I understand that BAML has decided this year to significantly cut the number of MBA programs that it participates in on-campus recruiting with from 12 to 5. I heard that HBS, Wharton, Tuck, Fuqua and Stern are the ones that they are retaining. The reason cited was that they are focused on A2A recruits. Would love to hear if anyone at these programs (or others) can confirm/deny/add color.
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Interested as well. Wonder if other banks will focus on A2A promotions.
Just graduated from one of the programs that got cut, and can confirm this is true (per our school’s career development office).
Could you please share the name of your school and also which other banks are doing this across which schools?
No, I prefer to remain anonymous
No one is going to choose Fuqua over Booth just cause BAML recruits there. 1 bank doesn't matter.
No booth and CBS? Hard to believe, they are big feeders to BAML
was surprised to hear the names i heard as well, hence my desire to post
They take 7-8 kids a year from those schools. No way this is accurate. Though, tbf, my year they had awful yield, which I imagine is true generally at CBS/Booth and less true at places like Fuqua and NYU.
they don't want Stanford? Weird
LOL @ thinking GSB kids go into banking.
I was at BAML this past summer. Unless I heard incorrectly, I’m pretty certain Booth is one of the 5 core schools and HBS is not.
Curious to see if others have heard about this at different banks.
Can anyone please confirm which schools were cut and which have been retained? I am planning to start at UNC in 2019 and would like to know which Banks recruit there and sponsor internationals? Please help!
Reach out to folks at Kenan-Flagler's IB club. They'd know best
Sure-Thanks-I am doing that. I also wanted to have student perspective from people who are at other schools.
I am really glad to see this. I hope hiring practices at other banks continue to trend in this direction. It is absolutely ridiculous that BB's and EB's recruit slews of MBA's while only hiring lateral Associates on a one-off basis. There is a robust pool of trained and blooded candidates from smaller, less prestigious banks whom are much more qualified for Associate/Experienced Analyst banking roles than MBA grads yet have a much harder time landing positions at BB's and EB's. I recently learned that Centerview (arguably the most impressive bank of the last 10 years) doesn't recruit from MBA programs. Their Associates are all lateral hires or internal promotes (apparently the commonly held internal opinion that the internal promotes are stronger than the lateral hires).
I don't believe you need to have been an Analyst to be a successful banker. There are plenty of strong bankers whom got into banking via an MBA. However, I think recruitment en masse from MBA programs is a legacy practice from the time before banks had Analyst classes and you had to have an MBA to get into banking.
Couldn't it also just be a numbers things? Only so many kids are gonna wanna go to A2A. You need to get associates somewhere, and MBA programs provide a known quantity.
Perhaps, but there are dozens of MM firms, regional boutiques, sector-specific boutiques, etc. from which to poach talent. Also, both their own equity research arms and boutique equity research firms could be fruitful hunting grounds. My point is that there is a wealth of experienced talent that is qualified for experienced junior banking roles. I can tell you from personal experience, lateraling is absurdly difficult because of the one-off nature of recruiting. Comparatively, landing a banking gig from a M7 is relatively simple because of the banks concerted recruiting effort. This should be fixed before banks go about trying to solve the recent problem of MBA grads forsaking banking for tech/consulting.
While I agree with your premise regarding resources at smaller firms, banks pool MBA candidates for their supposed network as well as their ability to assist with on-campus recruiting at the BBA and MBA level in subsequent years.
With regard to the network i'll paste in a comment I made in an earlier post....
"I can't argue against the breadth of connections you make via an MBA that may pay dividends in the future. However, I will say that I've worked with multiple investment bankers who are Stanford GSB and HBS alumns and categorically, they have attributed any successful deals they've originated to connections they made professionally rather than those from business school."
With regard to their ability to assist with on-campus recruiting....I'm not sure what you're saying here. Banks pool MBA candidates for the purpose of pooling BBA and more MBA candidates in the future? Everyone has a BBA and therefore undergraduate schools they can recruit at. My whole point is that they should be pooling less at the MBA level to begin with. Furthermore, if I have a correct understanding about the recent trend regarding the popularity of banking post-MBA, they aren't doing such a good job at recruiting at the MBA level anyway.
Well, regardless of your thoughts, the banks have always and will always recruit from elite MBA programs until A2A retention increases. I'm sorry you're annoyed.
To your point regarding the decrease in popularity of banking post-MBA, you're correct. However, the MBB cohort works just as hard as MBA-associates in IBD and those at FANG work ~70 hour work weeks easily. No one is coming out of an elite MBA program working 40 hours a week. If you are, you're the exception and not the norm.
I didn't saddle on this debt to go into a corporate finance rotational program.
I am annoyed because after speaking with dozens of both A2A and MBA bankers (ASO's, VP's, MD's) at MM, EB and BB firms and recruiters both internal and independent, no one can provide me with a solid argument as to why a Tuck MBA with 2 years of Audit experience is more qualified for a BB ASO role than someone with 4 years of experience doing ACTUAL banking work. The argument that "banks have always and will always recruit from elite MBA programs" is akin to saying that's how things have always been done therefore we should continue doing them that way.
I don't hold anything against you for getting an MBA to break into banking. As you alluded to, you made sacrifices in getting a MBA and as I've said, plenty of strong bankers got in via an MBA. However, I would encourage you to evaluate the merits of alternative pools of candidates when thinking about your own firms ASO recruiting practices.
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