Recruiting Schedule for Associates, Analysts, Full-Time, Summer, & Non-core Students

Summer Internships

Target vs. Non-Target Recruiting

I am want all of the non-target students to take note of the target school schedule and then always be a week or two early in going out to New York City and emailing the recruiters. To help you in this process I have created a Google Calendar open to the public which you can access to get an idea of what you need to be doing and when. You don't have the luxury of waiting until the middle of the month or period to start because by that time they are already interviewing and meeting with students at their core schools. You have to be a step ahead and on the ball as far as being just ahead of the game.

Note: You do not want to be too far ahead of the recruiting schedule because the recruiters won't be ready for you and it will not matter. The key is to be ahead of the schedule by one week or so. You have to do everything the first two weeks of the recruiting schedule, otherwise, in my opinion, your chances greatly decrease.

This schedule comes from Mariam Naficy's book The Fast Track: The Insider's Guide to Winning Jobs in Management Consulting, Investment Banking, & Securities Trading.

On-Campus Recruiting Schedule for Target Schools

Event		2nd-year MBAs Associates	1st-year MBAs Summer Associates	Undergrad Seniors Analysts	Other Undergraduates Summer Analysts
Info Session		Sept.-Oct.	Jan.	Oct.-Nov.	Oct.-Nov.
Resume Screen		Oct.	Jan.-Feb.	Nov.-Jan.	Feb.-Mar.
1st Interview		Nov.-Dec.	Jan.-Feb.	Dec.-Feb.	Mar.-Apr.
2nd Interview		Nov.-Jan.	Feb.-Mar.	Jan.-Mar.	Mar.-May
Selling Process		Dec.-May	Mar.-May	Jan.-May	not applicable

Full-time Analyst

*According to Merrill Lynch's website

Senior Year

Early September - Late October
Merrill Lynch schedules visits to campus: company presentations, smaller targeted events (i.e. clubs, student affiliations), school career fairs, conferences, and office hours. (Number of visits and type of event will vary according to school.)

You should confirm the resume submission deadline for your program with your school's Career Services Center.

While Merrill Lynch does not have a formalized informational interview process (i.e. Merrill Lynch does not set these up for you, nor require a minimum number of informationals as part of the selection process) Merrill does strongly encourage you to network as much as possible in order for Merrill Lynch professionals to learn about you well before you get to the interview.

Late September - October
Some additional target events may be scheduled (i.e. invitation only dinners, receptions, etc.) in order for Merrill Lynch to get to know you as a candidate better.

Closed lists are determined. Interviews are scheduled.

For full-time analysts: The first and second rounds of interviews for full-time positions typically take place on campus. Selected students are then invited to a Merrill Lynch office for their final round of interviews, which are focused on the product or industry group the student is interested in.

October - Early November
All full-time offers are extended. Check with your Career Services Center as to your decision deadline.

Summer Analyst

Junior Year

Ideally, Merrill Lynch strives to hire as many Merrill summer analysts as possible into the full-time analyst program. As a result the summer recruitment process is extremely important.

Early September - Late October
Merrill Lynch schedules visits to campus: company presentations, smaller targeted events and receptions, school career fairs, conferences, and office hours. Events are intended for full-time candidates; however most are open to all school years.

Late November - January
Merrill Lynch schedules visits to campus: company presentations and events intended for summer program candidates only.

You should confirm the resume submission deadline for your program with your school's Career Services Center.

Closed lists are determined. Interviews are scheduled.

January - February
Both the first and second round of interviews for summer internships typically take place on campus during January and February. The second round interview is the final round. These take place on campus.

All summer offers are extended. Check with your Career Services Center as to your decision deadline.

Off-Campus Recruiting Schedule

Non-core students, as I mentioned at the top of this blog post, refer to the "target" school recruiting schedule and be a week ahead of everything they do. I have made this Google Calendar specifically for you so you can know exactly what you are to be doing and when to do it. I have also tried to include specific and helpful advice for each scheduled item. In order to see this information, click on the event and refer to the detailed summary.

Note: This calendar is in no means meant to be precisely accurate concerning when you are to do "things", but rather is based off of information I have gathered via books, resources, etc... and my personal experience. Obviously the best plan of attack is to be in touch personally, with each recruiter from the different banks. This is why it is so important to network with alumnus, friends, neighbors, relatives, etc... so you can get people on the inside to recommend you to the recruiter so you can know the exact dates and times to be in NYC so you get interviews. So, the one line take away is to NETWORK NETWORK NETWORK!!!

2nd Note: From my understanding, when you click on the Google Calendar button above, this will add my Google Calendar "Investment Banking Recruiting" to your Google Calendar. This should be helpful to you throughout the year.

Finally, please post comments regarding your own personal "non-core" student experiences relating to specific dates and times of when things happened for you, based off of your own personal experiences. Or post a comment if you disagree and would like to make a correction or an addition to the Calendar.