Why Are Banks Targeting B-School Students So Early?

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HOW EFFECTIVE IS ACCELERATED RECRUITING?

Much of this begs the question, how effective can accelerated recruiting actually be? For instance, recruiting students earlier means they’re earlier in their college careers and likely not to have taken enough business classes to prep them for the internships they’re pursuing. At Citi, the company says this hasn’t made much of an impact since the internship period itself has remained unchanged.

But students say there’s more to it. By the time they do the internship, they may have more classes under their belts and more training, but landing the internship requires technical knowledge that they may not have encountered in the classroom or from a program such as the virtual learning initiative that Citi offers.

“A lot of what stresses people out is the technical interview,” says Persuad. “I’ve taken corporate finance, but the class people are saying you have to have is advanced corporate finance. I’ll be taking that this semester.” In the interim, Persuad says he’s getting his technical knowledge from a guide that’s provided by his school’s finance society. “They have the guides as part of the available resources. You have to pay dues and once you’re a member you have access to everything. Dues are about $20 a semester.”

William Blair’s Katie Jones says, “We have certainly had internal discussions about how to reconcile the skills that students have to ensure we’re not evaluating them unfairly given where they are in their college career. I think it’s important for employers to be thoughtful about their approach to these candidates and providing the training that’s needed. That is one thing that we are ensuring we have.”

AND HOW MUCH FASTER CAN IT GET?

Firms also acknowledge that the accelerated timelines can be challenging for students.

“I think overall, the accelerated timeline has made it difficult for students to have to choose what they want their future to look like so early on in their college career,” says Jones. “It has also made it so that, as a company, you’ve potentially missed out on strong candidates that haven’t chosen the early timeline or even realized that it exists. That hasn’t changed the quality of candidates we’ve seen, but I do think it’s decreased opportunities for students who aren’t quite ready that early on in their college career. I think it also puts them in a difficult situation to make early decisions without having all their options. School rules used to dictate timelines and give them time to weigh all their options and those no longer exist.

“In the past, the timeline of when finance or investment banking recruiting took place was always very clear,” Jones continues. “Now it’s difficult for students to understand when certain companies are going to be recruiting. It puts a lot more pressure on them to do research and follow-up to ensure they’re within the timeline of that specific company.”

Now the question for employers, business schools, and students is how much faster can this get?

“How sustainable is this and will we continue to go down this path are questions we need to ask ourselves,” says Storz. “ I don’t necessarily think we’ll move up timelines more than we have. Outreach will continue to get earlier and earlier, but not in the context of the formal internship program. It’s much more about the education piece and opening people’s eyes to opportunities they may not have realized existed.”

As for students who have experienced accelerated recruiting, their advice to others is to hone their career interests as early as possible and to take advantage of all the resources that are available in the business school.

“I’d estimate that the majority of students go into college undecided and not sure what they want to do in life,” says Persuad. “That’s okay, but at least start trying to get an idea. Have some intellectual curiosity about what you want to do in life.”

Adds Upadhyay, “Go after any resources your school may have. Coming into college, you don’t know much. Be an open book and be a sponge. That’s where you’ll find the opportunities. The most helpful advice I’ve gotten has often come from upperclassmen and mentors who have seen my desire to learn. The looming question is always, ‘What am I going to do with my life?’ This definitely helps with that.”

DON’T MISS: HOW TWO-YEAR GOIZUETA WEATHERS THE ACCELERATED RECRUITING STORM or NEW DATA: TOP FEEDER SCHOOLS TO WALL STREET

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