Richard Ivey Students: How Does IBD Recruiting Work At Our School?

I was wondering how most students get their IBD summer placements. Here are a few questions regarding this:

  1. Do most people get their ibd jobs from applying through the career centre? I see from the most recent Ivey annual report that all the BBs (except Deutsche Bank) and some EBs hire Ivey students and I was wondering if this is usually facilitated through the school.

  2. Are first round interviews for banks that recruit from the school usually done on-campus?

  3. For U.S. recruiting, when you are flown out for superdays, do you usually have to miss classes, and if so, do you have any problems doing so (I know attendance is important since a contribution mark is recorded)? Similarly, do you ever need to miss classes for interviews in Toronto?

  4. Which offices of the U.S. banks hire from the school? For example, does Morgan Stanley hire for their NYC and LA offices, or just their NYC office, or just their Toronto office, etc.?

  5. Approximately, how many positions are available for LA IBD positions?

  6. Approximately, how many positions are available for Toronto IBD positions?

  7. Approximately, how many positions are available for NYC IBD positions?

  8. Is it true that anyone with about an 84%-85% average is basically guaranteed at least an interview for a summer IBD position from most (if not all) of the banks? I've heard similar things to this from a 1st and 2nd year students, but I'd like to see if anyone who actually went through the process can verify this or let me know if it is just an exaggeration.

  9. Do the banks care about your marks pre-Ivey?

  10. Do most banks have/participate in on-campus networking events?

I asked a lot of questions, so thank you very much in advance!

16 Comments
 

Buddy, if you don't go to an ivey league college (or stanford),

  1. you will never get hired for a wealth management sophomore SA gig at UBS/BAML,
  2. never get that junior SA gig at JPM/MS/GS,
  3. never get that FT gig at a JPM/MS/GS,
  4. never get hired at KKR/Blackstone/Apollo,
  5. never do an elite MBA
  6. (whats the next thing everyone dreams of doing, I'm actually not sure)

So you could pretty much conclude that your life is already over.

 
"StreetofBulls"

For those not familiar with Richard Ivey, its a target in Canada that places fairly well in NYC/west coast(comparative to schools in Canada, at least). Are you looking to transfer to HBA?

Thanks for the reply. I'm actually an incoming transfer student and I am starting this September.

 
Best Response
"Sharp2ndF"

Thanks for the reply. I'm actually an incoming transfer student and I am starting this September.

I can't speak from experience as I'm entering my sophomore year this coming September(AEO), but I can shed light on what the consensus is having spoken to a number of HBAs currently in the industry.

-Places extremely well at GS(TMT in both SF/NYC, west region advisory) and various EBs(Evercore and Moelis come to mind).

-Have seen MS/JPM placements but not as common surprisingly. From what I heard, JPM's recruiting cycle starts earlier so while most banks ONLY look at HBA1 first semester marks for recruiting, JPM looks at your first 2 years since the grades aren't out by the time they do resume drops. US placements seem less common for these firms.

-Barclays seems to scoop up a number of HBA kids every year. Qatalyst took a few this year. Silverlake seems to love HBA kids as well.

-Most banks have informational presentations come recruiting time. Your profs know this, and allocate work accordingly and try not to slam you when this time rolls around. Your schedule during this period will pretty much be class during the day, seminar+social at night.

-It's said that you have to be top 10%~ of your class to get an interview, and top 1-2%~ for NYC/SF/LA. From what I've heard, as long as your grades are good you'll be given an interview. I'd say roughly 20-30 kids a year are sent to the US for IBD(could be off).

Sorry for the unorganized notes, pretty much just a memory dump of whatever I could remember. Hope this helps!

 
  1. Almost every IB will post on Ivey's career center. Career Management will walk you through the recruiting process / timeline well in advance.

  2. First-rounds are almost always done on campus. During the first two weeks of recruiting, Ivey cancels classes on Monday / Friday to hold interview days. Some interviews will take place during class but it’s not a big deal.

  3. See number 2 about cancelled classes. That being said, you may have to miss a day or two (some people miss more). Your contribution will take a hit if you don’t manage your time well or if you’re missing more than 3-4 classes, but your average shouldn’t drop more than 1%. It doesn’t really matter though because Ivey is a 4 month program - you focus on school / networking in the first semester to lock down SA offers in January / February, hopefully getting a FT return offer, in which case you can coast through HBA2. Your grades after semester 1 matter for B-school or if you go through FT recruiting in August/September.

  4. US banks generally hire for every office, coast to coast. You’ll indicate your preference in your applications.

5-7. Back in my day, I can only think of a few people that did IB in LA. I would assume 1 position per IB. You can probably search for smaller IBs in LA on Google and apply outside of Ivey’s process. For Toronto, I would assume 2-3 per Canadian bank and 1 per BB that has an office in Toronto. I would assume 1-2 per IB in NYC.

  1. No, it’s an exaggeration. You can get interviews with 82+ if your experience is relevant to IB (valuation, deals, etc.) and if you make a good impression on an analyst when networking. I will check your grades in Fin Fun, Finance and DWA to make sure you can handle the work (great candidates would have a final grade of 85+ and contribution mark of 90+ in each of those classes, but those are not hard cut-offs). I won’t look at anyone with an average under 80. Once you get an interview, your GPA is irrelevant.

  2. Your pre-ivey grades don’t matter because if you got into Ivey, your grades were probably around 80+. They can only hurt you if they show a pattern of poor performance (multiple 60s / 70s).

  3. Yes

 

In terms of NY IBD, Ivey's placement is not like it used to be pre 2008. GS and Evercore will take 1-2 each, MS, CS, BARCAP, UBS Citi, BAML do not come on campus. J.P. and Centerview may or not take one kid. Nomura and BNP also may or may not take 1 kid.

In terms of Toronto IB Ivey is very strong the Global Banks (GS, MS, BAML, Citi, Evercore, CS, BARCAP, and whoever else is in TO will all take a kid, some take 2) In terms of Toronto big 5 IBD, the placement is not much better then Schulich. Because Ivey's recruiting is in Jan, many of the big 5- specifically non RBC are scared kids will not accept.

Ivey has a strong reputation out west. In LA Moelis will take 1-2, HL 1-2, Barcap 1-2, and GS 1-2. These are the only banks that come for LA.

 

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