How Do Firms Recruit for Interns?

Question

Title says it all. As I understand it, firms begin summer internship recruitment very quickly after students come on campus. What are the primary factors they use to make their decisions for who to interview? Just the resume? Do they ask for undergraduate GPA? Or GMAT? What about for schools with grade non disclosure? What if you are a career switcher?

HoosierDaddy14 · Answer

I'll give you a completely straightforward answer - it depends. Yes, some firms do recruit pretty immediately after you begin classes, but from my experience, most of the on-campus recruiting really picks up in January. This doesn't mean, however, that legwork isn't required before then. A lot of recruiters will come to campus for "roundtables" and meet-and-greet experiences in which it is in your best interest to come off as polished and well-versed about their companies.

Some companies will ask for your GPA but most are not very interested in it since you will have had only had 1 semester's worth of grades by interviewing season. Your GMAT score, unless, you are pursuing investment banking or consulting, won't be nearly as indicative or your ability to get a job as your previous salary (according to one of our professor's regression analysis). But nonetheless, the rule of thumb is to put your GMAT score on your resume if it is 700+.

And finally, if you are pursing companies that don't recruit on campus, then yes, the application process will start earlier because you will need to reach out to alumni at your target companies, make connections, request informational interviews, etc before you interview.

Hope this helps, and best of luck!

CoralMoore · Answer

Criteria of companies to select employees for them is very particular, but most important quality that they look for is the confidence with which the aspirant would help improving the company. Other points in the selection process are perfect in the stream and the wide minded thinking on any situation presented on the spot.

histgirl · Answer

Yes to everything HoosierDaddy said.

Also - Undergrad institution, Major, undergrad GPA, and GMAT can look good, but don't help that much. Your work experience is by far the biggest factor.

If your a career switcher, even in a FT program, its not too bad if your switching roles / same industry or switching industry / similar role. Switching industry and role is hard, but not impossible. 
- Network/hussle to get a pre-MBA internship 
- Get some part-time experience at a firm, maybe have to go small and network your way in. 
- At least: do coffee meetings and info interviews with people in your target field so you'll have some warm contacts.

Couple things for Finance/Investment Management (only because that's the stuff I know more about):
- If you want to switch into finance, passing the CFA level 1 could help (but June is the only opportunity you have to do this before school and its a lot to study for)
- If you have access to a Bloomberg terminal, you can take some tutorials and tests to get certified. We have several on campus, I've only done the basic training, but employers like to talk about it in interviews. 
- Take a modeling/valuation course. Chances are, these guys will come to campus anyway for weekend workshops, and you can take the course at a deep discount (email the school or finance club about this). But you could do this before school for a leg up. Employers like to ask about this on my resume too.

MDF · Answer

I can only speak to consulting...

At Booth it really comes down to networking (and there are TONS of on-campus opportunities to do this). Everyone has stellar work experience, GPA/GMAT, etc. So unless you have something truly spectacular on your resume, you'll need to network hard to get an interview. The firms want to interview/hire people who have expressed a lot of interest in them and actually want to work there. So it's critical that they recognize your name when they're sorting through applications and resumes in the winter.

That said, getting an interview is only the first step. After that, everyone is pretty much on a level playing field again and all that matters is how well you perform in the interview and on the case.

pmikki · Answer

Glad I bumped into this thread!
How about Entrepreneurs. Will they get any internships? If not, What do they do all summer? Kind of curious!

longtian006 · Answer

First understand what interested, go to select a company

asimov · Answer

Entrepreneurs and internship is almost paradoxical. Those who are interested in entrepreneurship take 3 different paths: 1) work for a start up to understand what it takes to start a company; 2) work for a VC to understand how to get funding, and 3) spending time to start the company.

For these paths, networking is essentially. And the timing of the offer doesn’t follow a strict timeline. Start-ups and VCs do not forecast their hiring pipeline a year or two ahead. Openings can come up at anytime; hence, the importance of networking, so that you will know of the opportunity and be on top of mind at the target companies.

shaunx3 · Answer

Last post of asimoy is simple and very good to understand. I like that. Indeed the internship and entrepreneurship is different things. You post is highlighting the entrepreneurship which is far different and more was then the internship. As per my self when it comes to starting your own business the things are quite changed. Also the social interaction is very important when it comes to start your own business.

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