MBA Recruiting Timelines for FT MBB (to do a non-MBB summer internship)
I've seen a few LinkedIn profiles of MBA students who did a non-consulting summer internship (most often tech, e.g., Product Management) and then joined an MBB firm full-time. I'm interested in doing something similar to get the chance to try something else out, see how I like it/if I think I'd prefer doing it full-time over MBB, and then deciding after if I want to pivot to MBB full-time recruiting.
Based on this, I was wondering what the timelines are for those trying to recruit for MBB full-time during the second year of their MBA program. Is there time post-summer internship to prep and recruit (so maybe recruiting happens around October/November, if not later), or is this something that happens during the summer and you would have to juggle your internship with networking, case prep, etc.
Any insights here would be greatly appreciated! For a bit of added context, I'll be applying to MBA programs Round 1 2024, so hopefully the market conditions are better by then (since I know it has impacted MBB recruiting this year).
Based on the most helpful WSO content, MBB firms have been known to open up an earlier deadline in July for full-time applicants. This is in addition to the September deadlines they had from before. However, this is subject to change and there is a chance that MBB decides to pull the deadlines a bit more forward.
For instance, McKinsey explicitly stated that they would like to see candidates complete their sophomore internships before applying for their junior internships. This is something about "bringing their whole and best self" to the interview process.
In the case of Investment Banking (IB) MBA recruiting, it can involve literally 100+ informational interviews at around a dozen per bank. Recruiting is essentially done before the second year classes actually start. This is true for EB / BB / MM but boutiques and Big 4 will stretch their recruiting out further.
If you really want to switch companies your second year (even within IB assuming summering at a different bank), you have to start recruiting and reaching out immediately during your summer, ideally to people you have met before during the recruiting process.
So, if you're planning to do a non-MBB summer internship and then pivot to MBB full-time, you would likely need to start networking and preparing for MBB recruitment during your summer internship.
Sources: https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forum/investment-banking/m7-ib-associate-full-time-recruiting?customgpt=1, Consulting Recruiting 2023, When are MBBs beginning full time recruitment? How much time should I spend networking?, 2016 Full-time IB Recruiting Timeline Megathread
Bump
Bump - would’ve preferred to have this in the consulting forum but WSO automatically moved it to bschool
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