t even apologise before jumping into the classic motivation questions. You list of your classic why IB question you have mastered from scrolling hours of WSO threads trying to hide your lust for prestige and money behind ‘making a difference to clients businesses’. The torture continues as you explain your interest in the firm, from their collaborative culture to outstanding deal flow, as you block out the noise of her frantically typing on her keyboard in the background. Finally, she asks you what you enjoy doing in your spare time, after you have recited off another 4 pre-prepared motivation answers. You make up something about sport, as if recruiting from your semi-target hasn’t taken up your entire life. Finally, the interview ends and you take off your poorly tied tie and wait for the next stage invite to arrive in your inbox. The rejection lands 3 days later. Dartmouth Partners is paradise.

13 Comments
 

My question is right (since they have reached out to me in the past for a markets role):

How is it possible that they can get so many mandates from firms across London and US but the recruiters running their mandates are so clueless about IB? I know they're just humanities students that have never touched IB / S+T / ER / AM in their life but it then begs the question:

How are they marking each interview if they are doing the screening questions themselves, those humanities graduates?

Thoughts and insights would be appreciated.

 

infinity@finite

I believe the humanities major just weeds out socially awkward or out of the norm candidates, and then the rest of the selection is based on good vibes vs bad vibes, just like they did at WeWork.

I've never heard about WeWork's recruitment practices. I thought they were just office leases in essence. Did WeWork hire people just based on vibes over talent? (going by the sounds of what you're saying)

 

They aren't looking for insightful answers on thoughts on the markets or M&A trends. Since they just do the screening, they interview tons of candidates and are looking for A) Do you have clear, well prepared and structured answers to the motivationals (shows you are a serious candidate) and B) Are you a good person to talk to and aren't socially awkward. You'd be surprised how many applicants don't tick both boxes and are not prepared (applying just because everyone else is) or are socially awkward.

 

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