How do banks differentiate among MBA students during IBD recruitment at M7/T15 schools?
Any insight or personal anecdotes on how banks weight different factors of MBA students' profiles (e.g., GMAT, undergrad GPA, work experience, interviews, etc.) during the IBD recruitment process?
Top MBAs are often perceived as an "equalizer" of sorts, in which students emerge post-MBA on an even playing field simply by nature of an acceptance to a top school, but there must be some way banks distinguish between Student A and Student B other than interview performance and stats, right?
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I don't think this is accurate.....
I'm heading into an MBA program this year and am in a handful of the admitted student slack groups for MBA business schools">M7 schools. Apart from one-off students prepping basic technicals and a few pre MBA diversity programs being hosted by some of the BBs, I've not seen anything (both in the general groups and in the IBD recruiting groups). Suffice it to say, the recruiting will start in the fall as per usual.
There’s no way it is a complete reset.
Some banks might just take someone because they like their pre MBA experience vs. another candidate that may seem more interested/prepared. Banks will trust institutions they recognize, top UG, or other competitive employers.
For ex: If you want to go into healthcare banking and spend the whole 2 years before school memorizing technicals and watching recent transactions; it might benefit you some but you aren’t going to beat out the guy with 6 years of exp. as a VP at Amgen. Even if he just has the basics down. You might be more committed, smarter, and way more advanced technically but it won’t matter because they will think that persons experience matters more.
If you don’t believe me go look at the profiles of people who get into the “better banks.” They almost always have more impressive pre MBA profiles. They probably get the “better banks” because they are better candidates but it’s not a coincidence I never see someone (non URM) with a “weaker” pre MBA exp. at GS. There probably is some guy who was a bank teller for 4 years pre MBA who is insane committed to IB and can smoke any candidate at his T15 technically but he’s not getting the most competitive banks because he was a bank teller. Maybe a stretch but I bet that happens.
Sorry for the rant but the guy who went to Princeton UG and then got fired from BCG and stumbled his way into your T15 has a way better shot at GS than John and his local engineering experience, regardless of how prepared John is.
It's a structured process with a lot of randomness. The end result is that you'll have go through four hoops (TBD how this will adjust to the pandemic):
Show up to the open-door events (usually campus visits)
Invite-only events: HR will ask feedback from the bankers who represented the firm/bank during stage 1 (open-door events, in case it isn't obvious), and craft the invite-list for further networking.
Interview invitation: you're supposed to apply to these, but if you already got cut in the previous stage, you're not likely to get invited to an interview. Based on how your networking went, you should have a good sense of whether you're getting interviewed.
Interviews themselves: self-explanatory. Could be a Super Day, could have numbered rounds.
So, does your school matter, is there a difference between a T15 and an MBA business schools">M7, bla bla etc etc? There are really just two questions. The macro question: is your school considered a target by XYZ bank you're interested in? The micro question: what does the individual banker you're talking to think.
Bankers have to make a conscious decision to participate in recruiting each yearr. Even at your campus visit, there may be bankers involved who aren't school alumni. And vice versa, there will be school alumni who aren't involved at all, or only passively (ie. if you reach out to them). Some of these bankers are involved every year and are deeply committed to the process; others are just doing it to meet their bank's "holistic" (retarded word) career development program requirements, and couldn't give two squirts of piss.
So, it's a structured process, but there's some randomness to which bankers you'll meet throughout the process. Recall the two questions above, macro (target school Y/N), and micro (individual bankers' views).
At Columbia University they have a royal rumble.
Last year there was an intense royal rumble that took place in the middle of the library. It last over two hours, the longest ever, and 6 ferocious associates were left. 3 of the 6 were filthy animals that went to an undergrad at an ivy and had the advantage of eating organic food funded by their rich parents, one student was a bulky non-target student that went to Barucz, the other two went to a random school and did 6 years at a Big 4 doing auditing.
The Barucz student was on a role, eliminated 15 of the 50 students that joined the rumble. In an instant, he did a cartwheel on the table, ducked under, and drop-kicked two of the ivy leaguers. the crowd went wild. We are now down to 4 people. The auditors were going at it, so it was the ivy leaguer vs the non-target. The non-target gets his with a punch, his knees start to give out. The ivy leaguer jumps on top and drops the elbow from hell on the throat, ouch. The other non-targets want to help out who are watching, but sadly they can only watch....
Will the ivy-leaguer continue to put a beating on the non-target and then eliminate the other accountants to win the associate contract?
To be continued....