Interview Invitation with No Deadline

Hey there,

I’d recommend reaching out to the recruiter directly and asking for clarity on the overall interview timeline (e.g., until when they typically schedule first-round interviews for summer internships, how many interviews they usually schedule).

Once you have that context, you can confidently communicate your preferred interview window. Framing it as wanting to be well-prepared and manage existing commitments comes across as professional and thoughtful, not as a lack of interest.

Recruiters are very used to these questions, especially for internship processes, so don’t hesitate to ask. Clear communication at this stage is generally appreciated!

Hope this helps 

This is a common logistical dance, so don't overthink the specific framing. When a recruiter asks for your full availability, it usually means they are batching candidates to fit the incredibly complex schedules of their Principals and Partners who conduct these interviews. It is less about being flexible for you, and more about being efficient for the firm.

While your senior referral certainly helped get the door open and earned you that interview slot, it likely has little impact on the scheduling deadline itself. The reality of consulting recruiting is that it often operates under an unstated, rolling deadline driven by headcount. If the firm is aiming to hire five interns, they stop interviewing once they’ve given out five offers.

Therefore, asking for mid-March is a major strategic risk. We generally advise candidates to be 90% ready and interview early, rather than being 100% ready and interviewing late. If you wait until mid-March, not only are you competing against the bar set by all candidates interviewed in January and February, but you are running the very real risk that the hiring quota for the Dubai office will already be near depletion.

My strong advice is to send them dates in the first half of February. If you absolutely need a few extra weeks to handle major academic commitments, push for the end of February, but not further. Accept that your prep during these weeks will need to be intense, but securing a spot while headcount is high is the single most important variable right now.

Hope it helps!

As long as you openly discuss it with them, there's no problem. 

You can say march and then briefly explain why. Then you can tell them that if they want you to interview earlier, you can reprioritise things on your end. 

And in the meantime, do accelerate your prep as much as possible.

Best,
Cristian