What Citi Seeks In An MBA Hire

Courtney Storz

Courtney Storz

When I think about the profiles of candidates [that have been successful], one example I would cite is that of candidates who are globally-minded. These are folks who have spent time in other countries, who have pretty significant cultural immersion in those countries. They have multiple language skills and they’ve worked and made an impact in a wide variety of roles.

What advice would you give to students who have their hearts set on working for you? How can they enhance their job prospects?

As a firm, we make a host of networking opportunities available to MBA candidates. We really encourage students to take full advantage of these opportunities to get to know people around the firm. We feel the MBA recruiting process is a marathon often and not a sprint. Being able to demonstrate to professionals involved in the recruiting process how your previous experiences and skills make you a good fit for the firm goes a long way.

I also say that they shouldn’t be afraid to express strong interest in Citi. That is something that sets folks apart. The recruiters on our end really want to talk to students who’ve taken the time to do some research, understand the firm, and can clearly articulate why they want to be here.

Recruiting can be a two-way street. What has Citi done to make itself more appealing to MBA candidates?

First, we have become more selective in the MBA programs that we offer. We want to ensure that we can offer a differentiated experience that will reflect the capabilities of students from business school. .

Something we are building out now is our career management office that’s going to help us create a more customized career experience with greater potential for mobility across business, function, and region for our strong performers. We are very focused across the firm on manager capability, and we aim to ensure the MBAs who come into our programs are assigned to our best managers who have a track record of developing associates by leveraging our apprenticeship model. And we’re creating MBA committees that really allow MBAs who come in to have a voice in their programs. For example, we have an MBA learning committee that helps set strategy for the learning we’re going to offer both on the job and in formal training.

If an MBA was weighing an offer from Citi and another firm, what would give you the edge?

I would say it is our unparalleled global network and the incredible breadth of opportunities that we can offer MBA hires, both geographically and across business and function. We have a place for MBAs who are laser focused on one line of business and want to build long-term careers in the area. For example, we’ve seen many MBAs come out of business school who work their way up through investment banking. But we also have a place for those, a few years down the road, who might want to be involved in a different business or different part of the world. So one of the most attractive things we have to offer is this breadth of opportunity and incredible network that gives MBAs the ability to have different career paths under one umbrella.

Could you give us an overview of your MBA recruiting and interview process? What are the steps that students should expect? How can they make a good impression and stay on your radar?

Citi employees serving during global community day

Citi employees serving during global community day

Generally speaking, we start off our recruiting process at our core schools with presentations and information sessions. We’re really doing this to provide a high level understanding of Citi. And all of these events include a significant networking component. This is the forum in which many students will come into the process and where they start building connections with people from the business. These relationships will progress throughout the entire life cycle of the recruiting process.

From there, we go back with smaller targeted events that will give a deeper dive into a specific line of business or program, what you can expect as a whole – things along those lines.

Typically, we hold the first round of interviews on campus, with the final round either on campus or in one of our offices, as round-robin interviews with professionals from the respective program.

I’ll also note that we do want to keep the process open to students beyond our core school list. We’re very committed to that and have built a process around that for each of the different MBA programs that we offer. For example, we hold outreach events targeted at a broader population. In addition, often times we see proactive MBA’s using alumni connections to get in front of us. We do include a number of these candidates in a process similar to the one previously described.

[To stay on our radar], given the fact that the process is often a marathon and not a sprint, often times we see people come in who have relationships when they do begin the formal interview process. At that point, we feel that there could eventually be a good fit. We like candidates who come prepared and can speak in a technical way about the area we are recruiting for. As an example, there are parts of the banking interview that MBAs should be prepared for [such as] technical components. Again, we do want to see people come in who’ve done their research [such as] understanding deals we’re working on within the investment banking area. And [we want] folks who can articulate why they really want to be at Citi.

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