What Citi Seeks In An MBA Hire

Citi Field, home to the New York Mets

Citi Field, home to the New York Mets

Sometimes, there are folks who will take that type of outcome and get frustrated because it wasn’t exactly what they were looking for. But this person really took this with an open mind. And he absolutely hit the ball out of the park. He worked incredibly hard. He had a great attitude. He was always asking great questions. He ended up working really well with the group. For the second rotation, we were able to get him where he wanted to go in the first place. He had a great experience there as well. He was considered a top performer. Ultimately, he ended up going back to the first rotation, which is not something I think he thought about when he joined the firm.

So I think having an open mind about new opportunities, being able to work with a variety of individuals, really being able to ask the right questions, to be someone is willing to work hard to learn and grow – that is so critically important. For this individual, this wasn’t the outcome he expected when he joined the firm. But keeping an open mind and a positive attitude helped him immensely.

CitiGroup

What are your favorite business schools doing differently (or better) to better prepare students to work at Citi?

We have spent a lot of time talking to career services, deans, and people in the academic community. I think there is a real feeling that there are some parts of the system that are a bit outdated in their approach in terms of teaching or the tools they are giving to MBAs during their time in business school.

One of the things that really do strike us is the schools that are forward thinking and looking to partner with industry experts to make more practical training and education available to MBAs in their program. That, to me, is something that does stand out. We’ve had a lot of conversations with business schools about this recently. It’s a hot topic that is top of mind. I think it is impressive when they understand that. The education services industry is evolving for sure. But there’s also a need to arm students with tools that will prepare them for the opportunities we will have for them after graduation.

What excites you personally about working for Citi?

I love the people I work with! I work closely with people on the HR team and in the businesses. And they are an incredibly smart, motivated, engaged, collaborative, and fun group of people.

What question(s) didn’t I ask that you’d love to answer?

There’s a theme we touched on a little bit. We talk to MBAs as they go through the recruiting process. It’s certainly a long-term relationship-building type of process. We talk them through the recruiting process. Ultimately, we continue to talk to them as they go through the decision- making process when they get offers from a number of firms. I think that MBAs go through a challenging decision-making process in trying to determine which offer they should take, which firm should they join, and what is the best option for them. One piece of advice we give is to truly trust your gut instinct. People can get sidetracked by a lot of different factors when they’re looking at job offers. It’s so important to think through ‘where do you feel you’re going to fit in best’; ‘where do you feel you’re going to have mentors’; ‘which professionals did you connect with the most.’ I really don’t think you can underestimate these factors. Often times, when folks do accept our offers after summer internships or for one of our programs, they tell us that they chose Citi for the people. And I think that is so critically important for MBAs to trust their instincts and go where they feel they’re going to have a home.

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