University Choices for Banking.

To be honest i don't really agree academia counts for nothing i.e you must of got AAB at A-Level to get in Bath and you did your GCSEs 7 years ago and in that time they have become significantly easier imo. The fact is Bath is generally ranked in the top 10 in most university league tables and is considered even more highly by employers. Also most people at bath are very academically able (I'm a first year econ student and I know of hardly anyone without 3As and very good GCSEs i.e all A*/A). So even though investment banking may not be exclusive to LSE/Oxbridge, firms do have a list of unis that they look for graduates from, I doubt that if you go somewhere like Queen Mary/Manchester/Leeds you will find it very easy to get into investment banks. Also I wouldn't understate how difficult it is to get a 2:1 in the first year (as you have to get that to get a good placement e.g HSBC or GS) as if you didnt have that experience it would have proved harder to get a job in IB.

However I do agree that if you get a 2:1 or higher from a good university It does depend on the person rather then your grades. On the placement year thing that a couple of people have mentioned (I'll try not to be biased as I am doing a placement year at bath), I was speaking to a recruiter at a engineering firm (not finance I know) but he said to do a placement year if possible as a lot of people come back to work at their placement employer for their graduate job.

Of course. But this thread is aimed at all the people on TSR who are convinced 11 million As and Oxbridge/LSE is the only way into IB, and more worryingly, think that alone will get them there.

I'd rather not say which desk I work at, I don't want to give away who I am! (nigel's an internet pseudo...) but it is middle office.

I think people are avoiding my main issue which was that if you're interested in IB then you have to be more than grades.

ALSO think hard about whether it's the right career for you. The hours/lifestyle don't suit a lot of people, so don't go into the field for the money/cred. I didn't originally want to do it for the above reasons, but I tried it for a year and it suits my style. I'm not sure how long i'll work in finance but that's another story!

Dear All,

I used to use this forum before I went to uni, and two things confused me.

1. Why is everyone so interested in IB?
2. Why does everyone think their academia is the one off chance for a job?

I'll tell you my story (briefly)...

I went to Bath until this year when I graduated. I think Bath is 10th/11th in UK nowadays and studied economics Bsc with a placement.
For my placement I worked for HSBC in global research and now I'm working for Goldman Sachs.

I was never interested in IB before uni, but there seems to be a lot of emphasis put on it by fellow students so I had a look, seemed quite interesting - so I went for a placement in the field, and now I love it!

BUT:

1. It's not for everyone. Fast paced, in at 6am most mornings and long long hours WILL NOT suit you if you've spent the last 5 years in the library.
2. ACADEMIA COUNTS FOR NOTHING. In getting both my jobs, my grades were just a tick-box. I don't have AAA at A-level, and my GCSEs are very average. What I did have though is many things outside of the academic line. What modules, individual marks etc count for nothing. It's all just a tick-box. 340 UCAS points, check. 2:1 predicted, check. After that it's about you.
3. Do what you WANT with your uni/A levels. As mentioned above, the uni/grades won't matter alot, if at all, so focus on what interests you, and try and enjoy yourself. Playing on a football team is better on your CV than an extra A-level.
4. Don't follow the crowd. Too many people I know were stuck on applications due to being very one-dimensional with their CV. If you write one (and i'd reccommend doing it ASAP) if education is more than half a page (and you want 2 pages with refs) then you're doing something wrong.

Good luck and I hope this is useful!

Any questions just reply/PM me.

Nige.

Congrats on your mate. Ive got quite a few questions so please bear with me.

1) What other investment banks did you get into?

2) What actual IB job do you do?

3) What are the hours like on an average day?

4) Did you get a 2:1 ?

5) What / how many extra curricular activities did you have?

Thanks

well this post was interesting until you mentioned MO not FO. I'm sure FO would be much stricter.

What about this then?

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=351393&

After this come 6 prestigious institutions with a pretty dismal record of getting people into tier 1 front office, but from here the 2nd division (the likes of ABN Amro, BNP Paribas, Dresdner etc) are all really accessible - made easy particularly at Bath and Loughborough with the sandwich placement years giving you valuable experience.


Epic confusion! Who's right, who's wrong!?!

OP, are you a one off as a Bath graduate like this thread would have me believe?

I have know idea wether these are front office or what but for the placement year 2009/2010:
11 people got into UBS
6 into Morgan Stanley
2 into Goldman Sachs
1 into JP Morgan

So 20 poeple out of 83 placements(if i counted correctly) went to an IB bank for their placement who did economics at bath.

hm. tbh that is not a lot. if you get a summer internship (i was told taht at goldman, so may be different for other banks) about 70% get a job.

yours is 25% out of an entire placement! thats longer than an internship (isnt it) so you can tie better links.

also, not every uni outside the top5 has these good work placements as bath. correct me if im wrong on this but if i was it wudn change that much anyway.

But you fail to consider that majority of people (or the people I have met at least) don't want to go into investment banking so the percentages are going to be different. Also that inincludes people doing economics and international development who are much more likely to go for more development type work.

hm. tbh that is not a lot. if you get a summer internship (i was told taht at goldman, so may be different for other banks) about 70% get a job.

yours is 25% out of an entire placement! thats longer than an internship (isnt it) so you can tie better links.

also, not every uni outside the top5 has these good work placements as bath. correct me if im wrong on this but if i was it wudn change that much anyway.

On second look at your comment im not too sure if you misunderstood my point, im not saying that 25% of people who went on an IB placement got a job at an IB firm, im saying that out of all placements 25% did theirs at an IB firm (i.e the people on the placement year are doing their placement now so have not graduated so cant tell the placement/jobs percentage). This isnt saying anything about who got a job out of the placement its just saying 25% did their placement year at an investment bank. Sorry if I wasnt being clear