Calling all Rotman (Toronto) MBA Applicants:(2017 Intake)Class of 2019

You'll probably have to report although you can upload an unofficial copy in that supplementary section!

Hi There,

Sure, I'm a 29 years old enterpreneur from Central Asia, 8 years experience in multinational engineering company. MSc degree from University College London. Got published research work on renewable energy. Captain of a local hockey team.

Please let me know if you have any questions!

Deeas: you better join the Rotman hockey team!

Hey,

I have given my gmat and during the completion of my application i saw that they need Toelf. Is it mandataory.
Engineering College grad with English as a medium of teaching

jigglypuff , A question for you. Infact quite a few

1. What % of people with internship convert it into a placement offer?
2. How useful did you find the clubs? I hear they are great for networking. But its all what I have read. What are your thoughts on this?
3. Rotman emphasises a lot on self-development lab. What's your take on this?
4. How is career support at Rotman? Rotman claims to have one of the largest career centres in North America.
5. Finally, Rotman is renowned as a Finance school. So, there is expected to be a skew towards finance experience. In fact, the current class profile implies close to 1/3rd to be of finance work ex. Does this make this particular pool the most competitive?

Any help on this is much appreciated.!

If English was the medium of instruction at your college, then you don't need to take Toefl.

I am a Rotman 2016 Grad. Finished and started working in June.
Glad to see the same excitement I experienced !
Happy to answer any questions

Rotman2016

Can you help on the above questions?

Hello everyone,

Can anyone here provide the list of recommendation questions? I have been trying to search all across, but could not find them anywhere.

Wow, thats quite a few lol. Anyway, I will take a stab at answering them all:

1. What % of people with internship convert it into a placement offer?
There is no percentage I know. Career center might have a number though.
My observation has been that it is typical of banks and consulting firms to convert internships into full time offers.
Many other firms would not convert automatically and you need to apply again, in case they are hiring.

2. How useful did you find the clubs? I hear they are great for networking. But its all what I have read. What are your thoughts on this?
I felt the clubs were useful for their events. I would attend the events for networking. I did not get my job through networking, however, I know some of my classmates did.

3. Rotman emphasises a lot on self-development lab. What's your take on this?
I loved it ! It is actually called SDL in first year and LDL in second year. I did it both years. I gives you the time to stop and introspect and think about developing yourself as a leader in a busy schedule.
Only challenge: if you takeLDL (optional in second year) it does not count as a credit course and is in addition to your course load.

4. How is career support at Rotman? Rotman claims to have one of the largest career centres in North America.
Yes, they have a large team. However keep in mind they also have a huge student pool (350*2) at any given point. I found them helpful but it depends on what you put in as well. I kept in constant touch, booked time every few weeks so my career coach took interest in me and my career. If you are not proactive it is easy to lose their attention and fall off the radar.

5. Finally, Rotman is renowned as a Finance school. So, there is expected to be a skew towards finance experience. In fact, the current class profile implies close to 1/3rd to be of finance work ex. Does this make this particular pool the most competitive?
It is true Rotman has huge focus on finance. Almost half the class will sign up for Finance club. (I am not in finance, so I call IB, risk, equity research and anything remotely related: finance). If you are in finance good for you, because all finance roles are there. However you will compete with your classmates and often candidates from other schools like other non-finance jobs.
That being said, Rotman also has students interested in Operations and marketing too. So there are clubs and job postings on campus portal for other domains too .

Now I am wondering who Rotman2016 is. It doesn't seem like you were interested in finance, so it must've been strategy/consulting, so I'm pretty sure I know you lol.

To answer the questions posed by sidiitm2004. Please keep in mind that I was focused on strategy/consulting and was an executive on the MCA.


This is very, very difficult to answer, because a lot of factors play a role. First, the industry. From what I know, finance and consulting firms tend to offer to convert internships if you do well during the summer. Not everyone converts; it's based on performance. Outside of these two industries, I know of many companies who do not automatically convert, but would offer you to proceed to the final round of full-time interviews instead of having to go through the two to three rounds of interviews. Second, personal career preference. A lot of people are career switchers at Rotman, and a lot of people decide that they don't want that career after a taste over the summer and choose to reject the offer. So it's hard to say how many are offered, and because it's a personal choice it's difficult to predict how many will convert.


As a former executive of the MCA, and proud of it, I'm pretty much forced to say very, very useful, lol. There are two types of clubs at Rotman: social and industry. Social clubs are just people who have common interests gathering, like the wine club or the ski club; for these the main purpose is networking. Industry clubs add another element to it; we teach. The MCA spends a lot of our resources (funding and executive man-hours) in coaching case and behavioural interviews. If you want to go into consulting without the background, it is very difficult to succeed without joining the MCA as it's hard to get all this information and training on your own.


SDL is a great tool, but it isn't mandatory. Do it if you want, but I would recommend it. You learn a lot of little things that can change your perspective, and it does become useful when networking and making presentations.


Well, I wouldn't say we have the largest, but definitely one of the highest student-to-coach ratios. They are very supportive, but like Rotman2016 said, only if you yourself put the time and effort into it. I know some peers who have complained that the career centre has done nothing for them, but that's because they never took the initiative. I personally had a great experience with my coach. First half of first year I saw my coach almost once a week to craft my story and refine my recruiting strategy. After that I saw my coach whenever I needed to brush up on interview skills.


Finance and consulting, actually. And since I was in strategy, I don't know much of how the finance side of the school is like. That being said, I do have friends who were in the RFA executive team, and I do know that it's competitive. To claim whether it's the most competitive, I don't know. And finance is weird. While in consulting, the candidates do most of the work in reaching out and applying... a lot of the finance firms go through Rotman's resume book and reach out and invite students to interview on their own, meaning that the candidate has to do little work to secure and interview once your resume is in the resume book (that's if you have a great profile). Some of my friends didn't "apply" anywhere but still got great jobs because the firms were the ones reaching out for chats and interviews. Again, this is if you've got a great profile that draws attention; if you don't then it's tough luck because it's going to be a hard grind (like for any other career).

Thanks Rotman2016 and jigglypuff . That was very informative. I appreciate it. Taking your time out for people like me is brilliant. Cheers guys.

I did ask the adcom if the recommendation questions are generic in nature. So that my referees can write one universal letter which can be used for all the schools. They were not forthcoming. All I got was - "Most questions are generic, but some may focus on specific behaviours" So, some questions may focus on strengths, weaknesses etc; basically asking your referee to write on those specific traits

My understanding is that you can ask your referee to write on specific characteristic traits, but do it as part of a story. So, that he/she can just cut paste those parts under respective school specific questions.

About recommendation questions, it's been a while so I'm not quite sure but... when you're doing your application, don't you have to provide the school with the email address of your reference? I think what happens is the school sends them a link to a series of questions about you which they have to answer, rather than your references having to write a letter to the school.

Of course, I could be wrong... but if there's anyone with any transparency into this, I'm curious too.

Hi jigglypuff,

Can I make a few questions?

Can you tell us how Rotman is about Supply Chain/Operations classes? Would you say their are good classes for those who want to stay in this area as post-MBA career?
And what about the post MBA opportunities for SCM? Is it hard to find jobs in such area or Rotman does have a good brand for it?

I will apply until February and I'm a little concern about this subject because I would like to continue working in SCM.

Thank you!

That's right jigglypuff. The school asks you for your referees e-mail addresses and sends them a link to a form which has a series of questions, rather than a letter.

The questions are simple, pretty much like what other schools ask. How well do you know the applicant, strengths, weaknesses/areas of improvement etc.
Different schools have different word limits for their answers, and some of the questions vary slightly, so you could ask your referees to write some general answers and then edit according to each school's specific question and word limit.

The classes are fun, in my opinion. The SCM course in second year has a simulation game as a part of the class, where you form groups of four and compete with the other groups in class. It actually gets complicated and there's a ton of work that goes into it before the game even starts, but it's pretty satisfying when you win... all that hard work does pay off. You learn a crap ton in the lectures too. I did a bit of SCM work before taking the class and I have to say, if I had taken this class before, my experience and impact would've been very different.

In terms of SCM career opportunities, I'd say it's pretty limited with regards to on campus postings. The only one I remember is Deloitte's SCM consulting arm, but they're very inconsistent with recruiting since it's very specialized. In my year they said they were looking for a couple people, but I don't think they took anyone in the end, or even did any interviews. You'd have to look off campus on your own, but the career centre does help you. A friend of mine is now at Cupertino doing SCM work for Apple and I did a couple interviews as well for their Apple Watch division.

Not sure if Rotman has a good brand for it or not, since I didn't really look into it. Either way, Rotman would always be a good brand on your resume.


So basically... it's pointless for anyone to ask what the questions are or what they should ask their references to write, since it's all going to be revealed directly to the references anyway?