General Management programs

Some do, it all depends on background. The honest answer is a fair number of people head back to their internship employer, not a huge amount but enough that their are fewer slots available. I dont know about this year but if you look at Kellogg's employment report they break out the PT people.

There is no guarantee that you will get a job. You have to earn one and people have to want you. That said its probably pretty uncommon for someone to not get an offer. Some will let you exit the program early if you find the right opportunity within the company. When you get hired it would be extremely rare to know what job you will be doing after your rotational program ends. Some people will get several offers within a company they can choose from...

Basically there is a huge variation between programs and what different people get for offers.

Depends on the company...some are very strict about minimum of 5/6 years work experience. I think a lot of that has to do with you showing up and advancing into a management role right away. Personally I am heading to a company where I will start in a management position immediately (a big reason I took it), the other people who were interviewing were for the most part MBA grads from 2-3 years ago. As part of my interview they actually told me I was the least experienced person they were interviewing for the position and asked about my relative lack of experience compared to the competition. Somehow I got the offer so I must have said something right.

I think a rotational program might be a little more flexible but a lot of the off campus and what I found to be more interesting, had higher levels of responsibility, and more lucrative tended to be on the higher experience side. The programs are great, but there is something to be said about being the 1 of 1 or 2 people not 1 of 25 people they bring on in a given "program." I think few GM opportunities would say someone is too old but a lot will say you are too young. There are still enough students at top schools who are 30+ when they graduate and many of them also tend to have backgrounds favored by GM positions...a lot of the younger folks bringing down the median age are former consultants and bankers who are heading back into that field.

This thread has made for some very informative reading. Thanks a lot for the inputs guys.

I'd be very interested to know about the sponsorship aspects for internationals as well.

There has been a lot of talk on this thread about quantity of prior work experience. However, are there any requirements for the 'quality' of work experience as well? Are companies with GM rotational programs looking for candidates with a minimum of 3-5 years of prior works exp AND a history of managing medium/large teams?