Hello WSO,
I am planning on applying for the top 1-25 MBA programs. Also, I am in process of studying for my GMAT and will likely take it next year. My career goals are either to go into corp finance for a bio-tech firm, but my second interest is in Investment Banking. Of course, during the MBA interview I will only give one answer on what my career goal is.
This leads me to my question on IB Associate recruiting. As I understand, the largest banks recruit from the top 25 MBA programs, with most of the recruitment occurring in the top 1-15 schools. But, I was wondering how important is the GMAT in MBA Investment Banking Associate recruiting. I know in consulting for MBB it is very difficult to get an interview without having a GMAT of 720+. So I was wondering if a similar practice occurs with large investment banks. Is it "a must" to provide your gmat score? If anyone has gone through the process for MBA IB Associate recruiting can you please explain if in the interview they asked for your GMAT or if you needed to provide it in your resume? If so, what would you say is a typical GMAT cutoff 670+, 700+, or 720+?
Thank you in advance WSO
700+ need a strong quant score. I've been through a couple non mba route associate interviews and they always ask.
I think on the online application almost all of them asked for GMAT. I was told to include it on my resume for banking. Not sure on the cutoff
How do you show your gmat score to recruiters? Are they able to check through GMAC?
I didn't use recruiters. It was all through OCR when I interviewed. i don't think you need to have GMAC report it to them I know it cots money too for each one you report. I would just tell them.
When i interview associate candidates I will definitely ask their GMAT if it's not on their resume. I'd leave it off if it's below 700 but ive seen resumes with 680/690 shown. I can only think of one time when we disqualified someone we otherwise liked because of the GMAT and that was pretty extreme (think he had a 600). Will definitely vary by bank / group / person interviewing.
Never had anyone ask my split / quant portion and i never ask anyone that either.
I did extensive interviewing for top BB i-bank at associate level, both on campus (1st round) and super day (second round). Never once did I ask GMAT. We may ask grades in quant classes, but since some M7 schools won't allow that disclosure, it's not always useful to compare across candidates. Keep in mind most M7 schools have on campus first rounds with alumni at the respective banks. Our view is you got to an M7... GMAT must have been sufficient and so let's move onto the next step: have you done your banking interview prep?
I graduated from a top 15 MBA program that is a core school at every BB bank. Rule of thumb was if your score was 720+ or better to put it on your resume and if not leave it off (although alumni would know this meant a poor score so some people that were 700 or 710 would keep their's on, lest it be assumed their score was 660 or so.
As someone heavily involved now, I'd agree with the poster that our thought is, hey, if you're good enough to get into this school, you must have other qualities to make up for a deficient gmat score. That being said you may get a few more technicals your way. Also note a subpar GMAT matters less the better the school. If you are fringe top 25, where only the best of the best make it into IB, you're at a much larger disadvantage than at a top 15 core school.
FWIW, one bank asked me to provide my SAT score....I had taken the test 10 years ago at the time. That's an extreme case though. That bank, you're not having a shot at with a subpar GMAT, but they are an outlier.
Out of curiosity how do the banks check? It seems that they would have to receive your gmat score through GMAC?
The reason why I ask is that I am studying for GMAT in hopes of going into a top 25 mba. It seems very likely that I will have a low score (I am not a good standardized test taker, Calc, Stats, Econometrics I can do well in but GMAT, SAT nope). So if a low score bars me into a BB bank that might make me change my career goals.
They won't check through the GMAC. People with top scores (read above 720) will have it on their resume. People with lower scores typically won't put it on their. Some banks will ask you in the interview.
Not all banks will care, and some will care but will give you a pass if your finance, accounting grades are top notch. I wouldn't say change your career goals if you don't get a certain gmat score, but I would be aware that it is often a point used by banks to evaluate you. Fortunately it's by no means the only (or most important) point.
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