Power of Managing Directors?

Undergraduate going through recruiting currently. I know a few MDs at some BBs who are willing to help me with my internship hunt. I go to a target school(top 3 finance) but my GPA is 3.3 which is not very great. I have decent internship experience and leadership. What do you think my chances are assuming the MDs put in a good word for me?

 
JohnBran:

Whats wrong with utilizing all of your assets? If you were in his place I guarantee you would be doing the same thing as him. Anyone half-serious about this would.

I agree. I have no connections and my family is not wealthy at all, but there is no need to be condescending and immature.

 

If he likes you a lot and you build a solid relationship he can easily get you an interview and put in a good word. However if you mess up the interviews and appear socially inept to your interviewers he's probably not going to push for you much further. Just be personable and ask good questions. Remember it's just a conversation, don't go in expecting anything.

 

lol copper I did work hard in college but just did not do as well as I thought I would; my school is really difficult. And I am networking and recruiting on campus as well I was just wondering what an MD could do for me. Thanks for the responses

 

sounds like HR holds decent amount of political power within an IB.

Do they participate in all the interview process? or they just "approve" things. and how do they "approve" new hires?

 

If the MD is the head of the group, there is a decent chance. Otherwise, it is unlikely.

The bottom line is that the HR needs to approve the change of the headcount in the group and thus there is literally no way that you can avoid letting HR know. The headcount approval is much easier a few years ago when the market is at its peak and every group has sufficient P&L. Control on headcount has been extremely tight in the past year or so.

 

Yes and No. Decisions are normally done (for juniors anyway) at the line-manager level (read: group head). Hence if your MD had a compelling reason to hire someone, he would/should discuss that possiblity with the head Once that hoop is cleared, I would say that HR would have little say - even though they notionally have to "approve". Note the exception to this is if there is a firm-wide/division wide hiring freeze.

 

If you are a fresh out of school and used to mow your MD's lawn on Saturdays then good luck to that MD justifying the extra analyst. HR will gracefully decline you. I've seen a few people go around the 7 interviews and only have two major interviews but they also had an incredible track record and showed up with a few solid deals ready to go.

 

Well, it depends on what you mean by "hire directly." I only had one interview with an MD and got the nod the same evening. The fact that HR must "approve" a hire doesn't mean much if the MD strongly recommends you and you have a strong resume. MDs are usually better informed if their respective group needs, or will need, new analysts. As long as there isn't a company-wide hiring freeze, I think MDs have good hiring power.

 

I think anyone who's spent maybe four or five years there can get you hired (or has good relations with someone who can), but I can't imagine they'd stick their neck out for an intern who's only in for a couple of months and might not even come back next year.

 
abhishek-dev:

I was wondering if MDs in top investment banks have power/ability to hire summer interns on their own.

No, he does NOT have the power to do so. I did the mistake and assumed MDs would. I ended up without an internship, even though I knew various MDs at BBs and one was even related to me. There is no way they can get you an internship. They are not HR. HR makes all the hiring decisions. So if you know someone in HR, this might result in an internship

 
Best Response
kinghongkong:
abhishek-dev:

I was wondering if MDs in top investment banks have power/ability to hire summer interns on their own.

No, he does NOT have the power to do so. I did the mistake and assumed MDs would. I ended up without an internship, even though I knew various MDs at BBs and one was even related to me. There is no way they can get you an internship. They are not HR. HR makes all the hiring decisions. So if you know someone in HR, this might result in an internship

Do not listen to this. If an MD wants you they will get you. HR makes hiring decisions? No, that's laughable. HR may make decisions on which resumes get passed on but if an MD forwards an email to HR and says 'please interview this person' guess what happens? After that, who is interviewing you? The MD and the people who work for the MD. MD has a favorable impression of you at the meeting to discuss the candidates and speaks up and says he liked you the best, you think his VP/Associates/Analysts are going to chime in and tell their boss they are wrong? Not a chance in hell. The person at the BB who you know/is family could have gotten you the job but chose not to. Sorry.

This to all my hatin' folks seeing me getting guac right now..
 
kinghongkong:
abhishek-dev:

I was wondering if MDs in top investment banks have power/ability to hire summer interns on their own.

No, he does NOT have the power to do so. I did the mistake and assumed MDs would. I ended up without an internship, even though I knew various MDs at BBs and one was even related to me. There is no way they can get you an internship. They are not HR. HR makes all the hiring decisions. So if you know someone in HR, this might result in an internship

Hate to break it to you, but if that's what they told you, it's simply that they didn't want to hire you and pinned it on HR.

HR organizes and streamlines the recruiting process. Besides some first line screening and the ability to connect you to important people, they have very little impact in making the final decisions.

 

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