<p>So if it’s almost impossible without a connection, why do the bulge bracket banks even say they hire engineering majors? Seems like no career service at engineering schools are geared towards investment banks.</p>
<p>I just don’t understand how a top 5 engineering school like UM would not attract I-banking recruiters when they say on their website that they hire majors in engineering</p>
<p>They’re willing to hire any major, doesn’t mean that it’s equally easy to get in from any school or any major. They just don’t automatically throw your resume in the trash just for being an engineering major.</p>
<p>If you choose a university with a top ranked undergraduate business program (like Michigan), and your intent is to become an IBanker, you really should enrol at the Business school. That is not to say that Engineers at Michigan cannot get a job in IBanking, but the odds of landing a job in IBanking from Ross are significantly (and I mean SIGNIFICANTLY) better. Without making too fine a point, IBanks target Ross specifically. Students at the CoE and LSA are recruited on campus, but to a much lesser degree. Most Ross students who find jobs in Wall Street will be hired from campus, while the majority of LSA and CoE students who secure Wall Street jobs will have taken the initiative on their own.</p>
<p>I have to second Alexandre’s points - personally, just came off a 16 month stint of networking my rear end off with Michigan alums in investment banking and concluded a summer internship at a top firm in IBD. 95% of the people I ran into were Ross alums, and there’s an implied expectation as an alum to help out a Ross student before looking at Econ, Math, Stats, etc. majors. To be fair, it is still possible to get your foot in the door from the Econ dept but it makes your life 100 times more difficult. </p>
<p>I have friends that are Econ majors that are incredibly bright and knowledgeable about the industry but failed to get looks from top firms (GS, BX, MS, JPM, EVR, etc.) just due to their lack of Ross affiliation (in my honest opinion, they would have gotten at the very least first round, if not superday, interviews with these banks otherwise). </p>
<p>Regarding engineers specifically, I ran into 2-3 (out of a pool of ~200-250). In addition, they have been at the firm for 6-7 years (meaning they went through the recruiting process pre-crisis) and internally lateraled from other places in the bank. So it’s not impossible, but there’s a good chance you’re not placed in IBD directly out of undergrad.</p>
<p>Reason behind this is actually quite simple: regardless of the measures GS, MS, JPM, and BAML have taken to retain top analyst talent, they still understand that the large majority of junior bankers will leave the firm after two years. It therefore makes sense for them to want undergrads that can step in and perform right away with minimal training - Ross does a fantastic (relative) job with preparing its students for a traditional investment banking role. In addition, while banks will say that they don’t have specific quotas for how many students from each university they will take, these numbers are often determined by the number of alums at the respective banks, and their position/internal pull. So suppose at JP Morgan (who by the way does not recruit on campus at Ross for IBD) is allocated 4-6 slots, they’re going to take 3-4 of the top Ross recruits, and maybe 1 Econ student who has really gone above and beyond to get to know the recruiting team personally, has taken initiative to learn financial accounting, follows the markets, and is passionate about investment banking, investing, etc. There are already enough students coming out of schools like Yale, Princeton, Williams, etc. that need training; there’s no need to add to that list from Michigan when we have a well respected undergraduate business school. Not to mention, many (hesitate to say “most”, although it did seem to be the case this summer) recruits coming from liberal arts schools, with limited finance background, are relationship hires. Most Michigan Engineering students aren’t connected in the same degree as these LAC recruits.</p>
<p>Hope this makes sense. Will be interesting to see how the business minor program changes things with respect to IBD recruiting.</p>
<p>You could try Sales & Trading, which I’d guess you’d have a much easier time getting into with an engineering degree. I was in your position, and decided consulting is ultimately the more rewarding career path in the short and long term. </p>
<p>Consulting companies aren’t prestige whores in terms of brand names as they are in terms of accolades like Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa etc. </p>
<p>Just my two cents.</p>
<p>Just to be clear Mistasuggs, the problem for CoE and LSA students isn’t Michigan’s prestige. If Michigan weren’t considered prestigious, even Ross would not be recruited, let alone considered one of the main targets for BB IBanks. Michigan is extremely prestigious in corporate circles, and the list of Michigan alums (not all associated with the Business school) that have founded or served as senior executives (including CEO) at major IBanks is impressive. Today, Michigan remains one of the best represented universities on Wall Street. For this reason, the Michigan brand, regardless of college (Engineering, LSA or Ross) is considered very prestigious in Wall Street. Clearly prestige isn’t the problem. The problem is that IBanks have a clear program to focus their recruitment activity on. And that is not just the case at Michigan. The same thing will happen at any university with a dominant undergraduate business program, including NYU (Stern), Penn (Wharton), Cal (Haas), Michigan (Ross) and UVa (McIntire). </p>
<p>Consulting firms also focus most of their efforts on Ross, but they also seem to recruit students at LSA and CoE a little but more than IBanks do. Again, prestige is not the problem. Among major Consulting firms, Michigan is as prestigious as it gets (save a handful of universities), but again, it is just more practical and cost-effective to focus on Ross.</p>
I’m a junior in engineering and I received an offer for the summer at a BB in IBD. I do have to say much of what I’ve heard here on the forum resonates with my experience. Unfortunately, I went into the process wanting to believe that banks like engineers because of our greater problem solving skills. It was certainly harder for me than most of my friends in Ross to get this internship, but not impossible. It’s just that Ross has the infrastructure in place already (bidding points, recruiting materials etc), which makes it much easier for a student in Ross to go into banking.
However, I think in the long run I have a more interesting story to tell and I value my engineering education significantly more than my Ross peers do theirs. They simply see Ross as a recruiting platform, and nothing more. So I don’t regret my route one bit.