How long to accept a full time offer after a summer internship?

I'm working at a relatively unremarkable management consulting firm this summer and I'm hoping to excel in my work and receive a full time offer (they say they hire their interns with the expectation of turning them full time).

It's a pretty good firm and they do cool work, but I'd like to try to trade up during full time recruiting (though without jeopardizing a solid full time opportunity). How long do firms usually take to either give a full time offer or expect a response? Is there some general standard I could expect?

 

I think it depends on where you go to school. for me, my bank gave me until november to decide because my school demands that students be given until november to decide (otherwise the bank loses on campus recruiting privileges) . i'm not sure how it works for other places that are usually non-targets, though

you pursue chances with other banks sept-late october during on campus recruiting. your initial bank will typically not ask if you are interviewing but they may call and ask you politely to please hurry up and decide. however, they MAY also ask you if you are thinking about interviewing with others. to this, i say just lie until you make up your mind and make an excuse for why you havn't filed the paperwork, made up your mind, etc yet.

the most the new bank you're interviewing with typically ask you is if you received an offer from your summer firm. i'm not sure if they call to confirm or anything until after they hire you.

 

At my bank, they gave until end of October for FT offers from the SA. However, they did 2 things to encourage you to sign early: 1) They offered an extra $2-2.5k if you signed by mid-September and 2) the group-specific offer also expired mid-September - if an SA signed the FT offer after that time, it would be a general firm-wide offer which would require going through placement again. Now, you might say that 2 isn't exactly an incentive - say, you hated your group but still wanted to have an offer on the table - but for me it definitely was (wanted to be in that industry group).

 

The above to posts are spot on. Most people have until Nov. 1st to sign and the longer you take the lower your "incentive bonus." I have also heard of one bank that actually started cutting into you signing bonus if you waited until after Oct. 1st, but they were not BB.

"Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, for knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind. And greed, you mark my words, will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA."
 

After re-reading OP a bit, accelerated interviews do bear mentioning. If you keep discrete networking contacts alive at other banks, toward the summer you can indicate to your contacts that you would be interested in accelerated interviews (which tend to occur toward the end of August, before full-on on-campus recruiting). That way, you can have your cake and eat it too.

Of course, not all places do accelerated interviews...

 

Thanks guys. This is exactly the type of info I was looking for. One follow up question:

Right now, all of my contacts are at the bank I'm working for this summer. How should I go about making contacts with the other banks I'm really interested in for FT. Try to find alumni in those banks and email? Contact their HR? Wear a cardboard sign with my credentials outside their building like that previous poster a few weeks ago?

 

17 seconds. If you don't say "yes," you will probably be asked to leave the building immediately. By New York State law, security guards have the right to fire at you if you fail to exit the building within 1 minute of being asked. Wear running shoes.

 

I've never seen someone get that much time. They'll give you an incentive-based deadline (usually around mid-September). After that you'll be under a lot of pressure to sign on and holding out for two more months is really stretching it.

 
WizardofOz:
I've never seen someone get that much time. They'll give you an incentive-based deadline (usually around mid-September). After that you'll be under a lot of pressure to sign on and holding out for two more months is really stretching it.

I have never heard of an incentive-based deadline. What incentives do banks have to offer to SA's? Their conntracts are pretty standard and they are very easy to replace. so what are thos incentives?

Bu to the question, most banks will give you about 1 or 1.5 months to decide. They have to have a number of commitments before full-time recruiting rolls around

 

On #2, many target's career centers require a certain amount of time before offers can explode for companies that want to recruit on campus, often until after the first wave of fall recruiting. At least, this was the case when I was graduating in 2008.

There have been many great comebacks throughout history. Jesus was dead but then came back as an all-powerful God-Zombie.
 

I think Nov 1. is the usually cut off date for acceptance.

"Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, for knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind. And greed, you mark my words, will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA."
 

A buddy of mine received a FT offer from a BB after his SA stint and while I don't recall the actual date that he had to except it by he waited until nearing the final date. If you happen to get the offer from your dream bank, maybe you should sign it right away and not worry about anything else but it might be safer just to continue on as if you didn't have an offer, see whats available and potentially have a back up if your FT return offer ends up falling through for some crazy reason.

Regards

"The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant, it's just that they know so much that isn't so." - Ronald Reagan
 

Keep in mind some banks will offer an extra monetary reward for signing by a certain date, typically ahead of the final deadline by which they give you to accept.

Also remember that HR/teams and MDs are usually notified right away of your acceptance of an offer. Oftentimes, waiting too long to accept (aka waiting until close to the deadline) is taken as an insult to the stakeholders and can affect the impression you've worked hard to establish during the summer. You don't want this to affect your placement options on different desks/groups if you do end up going back full-time. I'm not saying this is always the case, but Wall Street is not as big as we think and obviously people talk (ie your school's alumni at different banks).

 

Banking for the vast majority of analysts is a TWO-YEAR stint... does it really matter what other people think as long as you carry the right attitude and churn out good work product? No.

And besides, the bank expects the rockstar summer analyst to shop around. At my BB, i know for a fact that some summers got pulled aside and it was communicated that they were very strong performers.

 

99% of people in my class who switched from IB to consulting interviewed early (I'm guessing because banks aren't super flexible with the deadlines.) Some interviewed as early as a week after ending their SA gig or getting their return offer. So you should contact the recruiter at consulting firms during the summer to set that up if you end up getting a return offer.

 

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