Who Gets The Top Tier Job in B-School?

GPA or gmat score is a screening criteria. once you have above cutoff score, it does not matter. I doubt any firms would take someone who has terrible interviews. Once you are in interviewing process, your interviewing performance is the only/major factor.

To the OP, how come you didn't highlight applicants previous work experience? I would imagine that would be a big factor, no?

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@"another_consultant" You're right. Banks and consultancies generally don't care what a candidate's background is in terms of industry or function as long as it demonstrates a clear track record of success.

@"TwoThrones" I won't answer for the bankers because I recruited for consulting. The short answer is that everything matters. At any of the schools you're talking about, you already have a well-qualified pool of applicants who have been pre-screened and admitted based on their grades, scores, leadership, and work experience. At my school, around 250 students recruited for consulting internships and 110-170 (45-68%) got interviews at each MBB, depending on the firm. Of those ~65 (25%) interned at MBB.

Importantly though, not everything is evaluated at the same time. We had almost 3 months of heavy networking, the "results" of which were evaluated along with applications (scores, grades, etc) to determine interview invitations. After (and only after) that do case and behavioral interview skills become important. I sincerely believe that once you're are invited to interview (or bid your way into one), nothing else matters except for you interview performance.

So, in your vignette, the candidate with a 650 GMAT might need phenomenal WE and be a networking stud to have a shot at an interview. Once (s)he gets there, the GMAT won't matter anymore, but case skills will be critical.

Why not both? zoidberg

One girl got an interview with GS because of her 770 GMAT. She didn't get the job.

I completely agree with brj regarding consulting.

From my conversations with a large number of people who recruited for banking: The networking is the biggest component of deciding who not only gets interviews, but also offers. Banks care a lot about you showing them love by going to their recruiting events and learning about their culture. You also need competency to get the job (and ultimately convert a summer internship into an offer), but the emphasis for banking is on networking.

Obviously there are exceptions for people with unique backgrounds / relevant experience (they require less networking), but the above can be treated as a general guideline.

Totally agree that this varies by industry. There was a wide variety of backgrounds that went to the top banks and MBB, although it did seem like those going to GS/MS/etc had some prior BB experience on their resume. May not have been an IBD role before b-school, but a big name firm certainly seemed to help.

For investment management, the folks who recruited well at the top HFs/MFs etc seemed to either have prior AM experience (usually public markets), and a few had solid ER backgrounds. Very few traditional bankers get picked up for buy-side research roles, although some found their way into product management type roles. I think 'fit' gets underestimated a lot here. Stock pitch is obviously super critical (particularly in earlier rounds), but beyond that it's really about finding the right geography/team/strategy.

Can't really speak to consulting since I didn't recruit.

The very best jobs usually get Americans with strong family connections. For best consulting/marketing placements it is also better to be a US resident.

TheTwoHacker:

But can you really "shine" during a networking event? I understand going and talking to people will show your interest for the company, but I rarely hear people say "that guy is so charming at the event we need to hire him". More often I hear people saying something stupid and harmed their chance of getting the interview instead.

Does it happen like this? Absolutely. Is it common? Insufficient data to say. I know one very specific case where a candidate was basically unknown to one particular MBB very late in the cycle, but managed to impress two people enough that they both pulled the recruiting coordinator aside and said "We must interview this person."

marcus2012:

The very best jobs usually get Americans with strong family connections.
For best consulting/marketing placements it is also better to be a US resident.

What do you consider the "very best jobs?" ~40% of the MBBers I know (and ~30% of the ones in US offices) were non-US citizens. As a general rule, the bigger the firm and more global their footprint, the more likely they are to sponsor.

One thing that has surprised me so far, and maybe CB can shed some more light into this...but after speaking to a bunch of 2nd years, I get the vibe for MBB, it's a lot based on previous employment and GMAT . I think networking and cases are of course important, but the "smoothest" individuals are definitely not getting the top consulting firms from what I see (Which is what I had assumed). I met a neurotic guy who said he messed up the case, but he still got MBB because he had done IB to PE prior to business school.

If you are a non-American and you go to a UNC/Emory/McCombs level MBA college, then getting into an MBB or a Bulge bracket is near impossible. I went to a to a UNC/Emory/McCombs level MBA college (ranked 15-20) and also have had friends who made this mistake. At my college, I can only think of 1 non-American who went to a bulge bracket and no non-Americans went to MBB/other top consultancies.

If you are a non-American, do not go outside the top-10/12 colleges because: a) The quality of jobs that Americans get is much higher - for example pricing strategy manager for non-Americans vs Corporate strategy manager for Americans within the same company. b) Even the global firms prefer not to sponsor non-Americans from this tier of colleges. They hardly pick up anyone and reject almost all non-Americans due to 'fit' (yeah right!!!).

The amount of networking and doors that were slammed on my face (I'm Asian) were soul-crushing. Eventually most non-Americans pick up whatever they can find or take jobs. They tend to feel relieved rather than overjoyed (god bless them) when they finally get sponsored.

Colleges ranked 15-20 should not be charging $100K+ because honestly they aren't worth that much, for Asians especially.

I advise all Asian applicants to not apply to colleges ranked outside the top-10/12. Best of luck to everyone :)

One thing worth considering, is how many are dual citizens. At my school, a surprising number of "internationals" also have US citizenship, or at least a green card.