Has anyone done an internship or grad program with an Investment bank?
What kind of an application did you have to get it? I feel like I have a pretty strong application for internships but sadly don't hear back anything
Pls halp me
They only recruit interns from 'target' Universities.
There are 5 in the UK, Ivy League in the USA and a bunch of European/East Asian ones - depends where you're from.
If you don't go to these, you will, with a very high probability, never have a successful application and must find an alternative route.
>>1386801
That's because they only recruit women and minorities now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjEdT-Hq1dU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7e2i0lRgUbM
They're really trying to get rid of their "bad guy" image.
>>1386811
Unfortunately this.
>>1386801
OP, either have amazing extra curricular or fuck off. No IB will take you in, they are hellbent on prestige.
I didn't go to an ivy league, but, my brother did and he works at one of OP image. He said out of his batch of 20 interns there are 2 that went to a non ivy league, both of them are in markets (trading for you noobs). I suspect the reason is markets are purely perfomance based so they probably had some prior experience to investing or trading with good records so the bank saw that they are trainable. All the other sides of the bank like M&A etc are filled with ivy leagues for multiple reasons.
Prestige
Tend to be smarter
Tend to be more hardworking
Tend to have more connections which gets them through the door
Banks have a strong connection to top tier schools
They tend to be more active in extra curricular. IB's like winners, if you are the national champion or state champion for something they will take you in.
>>1386801
>>1386801
You wouldn't want to work in IB anyway, if they don't take you in you should move along. At a graduate level they work every 2nd weekend while staying at the office till early hours in the morning (source: my brother would work during holiday weekends).
>>1386816
O yeah and this. They, along with top tech companies are blatantly in favour of women. I remember at uni (I was in CS) some woman came along saying to work at XYZ company but that they will pick a girl over a boy for their internships.
>>1386821
They're making it so blatantly obvious they're just hiring these people because of their skin color or gender.
>>1386833
Yeah, they out right said it to our faces that we were being discriminated against, I can't imagine what it's like in uni/HR today.
>>1386801
I am currently doing one at a Bulge Bracket. Not gonna lie. I come from a target school, good grades and good CV and still it was hard as fuck to get an internship.
At big IBs it's about having luck. You have to think that HR screens through thousands of applications. So how to manage to make your application catches her attention? I personally that in order the pass the initial screening you need luck, that's it. Once you pass the initial screening it's up to you.
>>1386833
well, when 0% interest rates make the need to profit more or less null, and free cash injections and carry trade make money for you... the people at the desks are just filling space. why not hire transgender niggers?
fundamentals don't matter, so the work is essentially make work.
>>1386855
When you say good grades, what do you mean?
idk how your school runs but something like nothing below a distinction, nothing below 75%, 3.7GPA?
Quantitative degree?
Are you white male?
>1386818
I have a previous STEM honours degree, located in Australia, not a top 8 uni here though, but still an ok one, I have seen eg. Goldman Sachs, hire from my uni. I have a few years work exp. In my current field, plus some experience in professional writing, gpa is above 85%, part of a few uni student groups. Despite that, still nothing. I wonder if part of it is how I present myself cover letter/resume wise, and I suspect some of it might be from doing badly in the online testing stages, but I am still dissapointed with myself that I can't seem to land much at even the most basic entry level.
Thanks to the posters so far for your thoughts - I haven't noticed in IB here so much but I have seen in eg. Big 4 audit they seem to prefer women/aboriginals where possible (eg. Via offering special scholarships, competitions and so on to them)
>>1386855
Which bank did/are you interning at?
I have a placement at JP Morgan (IT based) and I come from Bournemouth university.
My competitors were all Oxford and Cambridge.
AMA
>>1386944
Ultra tafe
>>1386956
you graduated at tafe? Of course an IB isn't going to hire you lol.
>>1386958
No, QUT. It occurred to me that not all posters here will recognize the nick name. I obviously didn't complete an honours bachelor at tafe.
>>1386960
o lol, yeah I was really confused.
Umm, yeah the thing is IB's are super in to your G8's/ivy leagues sooooooo yeah nah.
Maybe go in to engineering or whatever field you did great in, i'm sure some company like microsoft or google will take you in with your 85%, technical knowledge + honours
What did you do your honours on and how many pages
>>1386962
My degree was automatically honours by coursework, so didn't need to do a thesis. Current degree (in the process of) is just plain old business. I met some guys from KPMG in their M&A team, one who was from QUT and the other from a tafe background, so it's possibly but they were both experienced hires as opposed to trying to get in at the grad/vaccy level.
Definitely not staying in my current field, the whole point of me studying again was to leave it. Finance would be best though I'm also trying for consulting and such.
>>1386971
Absolutely, experience hires is definetely a thing and is a good route if you didn't come from g8 tier.
I'd go that route, go big4 or some other recognisable company that's kind of impressive and get in that way a few years down the road.
>>1386974
I'm gonna apply for some non-finance vac roles soon, so hopefully I can land one and give it another shot in a few years. Thanks for the advice
>>1386885
Doing business administration degree.
Yes I am white male kek and let's say I am top 10% of my promotion. And as I said, I am from target university. Also I am european.
I'm interning at IBD.
>>1386934
Just check Bulge Bracket list. You have a chance of 1/9 of getting where I am currently interning right ;)
>>1387126
>inb4 french
>>1386801
I work at one of these banks, I'm in investment banking, but I'm in a support role for the real investment bankers, I don't actually do it myself
Protip: I'm considering quitting soon to go back to my old job (which is another one of the banks in your pic, but I didn't do IB there), investment bankers are a bunch of pricks who shit on me and my team all day because they have shitty lives themselves
Also it doesn't help that my manager is an incompetent woman from Africa who literally cannot understand what I tell her and can't communicate with the IBs, she also throws me and my teammates under the bus anytime anything goes wrong and the IBs flip out on us
Her manager is a raging bitch and hates my manager, but I know she'd have a bitch of a time firing her (because minority hire), and the IBs know to reach out to her directly now because my manager is incompetent and doesn't know what she's doing, which just further infuriates her and she takes it out on my manager and us
If you don't mind the bullshit and stress OP, the money is fantastic in IB and I will miss it, just remember you're 100% on your own and no one gives a fuck about you there
I left my old job because I was making significantly less money and I hated the one senior manager there, but the other managers always had my back when I needed it, and I realize now that's more important to me than being in "IB" and making money
>>1386801
I know a lot of people who work at GSachs. They all had internships in college and then got hired.
I'm an M&A analyst at one of the big 5 banks in Canada. I was headhunted from industry and got into banking. My background is in engineering.
The pay is significantly higher than what I would make if I stayed at my old job, but the hours are dogshit.
>>1387207
>my manager is an incompetent woman from Africa who literally cannot understand what I tell her
Jesus fucking Christ, did the affirmative action hires go this far?
>>1387383
Unfortunately yes
We have good affirmative action hires on my team, and the big boss is an Indian guy who works minimum 7-9 if he's actually in the office and not traveling, so that's probably why she was hired since he's the one who hires people
But she's unfortunately an incompetent manager, I think she'd do ok if she didn't have to manage a team, but the language barrier is just too much and that's obviously a problem when your working with IBs daily trying to resolve problems with them
It also doesn't help that she's very emotional and gets frustrated easily when there's a problem, she's also cried a couple of times after her manager has yelled at her, I'm assuming she'll be balling her eyes out when I had in my resignation since it'll be pretty obvious why I'm doing it with how the past couple of months have been
>>1387207
Oh man your workplace sounds awful from all those things. Have you worked long enough to transfer to another bank maybe?
>>1387883
I've only been there for 6 months so I can't do much, like I said before, I'm going to go back to my old job because I really did like all but one of the managers there
My old boss said he just needs approval from main boss who's currently on vacation, then I can come back with a promotion and a raise
Unfortunately I'll still be making less than I'm making now, and I'll have to return the signing bonus I got when I came here, but at this point happiness>money for me, and me and my entire team could literally be fired tomorrow which would also really fuck up my career
>>1386834
In my uni they have special program help for women engineering students that gives homework and study assistance with tutors. Pretty insulting, but none of them see it that way for some reason.
>>1387207
O yeah this. Family in IB would always have tons of stories of managers or coworkers blatantly trying to get ahead of each there by purposefully misleading their own team to try and get them fired. IB is one ruthless job.
You are in luck OP GS no longer only recruits from target Unis for internships
