Has anyone seen blatant nepotistic graduate hiring of the son or daughter of a big client in MBB?
As much as their recruiters profess it is a more meritocratic process than IB, with nobody being hired “because of who they are”, I struggle to believe them.
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I'm personally aware of three cases where we got an application from the son/daughter of client CEOs/CFOs and in which the CEO/CFO specifically discussed the application with the partner contact - and each time we rejected them after second round interviews. I haven't seen any other cases.
It may differ a bit in different parts of the world, but I think that kind of relationship really doesn't guarantee more than a first round. Maybe there would be a bit more pressure for incredibly influential clients or partners... But we're not going to hire someone who's not good enough for the job. Very practically it would be much worse for us if we hired them, they suck at the job, hate the experience, get counseled out, and then go gripe to moms/pops than it does to simply reject them at the outset.
And push beyond the initial referral from an interested partner would be very negatively received - I believe there are some compliance / legal concerns around the idea or perception of "giving a client's kid a job in exchange for work" which we come down hard on.
Those examples are only anecdotal - and they do show some practices might get bent to give people a chance, but in my experience, success after initial referral is pretty exclusively dependent on performance in the interviews.
I'm not sure how it works at other firms though.
Making one client happy and hiring a stupid fuck that can't hold his / her own when put in front of other clients, thereby risking losing MULTIPLE clients is a horrible trade-off and likely a risk that no team would be willing to take.
Relationships usually open doors (round 1 interviews), it would take a lot to guarantee you a spot.
Know of two cases of senior partners' kids getting internships, but only one was client facing. On the flip side, there are multiple cases of clients/ partners' kids getting an interview - the regular way, as far as I know - but not getting offers.
I'm at a tier 2 but there is a clear structure in place here to make this fair and I'm sure it's the same or similar at MBB.
At a high level - you have a sort of pre-screening interview with mid to senior level staff who don't know you to decide if you should make it into the full interview pool. After that - it's pretty blind. When we do interview days you never know who the referrals are vs. the regular resume pile. If they're at a non-target - you can make some assumptions but - it doesn't bias decisions of the interviewers. I don't care who you know - I care about if I want you on my team.
Had a friend who got an internship at MBB and one of his parents was very high up in government. Their parent was appointed to a position by Trump for context.
it must be heavily country dependent.
Look at BCG Italy for example, which hired the kids of some of their biggest Italian clients like Illy coffee and Salini Impregilo.
In the boutiques I worked before it was happening routinely but only for internships, and I’ve seen none of these folks getting full time offers.
BCG turned down Chelsea Clinton
Source: Heard from a BCG Partner
My dad is a senior partner, but when we’re at work, he doesn’t treat me any differently than other employees.
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