As Investment Banking Summer Associate 2021 recruiting at the target MBA programs draws to a close and interview invites approach, wanted to create this thread to share questions/ thoughts and experiences.
To kick things off: How many banks are you still in the process with? IB Core School, T10/T20? Things that have gone well/ bad in the virtual environment? How are you preparing for interviews?
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So stern... haha
Went to a T25. I converted all my superdays to offers with top groups at BBs.
What school is this?
...
Prolly UCLA/USC/Rice
Def UNC they went super early
School?
Did you get a diversity offer? For your classmates, are they also receiving diversity offers? I was under the impression most of the super days for BBs haven't happened yet...
Same. I didn't realize that any banks had already conducted super days.
How are things going? Are interviews at targets/offers at non-targets out?
At M7. We have not had interviews yet.
Sorry. I meant interview invites for M7s/targets.
Really curious to hear about class sizes this year from those that would know. Seems like it is down where I will be working as well as the other places I interviewed at.
Curious to hear how things have gone for the international students recruiting?
Has been pretty rough at my M7. Lots of early cuts from banks in the invite-only round.
Been rough at my T15 as well.
Seems pretty bad. I've seen some quality candidates from my school get passed over for decent-ish candidates...Really feel for you guys, it sucks.
I really wonder what is driving that trend? Still immigration issues...?
Work at a BB. We have 2 superdays one for core and non-core. Non-core just finished.
How’s headcount looking this year? I already signed, my firm says they’re going to be down quite a bit from last year’s class. Everyone seems slammed though, guessing a lot of places are going to be pretty understaffed next year.
same as last year. in a busy group so this year has actually been super active for us
Any advice for the first round interview or superday? At a core school and have interviews in a few weeks. Would love to hear what you look for in candidates, being on the other side of the table
just be a normal likable person. I know it seems easy enough but when firms tell you it isn't a good "fit" it usually means you came across the wrong way.
and if you're coming from a non-traditional finance background know your technicals bc that's an easy way to ding you. if you're coming from finance then definitely be sure you can articulate things clearly.
Offers at American BBs, CS and maybe Barclays will probably be down a little bit... offers outside of those banks will be down in large quantities. I know of one MBA program that recruits early and they are down at least 30% vs. this time last year... I have also heard of 3 banks that, across the 3, probably hired ~40 Summer Associates last year and are doing absolutely no MBA recruiting this year... It helps a lot to be at a core school this year.
1. Curious as to why you lumped Barclays and CS with the American BBs for this scenario?
2. Also based on your comment, are you saying that offers will be down significantly across EBs?
3. And finally do you think that full-time conversion rates may also decline?
I can only offer my experience but I am also interested in the answers to your questions. I have a feeling EBs may be down, they took less from my school this year than last. It seems offers are down pretty substantially and where I go typically everyone who wants IB gets it. We're a lower-ranked school, but not many want IB so most who are serious about it get it. Seems like that will not be the case this year. I had a few super days that I am pretty surprised I didn't convert into offers and the people I caught up with referenced class size. One of the EBs I'm very surprised about because I had some very positive (unsolicited) feedback from senior people after the super day. Along the lines of "heard you absolutely crushed it, great job." Didn't covert and heard a few references to class size this year.
I think you're right about that, seems like the firm I am headed to is -30% YoY. I think the silver lining will be that FT should be solid come July or Aug...hoping that is the case at least if I don't like where I am at during summer.
This is an excellent point. Hopefully FT is more robust in Fall 2021!
Congrats to those who have offers already. Good luck to the rest that still have processes!!!
Any non UT/Rice folks still looking at Houston? I know interest was way down from non Texas schools last year, can only imagine that's the case this year too. Would love to hear an update though if BBs in particular are still planning to take full class sizes, etc.
Also recruiting for Houston, what have you heard about the class sizes?
Confirming all Stern interview invites are out - should be the same at the other core schools Wharton/Booth/CBS. # of students for recruiting for banking is down vs. last year given smaller class size but still ~80. Based on interview invite volume there does not seem to be a reduction in spots? Banks are still interviewing the same number of people in the first round as last year, with a few interviewing over 40-50 people. First rounds are first week of Jan, with superdays the week after. Given non-core school offers are out, do banks reserve a specific amount of spots for core schools?
I wouldn't judge the number of offers they are planning on extending by how many interview invites they gave out. Invite only events were larger than usual this year to begin with given the ease of sending someone a Zoom link. Everyone who I have spoken with who would know (those who play a role in the associate recruiting process) have said seats are down this year. Small sample size but that is what I have heard from the usual suspect banks.
Oh, wow. Do you think that was the case for summer analyst spots as well?
Depends how many banks you are including but Houston normally has about 70 summer associate spots. This year it will be around 50.
Can confirm - results were brutal
Any idea what the conversion rate will be like this summer for Energy?
Any insight into the mix of questions for 1st round interviews, BB or EB?
It's a mix depending on bank (not delineated by EB vs. BB)
traditionally EBs were harder and BBs stuck to 400Qs. they are all getting harder now. I had multiple case study style interviews even with MMs and boutiques
How's it going this week?
Bump
This year, GS interviewed 59 ppl for NY office and only gave out 13 offers across all schools. They also interviewed 11 ppl for SF office and only gave out 1 offer... JPM has a maximum limit of 3 summer associates per group... seeing similar trend across all BBs
Was that only for the non-core schools that interviewed in early Dec? I know CBS/ Stern/ Booth are still interviewing
no, this is coming from superday for core schools that just happened 2 days ago
theres still GS superdays happening next week
This is right. I was told this year at GS SF there would be more spots open than what they traditionally took. I am very surprised to hear that only 1 out of 11 individuals made it in the first Superday.
Is this M7?
this isn't true. they had 25 interviews at my target school alone.
sorry just realized you probably mean super day. i am referring to first round
this isn’t true. they gave out that many offers at CBS alone.
Is headcount down everywhere??
bump
It seems really bad this year. I know a lot of people are offerless in my M7, but we just had the last on campus superday today.
I go to a slightly lower ranked school and it seems really bad. I got lucky enough to get an offer but there are others who seem qualified, whatever you make of that, and walked away empty.
Observed the process this year from a core school -- my observations:
Unfortunately the combination of the above factors means that a large number of students will end up with no offers for the summer -- I would imagine at lower ranked schools the issue is exacerbated even further.
I've seen similar at my M7. Perhaps offers start to trickle in over the next week or so. One interesting thing that I want to follow is if the M7 to Top15 difference matters at all. Seems like things are down across the board but did virtual recruiting open up more for other schools or are things just that tough this year?
Can you comment a little more on Houston recruiting? Which banks cut recruiting classes plus any other comments that you might have.
Has anyone done Hirevue over this cycle? TBH I was a bit worried earlier this fall after reading a lot of threads on WSO about HV interviews and how many people bombed it. But none of the banks I've interviewed with did HV. Is it only specific to GS, or BBs or only for Analyst hires? (I've only applied to EBs)
GS, MS and JPM all had hirevues. GS was the most tricky (most questions).
To those of you with a crystal ball, what are your takes on FT for ‘22 if you don’t like where you ended up this summer? In a well regarded BB, but really not sure about the culture and overall vibe there. As of now I’d like to switch for FT rather than do 2 years there. Somewhat common?
there wasn’t much lateral movement this past summer especially compared to prior years. my opinion is that was because banks hired interns last january pre-covid, shutdowns, etc. and didn’t need the headcount they had planned for and therefore return rates were a function of space and not performance.
Pretty much wrapped up now - how did things look at your respective schools?
I’m the M7 BB poster above - anecdotally the first and second hears say ~70% and career center states closer to 80% which is slight decrease YoY.
I'm non-core at most and we were probably around ~60%...some of the people who didn't really try or know what they were in for accounted for some of that.
bump
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