Timeline of Year 2 recruiting

Good info. Seems to back up my vague notion that ibanking and consulting are started in the fall. what about other areas?

Bumping this thread up.
Can anyone answer the following:
Will I miss the domestic recruiting season for large national companies in positions other than ibanking/consulting if I am out of the country September - December.

Thanks!

I cant speak for other schools, but at the GSB, if you leave Sept to December, you basically miss 98% of full time recruiting options as I understand it. IB, Consulting, GM, IM, finance, whatever... it all happens in the fall.

i would agree with rhyme, but people DO leave during that period. it can be done.

i would just plan to get and take an offer from your internship....then you can do whatever you want!

GM= General Management
IM = ?

Investment management

Fair enough. So, for my purposes I would simplify that list to "financial positions (i banks, etc) and General Management".
What about ops/marketing/product management (e.g. consumer products, etc)

I think I know why you have struggled to get a straight forward answer to this. There isn't one.

Big companies = fall. Smaller companies = later. Though that is no hard and fast rule. You will be counting out a lot of the companies that you typically see in the fall (the big list companies), and maybe even all of those that look to recruit from summer interns and top-up their staff.

It depends on how you want to do things. Would you like to be away in the fall knowing you don't have a job and have to return to desperately recruit? Or be sure you have a job before you go away (I am pretty certain you could back out if needs be on a spring study abroad). Or do you not want to recruit for MBA standard stuff anyway, at which point it is mostly individual work anyway?

What I do know is that people who don't have jobs January of their year of graduation look really scared and worried. I am sure they sort it out, but for the most part that seems to be a signal.

Nicely stated.

I have a question related to internship recruiting: what happens in December? is it relatively quiet or are students busy applying for jobs? Is it wise to take a 2-3 week break during this period?

at Duke, it's completely nuts. you're getting your resume and cover letters together, making last-minute contacts, going to final recruitment activities (consulting companies give workshops on case prep, for example) and also busting your butt because it's the end of the semester. i was wiped by the time that was done.

Thanks aau- that was helpful. What about the vacation period? Does it get real busy during the 3 week break as well?

that's up to you. Some students do approximatley a million cases, and are still dropping resumes/cover letters, and are networking their tails off.

I did minimal job prep and was just really busy travelling a lot. I recommend scheduling in some down time. You'll need it coming off your first semester. And your mom coming to visit does not count for down time.

I spoke to students and alumni at HKUST... Their timeline is slightly different.

Recruiting for internships starts in Autumn, but not many people secure one at the start. Most of the action for internships happen after Chinese New Year when lots of internship openings appear.

For recruitment, a similar cycle happens (although quite a few people are offered a role after the internship)