December graduation effect on job opportunities

Hey guys,
I have the opportunity to finish school a semester early and graduate in December. I have been living at home with my parents for the past year and a half and all I have wanted to do is get out. I saw graduating early as the best way. Now I am starting to reconsider because I realized that some jobs don't start until the summer and my situation actually isn't as bad as I thought. I will be graduating with a BBA in finance. If I stay and graduate in May I can either coast through the last semester or finish up a BA in econ. Goal is consulting. Corpfin is my backup. Is it worth graduating early? Will there be any effect on my job opportunities?

 

It's pretty simple dude. If you think you can lock down the job you want before graduating then absolutely go for it. Unless you really want to pick up that econ degree for your own edification or whatever, it doesn't make sense to spend the money and waste the time*** you could spend doing something else. It should not impact your FT job prospects, some places can be weird about not interviewing people graduating not in May/June (I only ran into this once) but for 99% of cases you'll be fine. You may want to ask someone who is in consulting about this though.. I'm talking strictly about sell-side BB banks. I graduated this past December, had my job locked down in October and now I'm hanging out looking for random gigs (freelance software dev stuff like that) before I move out to NY this summer. Wasn't worth it for me to spend the extra semester at school (scholarship funds ran out and I definitely got the partying out of my system fall semester.... definitely) so I didn't and I don't regret it.

*** thought about this some more and its debatable I suppose. That last semester in college is probably priceless and maybe you want to take a couple of classes just for the sake of sticking around and being around friends. Idk. Had some older friends that did just that and they were fine w it. So it may be different for you

 

I should note that I am in an ideal financial situation. I have been living at home to save money and my parents are paying for my college, which is a big state school. They wouldn't mind paying for an extra semester because that is what they expected to do in the first place. I have no significant expenses and have been interning part time during the school year, so I have the opportunity to save a significant amount of cash.

 

I'm going to try to travel I think. Though the extra money is tempting, but not really worth it unless they give you an extra half year of seniority and a bonus for the time. Otherwise it is just another internship.

 
PoolSideBanker:
But won't that extra 6 months experience give you the inside track on top bonus bucket after your first full year - crucial not only for the bank account and pride, but for PE exit opps?

This was my major motivation. I wanted a head start on everyone else. It also made training that much easier.

And to the other poster: I have never heard of a pperson being promoted to 2nd year analyst just for starting work early.

 
PoolSideBanker:
But won't that extra 6 months experience give you the inside track on top bonus bucket after your first full year - crucial not only for the bank account and pride, but for PE exit opps?

maybe, maybe not. doubt a bank will automatically give you a top tier bonus due to 6 months extra worktime and also, i think that if your good enough to get top tier, 6 months extra work isnt going to help much. itll make training a breeze though.

 

^^ Is it possible that you might become a second year analyst after working six months?? I've seen this as a possible question that can be raised when getting an offer so was just wondering if that is actually possible..

 

its also a question of responsibility. i don't personally know anyone who has done it (just heard of it), but I tend to believe that banks won't treat you as a true analyst until you've gone through training.

unless you are an accounting/finance whiz.

you may just end up doing formatting and comps for six months and get treated like a glorified intern which would suck a big one.

 

Well it doesn't seem like you would automatically get the top bonus. But if you have 3 months of internship experience, then 6 months of work experience, it seems like when compared to others in your class with either 3 months experience of 0 experience, that since you are going to be able to better know the people in your group/have more experience at the job that you will outperform them and receive the top bonus.

 

From what I see, most firms do hiring in october-november for entry level, and then you start your training in july. So you'll have to wait the 7 months before you start your job.

But I think thats actually good for you, because you'll be able to relax from school appropriate amount before you start doing your 80-90 hour work weeks.

 

Based on my personal experience, I wouldn't worry about it.

I am graduating post graduate in Summer (December-February in Australia), and have an offer with a Big 4 to start January. I've been upfront with everyone I've interviewed with, in that I may have one subject remaining by the time I start work. I've not had problems with firms crossing me off the list because of this.

Some of the graduate positions are still available to those who graduate within 2 years, so this might be an option. Each firm is different, so go read their graduate position criteria.

Also look into the internship criteria, because they are generally for the penultimate year. And talk to your university program co-ordinator and university careers office.

Generally you apply to graduate by submitting a form to your uni, so you might be able to just submit the form to graduate later if you don't get an offer and the company where you want to work doesn't take graduates from the last 2 years. I don't know too much about this, so I'd look into it before you try it.

Good luck. Remember not getting a graduate position isn't the end of the world, there's always grad school, and other entry options. Every company that rejected me suggested I apply for other roles within their organisation, so you're going to be fine.

 
Best Response

You just told me what you've done so far, and that you're really interested in getting into the field.

i) what is investment banking? ii) what does an IBD analyst do? iii) why do you want to be an IBD analyst?

I'm asking because I held off on graduation until December and joined SEO for this past summer. I've been working at one of SEO's sponsors near Union Square in NYC and will be returning to Stanford to recruit for the next class. I finish tomorrow.

Business Development is well respected from what I know. I've always heard if not IB, then strategy consulting, and if not that, business development or internal M&A.

 

Hm.. This would be graduating early or late? I presume early.

I would take the minimum amt of classes you can, probably 2. Agree w/ above posters or knock out CFA/GMAT, one or the other. There are classes I wish I took in college, so make sure you pick good and easy classes.

-- "Those who say don't know, and those who know don't say."
 

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