Choosing a FT start date?

Today I got an email from my firm's HR department about FT start dates for the class of 2012, and I was pretty surprised by how far apart the dates are:

last week of June
first week of September
mid-October

I was expecting something like early August, early September, and early October. I'm not really sure which order to place them in and wanted to see if you guys had any advice.

My 1st choice is probably the early September date, but I'm afraid that's what most people are going to pick. For 2nd choice, I'm not sure whether to go with June or October.

FWIW, I don't graduate until the 3rd week of May (pretty late), plan on studying for/taking the GMAT this summer (late June/early July), and my roommates for next year aren't starting until October or so, which means if I picked the early start date I would have to look for an apartment pretty early (and maybe pay for most of it myself for ~3 months). I'm hoping to travel a moderate amount (but not too much) over the summer too.

It seems like October would be a better 2nd choice, but I'd be missing out on 3.5 months of pay ($15-20 K) in the June-October difference.

Anyone with experience in MBB or mid-tier fims care to comment? Especially interested to know how pay raises/promotions are affected (or not) by start date, e.g. if 1 person started in June and 1 in October, will their pay raise come at the same time? Will their next promotion come at the same time (effectively meaning the October person has less time to work until promoted)? Thanks guys.

 

copefan1, I am not a consultant, but a lot of my friends are, and from your comments about the GMAT it looks like you are wanting to do an MBA.

My friends all started in August. Why? Because they would get there 4 year bonus right before they started their MBA. If you started in October, you couldn't do that.

 

find out when the performance cycle at the company. when i joined FT i was given similar choices - jan, feb, or may (random, but i graudated in the winter). i chose feb and once i started i realized i chose probably the shittiest time because the cut off for the yearly review is end of jan. so i had to wait basically 2 years before even being considered for a promotion/raise.

 
Best Response

1) Sept, 2) June, 3) Oct.

Another drawback of the October date is that if things are slow at your firm you may end up with a really crappy project or potentially nothing at all for the calendar year. Things at my MBB slow down in the fall so a lot of people rolling off of stuff in Nov basically end up on on the beach until January because many clients don't want to start new work so late in the year. So you could be sitting on your ass for 3 months. If you start in June, sure you are cutting off some potential vaca time but just make sure you book yourself a nice trip later.

 

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