Life at Yale SOM: SuperWeek
Each January, MBA students seeking internships at investment banks return to campus a little earlier than their classmates, pressed suits in hand, for SuperWeek, a dedicated period of banking interviews.
This year, on January 6 to 10, a total of 40 students interviewed with 12 banks. Two new firms, Wells Fargo and Berenson & Company, joined the lineup of prestigious banks, including J. P. Morgan, Barclays, Citi, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs, that come to SOM for SuperWeek each year. “It’s been a really tremendous response,” said Lloyd Baskin, senior associate director and relationship manager in the Career Development Office. The number of students receiving investment banking offers by mid-February was 20% higher than the previous year.
The process that culminated in SuperWeek began in September when banks started arriving on campus for presentations, said Beau Robicheaux ’15, who will be interning with J. P. Morgan. Later in the fall, students traveled to New York City on Fridays for informational interviews; Robicheaux had more than 40. “I felt tremendously prepared going into interviews,” he said. “The dedication of the alumni network, the CDO, and the second-year students really shined.”
Patricio Gonzalez ’11, a senior associate at Citibank, and George Tierney YC ’81, a senior managing director and COO of Citibank’s M&A group, interviewed 24 SOM students during SuperWeek. Tierney said the students were very well prepared.
“We’ve always gotten really high caliber candidates from Yale,” Tierney said. “But the number of SOM students interested in investment banking is growing, and they’re savvier and better prepared.”
Gonzalez appreciated the diversity of the SOM students. “A pool this diverse is unique,” Gonzalez said. “The students varied widely in terms of nationality and ethnicity, and we had a lot of women candidates.”
Throughout the process, the ambitious but supportive SOM culture is apparent, Robicheaux said. “This camaraderie is incredibly rare in such a competitive process and speaks volumes about the character of Yale SOM students,” Robicheaux said. “We’re all pulling for each other.”