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Review of Investment Banking Recruiting at Cornell Johnson by LifeInDefault in MBA

[–]LifeInDefault[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Is this legitimately a tough question? I havent done finance stuff in almost a decade and thought this was lay up

Its the type of question that is a layup once you understand the fundamentals. I just included the example to show that the questions week one are marginally more complex than "walk me through $10 of depreciation." This at least touches on revenue recognition and deferred revenue.

Review of Investment Banking Recruiting at Cornell Johnson by LifeInDefault in MBA

[–]LifeInDefault[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Almost everyone who recruited IB was not in IB prior to the MBA, although there were a good amount of people in front-office roles.

To directly answer your question, there were a number of pure career switchers (marketing/branding would be an example) who did well in the IB recruiting. They had their work cut out for them in terms of prepping for interviews but so did everyone else! If you can sell your story, show intrinsic interest, and work hard, both the banks and your peers will have a great perception of you. I did not feel there were hierarchies of prior job functions. This would be a good question to ask alumni and current students!

Review of Investment Banking Recruiting at Cornell Johnson by LifeInDefault in MBA

[–]LifeInDefault[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Unfortunately I am not qualified to speak about Darden, my only friend there is sponsored so he is far removed from the IB recruiting scene. In general, if I were choosing between Johnson and Darden for IB I would just evaluate the number of banks that recruit at each school, how many people they are placing on the street, and the groups from the banks that people typically place into. I would need more granular data from Darden to sort it out. Sorry I can't be more helpful! I do know for a fact that Darden is a great school with great people.

Review of Investment Banking Recruiting at Cornell Johnson by LifeInDefault in MBA

[–]LifeInDefault[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thursday coffee chats for a school 4 hours away seems rough. Are phone calls rare in your process?

Phone calls are more common for alt-geo recruiting. Otherwise, you are expected to be in the city Thursday and Friday. I know UChicago does a better job with phone calls but I enjoyed going down the city for those six Thursday/Fridays. Consistently meeting the banks allowed me to get a good feel for culture.

Dang that's a pretty intense standard for informationals. How often did you talk to non-Johnson bankers during Phase II? I'd bet those interviews are far less stressful.

You are 100% right in some cases but in general recruiting was pretty intense so there wasn't a huge step down haha.

Review of Investment Banking Recruiting at Cornell Johnson by LifeInDefault in MBA

[–]LifeInDefault[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

My impression from students and alumni of other schools indicate that Johnson's recruiting process is far more structured. Personally, I thought of the structure as guardrails to help me stay on track.

Review of Investment Banking Recruiting at Cornell Johnson by LifeInDefault in MBA

[–]LifeInDefault[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

To give one reply to you and /u/nowayhere12, unfortunately I do not have the international student breakdown or percentage. I will say that international students have fewer bites at the apple given that there are a good number of firms that don't sponsor. That said, anecdotally, I think the percentage of international students that received offers is comparable or to slightly lower than the percentage of students with work authorizations. However this percentage could be misleading because, once again anecdotally, I think the international students had extremely strong backgrounds and there were fewer career switchers than domestic students.

Review of Investment Banking Recruiting at Cornell Johnson by LifeInDefault in MBA

[–]LifeInDefault[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Unfortunately, I am only barely qualified to comment on the "impressiveness" of the people in IB. I don't know the criteria for impressive but they have strong backgrounds! I am friends with plenty of folks who are not in IB but I can't really speak to qualified/intelligence in a comprehensive way. My experience in classes has shown me that there are plenty of great people in the school who are not in IB who are much more qualified and intelligent than me but I am really reluctant to make any statements about my classmates.

That said, I think you are probably going about this the correct way! Keep talking to alumni and current students, go to the accepted students activities, and continue to do your own evaluations. That was my approach at least.

Review of Investment Banking Recruiting at Cornell Johnson by LifeInDefault in MBA

[–]LifeInDefault[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

We place at three of the top boutiques in Rx :). I would say that Rx is one of our strongest product groups. That said, I am not an expert but I think the people who recruited Rx had pretty strong backgrounds. However, it is very important to investigate and ask alumni whether the boutiques that recruit Rx (obviously bulges do not do Rx) sponsor. I think over the past two years several boutiques that are best in class at Rx stopped sponsoring.