Pre-MBA Events Open to All Prospective First-Year MBA Students
Consulting Meet-and-Greets
Consulting giants McKinsey & Company, Bain & Company, and Boston Consulting Group (BCG)—“the MBB firms,” as they are called—all host informal networking events designed to provide a consulting primer of sorts to prospective students, complete with an overview of the industry, an office tour, and opportunities to meet and talk to current employees and learn more about what their career paths are like.
McKinsey puts on summer networking events all over the world. “We would like to celebrate your acceptance into an excellent program and share more about potential career opportunities we have to offer you,” reads its website. Its series of spring and summer events—spread across 33 locations—is “for anyone planning to pursue their full-time MBA in the Class of 2019,” according to the website. Interested students are invited to register, after which a recruiter from their selected office will be in touch with event details.
“ExperienceBain GLOBAL,” meanwhile, is an opportunity for soon-to-be MBA students to connect with any of that firm’s 55 offices around the world. Registration is now open to enrolling MBA students starting at roughly 25 top business schools. (Students at these participating schools are encouraged to get involved, according to the Bain website.) In addition to tours and networking opportunities, ExperienceBain events in select cities can also include interactive workshops that give participants a chance to try their hand at a real Bain case, alongside a team of consultants and managers.
A number of BCG’s offices around the globe will be hosting what it calls “Newly Admitted MBA Receptions” for international students, providing an opportunity for prospective students from Canada, Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Latin America to meet with representatives from the BCG office in their home country before heading off to school.
Not to be left out, Deloitte will host three separate “Meet Deloitte Consulting” events in June, one in Chicago, a second in New York, and a third in San Francisco. Attendees will hear from office leaders and get to network with current employees.
Finance Summer Seminars and MBA Camps
Banks, too, offer opportunities for prospective first-year MBA students to learn more about the financial services industry. The Goldman Sachs MBA Camp is “a half-day program for prospective first-year MBA students from all business schools who are interested in learning more about the financial services industry and summer internship opportunities at the firm,” reads the Goldman website. In addition to an overview of the banking giant’s multiple business lines, the event also features case studies, career workshops, and networking opportunities with current employees.
Bank of America, for its part, offers a seminar designed to introduce prospective first-year MBA students to BofA’s leading Global Corporate and Investment Banking (GCIB) group, which includes its corporate banking, capital markets, transaction services, leasing and investment banking teams. Participants get to hone technical skills while engaging with current employees across GCIB, and those who really shine may even be considered for a BofA summer internship.
Pre-MBA Boot Camps for Under-Represented Minorities
Part of an effort to increase the representation of historically underrepresented minorities (URMs) in business, an array of opportunities exists to help give these admitted MBA students a competitive recruiting edge.
Management Leadership for Tomorrow, a nonprofit dedicated to increasing the number of minority women and men in business, offers an in-depth pre-MBA program called MLT Professional Development (PD), which provides Black, Hispanic, and Native American admitted MBA students with one-on-one coaching, networking and programming support to set them up for success in MBA recruiting. Applications for this comprehensive 12-month program are accepted in two rounds, the first in January and the second in April. In addition to taking part in immersive industry boot camps, participants get the chance to interview with leading recruiters three months before starting business school as part of spring seminars hosted by MLT’s corporate partners.
If you’re too late to take advantage of the MLT program, have no fear. There are countless other opportunities offered by recruiters in the consulting, finance, and CPG industries who are eager to forge early relationships with diverse, high-caliber prospective MBA students. We’ve broken them out below by industry.
Consulting Diversity Pre-MBA Events
A.T. Kearney hosts an all-expense-paid, two-day Diversity Consulting Boot Camp in mid-June targeting newly admitted pre-MBA students of “African American, Hispanic and Native American backgrounds,” designed to help them learn more about the firm and network with current employees through participation in practice case interviews. Standout participants will be invited to interview for A.T. Kearney’s 2018 Summer Associate program.
Bain hosts a similar two-day ExperienceBain DIVERSITY Conference, also in June in New York, targeting the same audience of prospective first-year MBA students. Participants in Bain’s program receive a stipend to participate. If you’re interested in this one, act quickly. Applications are due May 5th.
Early Access to Finance Firms
Many finance firms also feature pre-MBA programs designed to attract high-achieving, underrepresented candidates. The Goldman Sachs MBA Camp, a one-day program in May for Black, Hispanic/Latino, or Native American prospective first-year MBA students, offers an overview of the firm’s history and culture, career workshops and networking opportunities. Goldman pays for participants’ travel and hotel accommodations.
Barclays, too, features what it calls its MBA Ambition Program. “MBA Ambition is designed to attract and educate high-achieving, underrepresented candidates, including female, Black, Hispanic/Latino, Native American and LGBTQAI students, as well as military veterans and students with disabilities,” reads the website. In what it describes as a condensed version of its on-campus recruiting process, the Barclays MBA Ambition program culminates in interviews at the firm’s New York offices, with successful candidates receiving internship offers for the following summer.
A third bank, JPMorgan, features what it calls its MBA Early Advantage Investment Banking Program. Taking place in July, MBA Early Advantage is open to “exceptional MBA students with cultural and diverse backgrounds and life experiences, including individuals from groups that have been historically underrepresented.” Applications are now open for soon-to-be students interested in learning more about investment banking or wealth management. “You’ll have the opportunity to meet our senior leaders and network with some of the most influential people in our industry, refine your technical skills and promote your personal brand,” reads the website, adding the Barclays springs for participants’ hotel accommodations and domestic round-trip travel.
And a fourth bank, Morgan Stanley, hosts its annual MBA Early Insights Program early in spring. The full-day program, which takes place in March, “is an integral part of our recruiting efforts to attract Black, Hispanic, Native American, LGBT and female students who are beginning an MBA program in the fall,” the firm states. Participants are invited to Morgan Stanley’s New York offices, where they get to meet with employees from across the firm’s institutional securities businesses and learn more about the recruiting process.
CPG Diversity Pre-MBA Boot Camps
For diverse admitted MBA students looking to break into the CPG field—or just to try it on for size—both Nestlé and Proctor & Gamble offer a chance to do precisely that. The Nestlé Brand Boot Camp is a three-day, all-expenses-paid affair held in July in Glendale, CA. Intended for students with an interest in marketing, marketing communications or brand management, the Nestlé event will end with opportunities to interview for a 2018 summer marketing internship. To be considered, applicants must possess “a resume demonstrating a commitment to diversity and inclusion” and successfully complete a phone interview.
The P&G MBA Brand Management Camp, taking place in late July in Cincinnati, OH, is a six-day program for prospective first-year MBA students interested in a career in marketing or general management. During the all-expense-paid week, participants will learn the ins and outs of P&G’s corporate strategies and brand building, including previewing key marketing roles open to newly minted MBA students.
