Missed Campus Recruitment – What Are My Options as a Recent Grad?

Question

Hi everyone, I’d really appreciate some advice about applying to consulting firms now that I’m finishing my degree.

I’m currently completing a Master of Engineering in Industrial Engineering in Canada, and I’ll officially finish all my courses and internship by August 2025. I’ve noticed that most campus recruitment roles open right now are for students graduating in 2026, so I don’t seem to qualify for those.

Have I completely missed the boat for the structured intake?

Should I now be applying as an experienced hire, even though I’m just graduating and only have internships and part-time experience?

If anyone’s been in a similar situation or has insight into how firms (especially MBB or Big 4) treat recent grads who finish off-cycle, I’d love to hear your experience or advice.

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Hi there,

I would be happy to share my thoughts on your questions:

First of all, even if I do not know the Canadian consulting hiring practices in detail, while you may have missed campus recruiting altogether, I'm certain there are other opportunities for you.
Moreover, I would therefore strongly advise you to reach out to the recruiting departments of your target consulting firms, explain your situation, and see how they respond, as only they know for certain.
Lastly, however, since you don't qualify as an experienced hire, I would strongly advise against applying this way.

You can find more on this topic here: How to succeed in the final interview round.

If you would like a more detailed discussion on how to best prepare your application files, for your upcoming pre-interview assessments and/or interviews, please don't hesitate to contact me directly.

Best,

Hagen

Answer 2

Hey - just a disclaimer that I don't know the Canada market that well, but generally my understanding is the below:

- In many regions, the majority of post-undergrad entry level consulting roles are via on-cycle campus recruiting (especially for MBB), but that is not the only path to getting a pre-MBA / non-experienced hire role.

- Often, consulting firms will do off-cycle hiring. For this I would recommend two things: (i) get in touch with the recruiters for your target firms directly, and ask them whether they are doing off-cycle recruitment at the moment (ii) secure a referral link through a consultant at one of your target firms (either using your existing network or by building a new relationship). This will definitely help in terms of getting the recruitment team to consider your application.

- To give you a real life example - when I joined McKinsey in London, there were 3-5 cohorts of Business Analysts (pre-MBA) joining each year; the largest intakes were in September and January, but we had March and May intakes as well. Some of those folks received an offer while still at university and deferred their place, but some others had applied afterwards. At McKinsey in Tokyo, we recruited on-campus but also had year-round off-cycle hires (i.e., new BAs joining every couple of months).

Best of luck and let me know if you want any help with your application.

Answer 3

Hi,

If you have no prior working experience of at least 2 years, I do not recommend to apply as experienced hire. Like you are staiting, the most convenient way is to follow the recruitment cycle for recent grads. If you would like to apply outside this cycle, I recommend to reach out to the specific firm with that specific question. Based on my experience (in US and EU), they let new employees (experienced and non experienced) start in cohorts; which could fall outside the typical hiring cyclus.

Feel free to reach out for further info.

Mattijs

Answer 4

Hi there,

You still have chances to get into MBB or smaller firms, I think the coaches above already gave you some great advice on how to approach this situation.

On top of what was stated, see that you absolutely need to have a great CV and maybe a Cover Letter. The CV is what will make or break your attempts to join consulting processes. If you would like a free and honest evaluation of your CV, feel free to DM me. So far 100% of my clients have joined at least one high competitive process (McKinsey, Bain, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley to name a few) despite most of them having had limited work experience.

Best,

Mari

Answer 5

Hello (:

You haven’t missed the boat at all. If you're finishing in August 2025, you're just a bit off-cycle, and firms are used to that. You likely won’t qualify for campus roles opening now (those are indeed for 2026 grads), but you can still apply for full-time roles once they open for 2025 starts, usually in late summer or fall. Don’t apply as an experienced hire unless you’ve had years of full-time work—internships are totally fine for entry-level.

Keep checking MBB and Big 4 career pages in a few months, and feel free to reach out if you want help with timing or applications!

best,
Alessa :)

Answer 6

Hi there,

Yes, you might've missed the boat with campus recruiting.

I would take a step back and list out all the firms that you'd be interested in joining. Then start researching each in turn to figure out if they are still recruiting (smaller firms tend to have less structured intake processes).

Then you could join a smaller firm and, in a year or two, interview for the larger firms.

Best,
Cristian