Recruiting process

The bidding process is great. It means you can secure an interview with companies that you might not normally manage to pull off. I had this at an undergraduate level, and I got my job by bidding.

really? that is an interesting perspective I did not consider...

I also went through this type of recruitment in my co-op program. It's a fairly intricate system and the main purpose is to fill as many internships as possible.

Without it, all the top companies would compete for the same top students and the overall placement rate would be much lower.

kinda like how all the top b-school admissions compete for the same top students.

I'll comment on the two I know something about.... Kellogg and GSB.

They are basically identical programs.

Fall Quarter first year, you go to a ton of presentations, dinners, events, etc, you try and impress and woo and make them take note of you. You bust your butt going all over the place and you become a suit warrior.

Winter Quarter first year, you submit your resumes. They select a handful of candidates to be interviewed. If they dont select you, you bid with points to get a slot. If you bid enough, you get a slot. If you don't, you don't. You interview. You do a second round. You might do a third round. You get an internship, you relax.

Fall Quarter Second year - you have an offer from your internship. It expires waaay before you can interview with anyone else. You have to make a decision. If you dont accept, you basically start the same process again, but with less (from what I hear) schmoozin going on in Fall Quarter, and more interviews actually taking place.

Winter Quarter Second year - Keep interviewing. Field offers.

Spring Quarter Second Year - panic if you dont have something by now.

Yup. It matters more as an undergrad where GPA can keep you out of an interview. My GPA didn't meet my companies "minimums" but I got the job anyway.

Is this always the case? That sort of sucks if you're on the fence. Given that summer internships are almost tougher to land than the real jobs, I wonder how many folks end up actually staying with the company they interned for.[/quote]

The big banks hire almost all of their full-time people from their summer classes. If you want to get to a bank, you need to land an internship that first year.

I believe that, comparatively, consulting firms hire a lot more 2nd year students that didn't intern with them.

But in any case, you'll definitely have to decide before you're able to interview again on campus.

Then what's the purpose of these "declining bonuses" I've been reading about?

https://hr.blr.com/display.cfm/id/19250