Anonymous wrote:I worked for a Big 4 consulting firm starting in the mid 90’s. What a time. Here were some of the valuable KSA’s then:

- Knowledge of Bourbon and Cigars
- Skill to strike a golf ball just so
- Ability to carry on a conversation

Success was about building relationships.

Anonymous wrote:My kid is at a top 25 school. He went through the summer internship interview process last year but didn’t land an internship with any of the prestigious employers people talk about here - banks, asset managers, consulting, etc. His school is so bloody competitive and there are so many hard driving and high achieving kids and, I guess, only this many spots at these firms per school. Kid has been pretty devastated.

But what has made it worse is seeing kids from lower ranked schools on LinkedIn, think 150+, who end up with internships at such places! I realise how this comes off but it is deeply upsetting when kid had to work SO hard to get into a top school and then see kids who have worked less hard, coming from schools with 80%+ acceptance rates, end up with opportunities that we have been told are easier to get as top school grads.

Kid just feels, what was the point of busting his behind so hard, he could have taken it easier, enjoyed high school a bit more, could have gone to a lower ranked school and still ended up at BlackRock or JP Morgan or Bain. And, of course, I haven’t shared this with him, but I’ve started feeling the same way.

Anonymous wrote:First of all, disabuse yourself of the notion that students who went to lower ranked schools "worked less hard." Students opt for lower ranked schools for many reasons that have nothing to do with their brains or work ethic - financial, geographic, athletic, etc. Perhaps they do have connections at the firms you mentioned, or perhaps they actually work harder than your son -- higher GPAs, more impressive extracurriculars, leadership roles, relevant work experience, research, etc.

Anonymous wrote:First of all, disabuse yourself of the notion that students who went to lower ranked schools "worked less hard." Students opt for lower ranked schools for many reasons that have nothing to do with their brains or work ethic - financial, geographic, athletic, etc. Perhaps they do have connections at the firms you mentioned, or perhaps they actually work harder than your son -- higher GPAs, more impressive extracurriculars, leadership roles, relevant work experience, research, etc.

Yes but you can look at common data set and majority doesn't have high grades and scores high enough for top schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I worked at an IB and Big 4 in NYC.

I really only wanted people from NYC area. NYC is expensive so if person already lives in NYC problem solved. Also if I want then to internal during school year it is better.

Also First Gen, minority, lower income and women we tried to hire if possible. They need the intern more.

BTW we hired the valedictorian of St. John’s Business school one year who lived at home in Queens and took 18 credits a semester and worked 40 hours a week bagging groceries. She was 10x the worker.

I personally unless Trump University type school could care less where you went.

I doubt you did. I have close business relationships with those big IBs in NYC, so I know well. They do have a list of target schools with many outside NYC as you can imagine. Big 4 are mid-tier sweat shops and don't generally attract grads of top colleges (unlike MBB).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We’ve said this many times. It doesn’t matter where you go to school if you are charismatic, a hard worker and can network. My husband is one of those people. You never heard of his college. He’s a people person and thrives in social business meetings over dinner or drinks.

He is every bit as smart as me even though he went to a community college and a no name school. You heard of my college. No one asks either of us where we went to college now. No one cares about your degree after your first job.

Amazing that the ability to handle your booze for “dinner and drinks” are crucial to business rather than actual analysis, communicating strategy, proving metrics.

Athlete?

Anonymous wrote:I worked at an IB and Big 4 in NYC.

I really only wanted people from NYC area. NYC is expensive so if person already lives in NYC problem solved. Also if I want then to internal during school year it is better.

Also First Gen, minority, lower income and women we tried to hire if possible. They need the intern more.

BTW we hired the valedictorian of St. John’s Business school one year who lived at home in Queens and took 18 credits a semester and worked 40 hours a week bagging groceries. She was 10x the worker.

I personally unless Trump University type school could care less where you went.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work in a firm OP mentioned in her post. In NYC. We have 2-3 interns in our department every year. I don’t have a lot of interaction w
them but I did notice we’ve had a Fordham student in each cohort for last several years. I asked the HR person about this and he said, I’ve learned city kids are a lot less work. He said he had interns that got in trouble or more recently, parents calling him. He literally got a call from a parent worried about her daughter taking subway at 5-6 am to get to work. Could she start later etc. So … now we get a lot more city kids.

+1. You want kids who are independent, at the "city kid" level. That, and certain firms only hire from certain schools. Look at the top law firms for an example.

Anonymous wrote:I work in a firm OP mentioned in her post. In NYC. We have 2-3 interns in our department every year. I don’t have a lot of interaction w
them but I did notice we’ve had a Fordham student in each cohort for last several years. I asked the HR person about this and he said, I’ve learned city kids are a lot less work. He said he had interns that got in trouble or more recently, parents calling him. He literally got a call from a parent worried about her daughter taking subway at 5-6 am to get to work. Could she start later etc. So … now we get a lot more city kids.

Anonymous wrote:I work in a firm OP mentioned in her post. In NYC. We have 2-3 interns in our department every year. I don’t have a lot of interaction w
them but I did notice we’ve had a Fordham student in each cohort for last several years. I asked the HR person about this and he said, I’ve learned city kids are a lot less work. He said he had interns that got in trouble or more recently, parents calling him. He literally got a call from a parent worried about her daughter taking subway at 5-6 am to get to work. Could she start later etc. So … now we get a lot more city kids.

Anonymous wrote:It also turns out that no one in the real world cares about where your kids are going to school. Do you think that the top companies in Wherever do recruits from University of Wherever? They do. There are smart kids everywhere.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Life is about the hustle. You have to hustle to get anywhere in life. Even going to a top school, you have to hustle. No one gives you anything in life.

My husband owns a company and no longer like to hire from MIT or other top engineering schools because the student are quick to tell you where they went to school but don’t actually work much. The ego and entitlement make them difficult teammates and employees. He would rather hire a hard worker from a second tier university.

My DH is n a similar position and he says the same thing. Students from top tier schools often have massive egos and think they know everything already.