As seniors return from a term away from campus, my summer debriefs with friends have largely centered on internships and summer jobs. It doesn’t take too many of these conversations to learn that a large portion of Dartmouth students — myself included — will end up pursuing jobs in finance or consulting. In fact, Dartmouth’s Center for Professional Development found that 49% of the Dartmouth Class of 2023 worked in finance or consulting roles during their first fall after graduation.
Three years ago, this statistic may have been surprising to a newly matriculated member of Dartmouth’s Class of 2025. Dartmouth students come from different backgrounds and arrive on campus with a plethora of academic and extracurricular interests. In an article that Dartmouth Admissions released welcoming the new Class of 2025, vice president and dean of admissions and financial aid Lee Coffin described the class as acutely well-equipped to address the challenges of the world. He went on to list healthcare, social justice and sustainability as some of the topics that members of the Class of 2025 wrote about in their applications. While many students in every graduating class go on to pursue their childhood dreams, a sizable part of the student body ends up working in banking or consulting — likely without ever having planned to end up there.
I believe that the job security offered by structured finance and consulting internship programs, complemented by high pay and prestige, plays a large role in Dartmouth students’ interest in these fields. Investment banking internship applications open earlier and earlier every year, to the point where some banks opened their applications for the upcoming summer about one year ago. Top management consulting firms have later application deadlines but similarly open their portals a little less than a year in advance of a would-be intern’s first day in the office.
Preparing for an internship begins even before applications open, however. Potential candidates must network, join clubs and gain experience in the industry during off-terms. As many investment banking career centers advise, students must be on top of recruiting from their first year in college in order to be considered for the most competitive investment banks.
What is the effect of these expedited timelines? Many students on the margin — who may not yet be sure about what they want to do — end up having to make a difficult decision. Do they commit to investment banking or consulting in year one, or do they risk being late to the recruiting process in order to take some time to explore other opportunities, whether clubs, courses or internships?
One of Dartmouth’s great qualities should be its ability to provide access to a large number of disciplines. Eighteen-year-olds, eager to experience all of the courses and clubs that Dartmouth has to offer, shouldn’t have to commit to a career path so shortly after stepping on campus. Yet, the current state of competitive finance recruiting essentially demands that. Unfortunately, the stress of job hunting and recruiting is not just a senior year problem but also one for sophomore and even freshman years.
The accelerated timing of internship and job searching at finance and consulting firms is certainly attractive. Not only do these structured programs provide internship security in advance, but many of them also can lead to full-time offers. Those who manage to land one of these return offers can enjoy job security a whole year before many other Dartmouth students. Many seniors who accept return offers at their firms are able to properly enjoy their senior year without needing to think about job hunting or career fairs. And yet, the timeline for recruiting can be dangerous or daunting for those who may not be so sure whether banking or consulting is for them.
Most importantly, the timing of banking and consulting applications can explain a lot of the attraction among Dartmouth students. It is not easy to find a job right out of college and, even more, it can be hard to watch as all of your friends accept offers well in advance of when you would even start applying. Instead, many Dartmouth students opt for the surer route and spend their summer as I did, doing investment banking from an imposing urban office building. And so, as I wrap up my own recruiting process, I can’t help but think about how many potential politicians, doctors or artists are instead sitting in client meetings, working in Excel or drawing up pitch presentations.
Opinion articles represent the opinions of their author(s), which are not necessarily those of The Dartmouth.
