Business School Recruiting Discussion

I'm currently a senior at a big state school in the south. Interned at a BB in IB, and signed my offer at well known middle market IB.

I recently started looking at getting an MBA. I'm curious as to how recruiter then select candidates to interview or even give offers to, especially at HBS, where everyone has a great resume and interviews well. I'm sure networking has a lot to do with it, but I would assume that everyone networks.

I understand that recruiting begins in October for most MBA level programs, and to take into consideration that most people do not have experience in the industry that they are trying to break in.

Can someone shed some light on that process. I'm asking out of curiousity

6 Comments
 

I'm looking into possibly getting into consulting.

When luck shuts the door you gotta come in through the window - Doyle Brunson
 
upod01

I'm looking into possibly getting into consulting.

I'm confused. I thought you were starting at a bank as an analyst. You've got 2-3 years at a bare minimum before you have to worry about MBA applications.

Are you asking about how to get into MBA or how to get a job through MBA OCR (the post is a bit confusing)? If the former, networking has very little to do with it. If the latter, networking has quite a bit to do with it. Some people are better than others.

 
Best Response
brj upod01:

I'm looking into possibly getting into consulting.

I'm confused. I thought you were starting at a bank as an analyst. You've got 2-3 years at a bare minimum before you have to worry about MBA applications.

Are you asking about how to get into MBA or how to get a job through MBA OCR (the post is a bit confusing)? If the former, networking has very little to do with it. If the latter, networking has quite a bit to do with it. Some people are better than others.

I think he's asking about OCR's. And he brings up a decent point, everyone at HBS or even the M7 will be pretty darn good at networking. How do you differentiate between all these incredible candidates?

 

There's just more offers to go around at a place like HBS, so I'd argue that networking matters less there than at a more marginal program. This would especially be true for the recruiters who take hordes of ppl every year, like MBB and the BB banks. Yes you still have to show up for the events and not be a complete fuckup, but it's a pretty wide fairway. Now for PE/VC/HF and more nichey industries where firms might take one person per class, networking is still going to be super important.

 

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