I was trying to get a clear answer to this and I was having trouble. I'm at a borderline top 10 MBA program (Think Stern/Yale/Tuck/Fuqua) and am interested in consulting. I'd love MBB but would also be very happy with offers from other top firms such as big 4, Kearney, etc.
Beyond attending the on campus corporate presentations and doing a coffee chat with each firm, do you have to network further than that if you want to be considered? Or are you likely to receive interviews regardless because you're at a target school, and any additional networking would just improve your odds slightly?
If anyone knows of any resources that have answered this question let me know!
If you are targeting a regional office for MBB - like Atlanta or Dallas - it can be very helpful to speak with two or three alumni there. Worst case it doesn't help and you burn a few hours and some effort, but likely you can name drop them in your interview. More senior folks (who have a direct impact on hiring) have asked me who has reached out in the applicate pool.
The issue is that there is soooooo many top people are T10 MBA programs gunning for MBB, anything to stand out is helpful.
I feel as if you are in a unique position now where you have time and access to an incredible network, so you should think about the long term rewards of building out a high end network on top of course just landing your offer. It’ll pay dividends for years to come and will maximize your ROI even attending the program in the first place. Also by networking you’ll have interviews that other people who didn’t network won’t have the same access to.
I lead recruiting at a top b-school for MBB and the short answer is yes, you will need to network to get an interview. Outside of HBS and GSB, every campus has a limited number of interview slots called the closed list. Let's say that the closed list is 40 people and we have 200 applicants - the campus team's job is to determine which 40 people we should interview. We gauge this typically by assessing candidates through a mix of event attendance (proxy for interest), quality of interactions (proxy for fit), and resume (proxy for acumen) although partners and campus leads can dictate yay or nay unilaterally. When I was at Accenture Strategy, the process worked exactly the same way so this isn't MBB specific. If you have a strong background and already developed a great rapport with those that you met on campus, you might be okay but just know that recruiting will likely be brutal for upcoming cycles so don't be complacent. Make sure you let every firm and everyone know that they are your number 1 hoe.
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