INSIDE THE MBA RECRUITING PROCESS
By Dominic Basulto
It is no surprise that the highest-ranked schools
draw the biggest-name recruiters. It is assumed that the top students
who have already passed the selection filter at, say, Harvard or Yale,
are ready to assume the custom-designed post-MBA job positions that
are waiting upon graduation from business school. From a cynical perspective,
the MBA recruiting drive may be likened to a highly-ritualized courtship
process whereby both parties (the student and the corporation) are finally
joined in a mutually-advantageous relationship. The student has just
tapped into a substantial future cash flow stream, while the corporation
has locked up a future source of client-generating business. In this
courtship process, there are three basic steps: (1) the "wining
& dining" (2) the application to the corporation and (3) the
corporate interview.
THE WINING & DINING PROCESS
Prior to the on- or off-campus interviewing process,
there is a series of events held at the B-schools that seek to familiarize
the students with the corporate culture of the corporations. These events
can range from the low-key (meeting over sandwiches in a small classroom)
to the typical (multimedia presentation in a large lecture hall) to
the grandiose (champagne and hors d'oeuvres at a fancy hotel). Typically,
a recruiting team of 3-5 people from a corporation each of whom is usually
a recent alumnus of the respective B-school, arrives on campus, the
exact format of the presentation may vary. At Yale, for instance, the
CEO of Procter & Gamble (a Yale alumnus) personally appeared, narrated
a recruiting video, and then handed out mini boxes of Tide laundry detergent,
a P&G product, to all the audience members.
At these presentations, the students are not expected
to know everything, or even to ask particularly elucidating questions.
Rather, the prospective employees are given a first-hand account of
what exactly an MBA hire does at consulting firms, investment banks,
or multinationals as well as the opportunity to schmooze with young
alumni. After assimilating all this information, B-school students decide
to which firms they will apply for an interview.
THE APPLICATION TO THE CORPORATION
Most, if not all, of the top B-schools have developed
close relationships with the leading employers of MBA graduates. These
firms have a good idea of how many graduates they will hire from each
school, with the overall number fairly constant from year to year. While
some firms, such as McKinsey or Goldman Sachs, will interview literally
every student from a "Top 5" school who requests an interview,
it is far more likely that corporations need to be somewhat selective
with whom they speak. Firms usually seek to complete the recruiting
process as quickly as possible, and will announce a 1- or 2-day period
when they will appear at the B-school and conduct a full day of first-round
interviews.
There are two basic routes to securing an interview
with a prestigious firm: the "open" interview schedule and
the "closed" interview schedule. Each schedule has approximately
12 half-hour interview slots per day. The "open" interview
slots are termed "open" since they are not based upon merit
or talent. Students win the opportunity to speak with certain firms
either through a completely random selection process or through a "competitive
bidding" process, which resembles an auction. Naturally, weaker
students within a B-school favor these "open" schedules. For
the more competitive "closed" schedules, there is usually
a recent alumnus (rather than an HR manager) at these corporations who
coordinates the acceptance of resumes from the current group of students.
Corporations announce the final closing date for accepting resumes,
and only then begin the selection process. Students vying for one of
the competitive "closed" interview slots essentially compete
head-to-head with each of the other future bankers or consultants, meaning
that some individuals may find themselves yielding only 1-2 (or even
zero) interviews during any recruiting cycle. Obviously, it is important
that the resume be impeccable and, if possible, specifically tailored
to a specific firm.
THE CORPORATE INTERVIEW
Finally, after the selection of students for the interview
schedules, the firms once again arrive on campus to conduct a series
of 30-minute first-round interviews. For the career placement office
of the B-school, this is often the busiest time of the year. Prior to
the interview, students frantically besiege the career placement office
for copies of "corporate literature" (annual reports, web
site information, recruiting brochures) and engage in a series of prepatory
"mock" interviews in order to prepare for the "real"
interviews.
In large part, interviews in business school require
far more preparation than expected, mostly due to the high stakes involved.
It is not uncommon for students to call alumni working at the firm to
obtain the latest news (gossip) prior to the interview, or to check
the Bloomberg for the most recent company stock quotes. Questions asked
during the interview can range from the mundane ("So why did you
study finance?") to the complex ("What are the characteristics
of an LBO target?") to the off-beat ("You're working on the
trading floor when all the screens go blank. What do you do when a client
calls for a price quote?"). Moreover, firms now are starting to
favor the "case study" interview format in order to select
the most successful candidates.
For the most competitive firms, the sheer volume of
applicants means that the interviews proceed in a series of rounds,
with first-round on-campus interviews followed by later off-campus interviews.
These interviews usually occur at the firm's headquarters, although
they may be held at hotels or private clubs. The most extreme example
is the "Super Saturday"-type events when a bank will invite
its top selections from all the leading business schools to meet at
the office on a Saturday for a series of grueling interview sessions.
While the overall recruiting process may seem overly
complex, or even Byzantine, in its logic, the highly-ritualized nature
of the process ensures that the most prestigious firms will end up wooing
the most desirable candidates, and that these high-potential candidates
will likewise have a wide selection of employers. Each of the three
stages of the recruiting process describred above follows a specific
timeline mutually established by both the business school and corporation
and is highly geared toward a transparent, competitive process.
Dominic Basulto is a 1998 graduate of Yale School
of Management and currently works as a consultant for Pericles ABLE
(American Business and Legal Education) in Moscow. Pericles offers a
full MBA advising program.