What are Diversity Programs actually LIKE?
I find many, many posts about people freaking out about getting in to these.... but very few actually discussing what people's experiences with them are. How many interviews are there? How technical are the interviews? Do these programs give a "headstart" on interviewing or are the results decided within the day/week? Many of these programs are doing 2 days, one day of networking and another of interviewing. Do they vary their expectations of technical knowledge considering that this is still early in the process? Do they judge how to grill you based on college/university (ie if you are a Classics major at an LAC who squeezed through, even though in an ideal world you should know as much as a Business/Accounting Major at U of Texas, do they tend to expect this from you?) I'm sure I have more questions, but if you've got any knowledge/experience with any of these programs, please respond! Thank you!
basically the same thing, just with little to no white interns
Are they multiple interviews back to back generally or just one interview?
Based off of my experiences half the time there are no interviews. They are just team building and networking. Still prepare as if there is an interview but few firms give an interview at a diversity day. The only firms I know for sure that do interview at these events are Evercore and Citi.
Agree that most of the time there are no interviews. I'm not sure if our experiences were different, but I did diversity for both Evercore and Citi and neither explicitly guarantee an interview, although most of the time you will get at least a first round.
From my experience, Moelis gives you a first round, Barclays gives you a superday, Blackstone gives a first round, PJT first round, MS first round, GS nothing. For the most part, you would get a headstart on interviewing, as diversity interviews tend to go starting in March. I would say technicals are still expected (at least if you're from a business/finance program, can't speak for LAC), and networking is also still important.
Hope this is helpful, can definitely answer more questions!
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generally the programs give you some insight into the firm and an earlier interview. the interview itself is normally the same and you have to be just as good as a normal candidate.
Ive been to a number of these for different banks and PE funds w. analyst programs... they typically take place over 2 days, but sometimes are just one day. On the first day, its usually a day to fully immerse yourself into the culture of the firm. A lot of speakers, usually associates to MDs selling the firm/culture etc, there might be a third party speaker who comes to give pointers on how to do well in interviews, how to formulate your answers, etc. In some cases some banks may have 2 analysts do a case study or walk through a deal (have only seen this once), and some banks will usually end the day with an opportunity to for you to network with analysts and associates at some sort of cocktail hour (pre-covid) or they will place different groups in different rooms and you have an opportunity for you and other kids to sit and meet with specific groups for 20-30 mins... Its very clear which banks make an effort to sell themselves and an insightful 2 day experience.
The second day (or in some cases, the afternoon of the first day) is usually super days. In all of my experiences, they all seemed pretty standard: three to four 30 minute interviews usually half behavioral half technical. Usually about 30-50 kids are invited to these events.. funny enough you end up seeing a lot of the same kids at these events as many of banks target the same ~100 diversity candidates. ( I remember going to 3 of these with the same like 15 kids at one point). They are generally pretty helpful though. This response applies to (JP, BofA, Laz, Blackstone, Blackrock, MS, CS(GS, which is slightly diff)).
Can agree with all of the above. Definitely hilarious to see the same 10 people at every diversity event. A lot of those people I still stay in touch with and some are in my SA class. Nothing to lose with these events. Don't forget they put you in a nice hotel thats a couple of blocks away from the firm
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