Internship Decision Time

It's been a long, hard road. Now Mom says follow your heart and Dad says flip a coin. What to do?

by Matt Schaar

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Matt Schaar
University of Michigan (Ross)
MBA Class of 2009

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Last month my family gathered in Las Vegas for Mom and Dad's 40th wedding anniversary, and I had some heavy decisions to make in between trips to the auto museum and eyeing the nickel slots. By Sunday evening I needed to choose the firm at which I would spend my summer internship, and with several different, challenging opportunities available, I was in a bind. My parents, always the voice of reason even when they don't realize it, kept their advice simple and balanced:

Mom: "Just follow your heart, son.'

Dad: "Eh, stop thinking and just flip a coin."

Before we go further, let me reflect on how I got to this point in the first place.

The past seven weeks at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business were a hurricane of activity as my classmates and I juggled classes, recruiting trips, interviews, and the annual Follies show. Prior to parting ways for the holidays, MBA1s were briefed by the office of career development on the (in)famous "bid process," a type of tool I believe is also employed at other schools, which provides a multi-tiered approach to recruiting.

Here's how it works: each student applies to a company through a "résumé drop" (which simply involves posting your résumé to the online job requisition on Ross's internal recruiting Web site) by some set deadline. The companies then review the applicants and choose which students they want to interview, or "closed list," based on qualifications that they set internally. (For consulting, the trend seems to be that a high GMAT score and undergraduate GPA, and project leadership experience are strong qualifiers). For most companies, about three-quarters of their interview schedules will be composed of closed list candidates.

But the process doesn't stop there. For students who didn't make the list there are still a few interview spots left open for bidding. Usually the bid process for a company lasts three days, and it's somewhat akin to a closed-bid auction—the student decides how many points he or she may need to get on the interview schedule. If, for example, 10 interview spots are open, the top 10 bidders will all gain a spot on the schedule and pay the 10th highest bid—the "market clearing price"—with their available points.

Flaws in the System

Of course, bidding higher comes with a risk that another high-demand interview will be out of your reach; students are only given 1,000 bid-points to use, and some of the big-name firms go for as much as 450 of those precious babies. To accept a closed list position, students are required to pay 50 bid points; this rule was actually scrapped halfway through the recruiting season as the number of interviews per week began to subside.

Flaws definitely exist, though: One frustration for some is the fact that a few companies choose to bypass the bid process and adopt a completely closed schedule on their own timing. A classmate of mine had one of these firms on her target list yet wasn't selected for an interview. With no bid process to lean on, she was left wondering how to approach that company next year for full-time opportunities. Of course, some companies (such as small non-profits or boutique consulting firms) don't have the resources to fill an interview schedule, and pursue alternative options.

A topic of intrigue is whether or not there's an advantage to being a closed listed candidate; after all, these students have been handpicked to fill a company's interview slots, so shouldn't they have the upper hand? Not necessarily. Since the bid process is finished the week prior to interviews, it's highly likely the interviewers are given the entire schedule at one time and don't have access to the closed list. Conspiracy theories abound, though—after all, MBAs can always be counted on to be great gossipers.