Apprenticeship Programme at JP Morgan VS traditional route

Students on the J.P. Morgan Bournemouth Apprenticeship will undertake a Level 3 Advanced Apprenticeship in Providing Financial Services - Investment Operations.

They will also receive an Industry recognised qualification in the form of the Investment Operations Certificate (IOC) from CISI.

We recognise that our people are our competitive advantage, and actively support the study of further qualifications following the programme’s completion, according to the needs of their role and the desires of the individual. Our training partner will facilitate and monitor the apprentices’ progress throughout the programme.

Hi there,

Basically I am finding it hard to comprehend the significance of the 'Apprenticeship Programme - Bournemouth' at JP Morgan compared to the traditional route of having a degree (3-4 years) whilst gaining experience and THEN applying to JP Morgan.

In the website, they wrote


What is the significance of these two qualification in the grand scheme of things when becoming an investment banker? How does that compare to doing a degree? When/how will I become an investment banker?

Please excuse my naivety in this field.

Don't do an apprenticeship in Operations unless you want to work in Operations. You cannot move from Operations to Investment banking, it just doesn't happen. That said, Operations itself does offer a very good career. Operations is much more stable, you're less likely to 'burn out' after 2 years, and in the long run your earning potential is very high!

I would argue otherwise. Its possible to move from operations to ib!


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I know that it is possible, it's just very unlikely and the odds are against you. You need to be excellent at networking and extremely good at your job to have a shot. The other problem is that you're not likely to be like in your division if your co-workers know that you are looking to get out.

Some companies welcome internal movement. It all depends on the culture.


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To add some info to the whole ops to front office, having spoken to people actually who've made the jump, it's near impossible to go from ops to IBD , but more possible than most realise to move from ops to s&t , but usually only from sales and trading assistant roles in ops to actual s&t (e.g you're unlikely to move from reconciliations to s&t).
If there's a space on a sales desk, they will often take sales assistants into account if they are really keen.

Having said all this, it's becoming more and more difficult due to new regulations that have come in, and many sales and trading assistant roles are actually being branded as front office now due to the work they are doing not being allowed to be done by an ops role (due to trading scandals, where traders were in control of their own backlogs of books).


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What if you do a year or two in ops job as graduate and then re-apply to ib grad scheme. The ops experience must be helpful the least! Or not?


Posted from TSR Mobile

To add some info to the whole ops to front office, having spoken to people actually who've made the jump, it's near impossible to go from ops to IBD , but more possible than most realise to move from ops to s&t , but usually only from sales and trading assistant roles in ops to actual s&t (e.g you're unlikely to move from reconciliations to s&t).
If there's a space on a sales desk, they will often take sales assistants into account if they are really keen.

Having said all this, it's becoming more and more difficult due to new regulations that have come in, and many sales and trading assistant roles are actually being branded as front office now due to the work they are doing not being allowed to be done by an ops role (due to trading scandals, where traders were in control of their own backlogs of books).


Posted from TSR Mobile

Seriously, if you go into Ops and don't want to stay there, you will be wasting your time! If you want to go into F/O then get experience in F/O. Even if it isn't at a BB bank, do it at a smaller company.

It probably won't help all that much tbh. Also don't think you'll be allowed to apply to IB grad if you've already done 2 years experience.


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I have no chance of getting a f/o grad scheme at the moment. Im not coming from target uni and although i have a lot of experience so far its all operations/back office. My plan was to get my foot in the door through the less competitive ops route and then move but it seems less and less possible. Will still try.


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Yeah, there is no harm on trying. Can I ask which university you go to?

West of England in bristol; its getting better but its still ex-poli. i was thinking of doing the 're-branding' thing and go to target uni to do masters but have had grad scheme offers already (ops) so probably not doing it at this point.


Posted from TSR Mobile

Fair play, yeah you would probs need to get a place at LSE or something like that. But it's not worth it, seeing as it doesn't secure anything, just improves your chances. If I were you I would take the offer for Ops, see how you find it, you never know you may actually prefer in to F/O. It's a lot more relaxed and better pay than similar jobs in the non-banking industry.

Yeah i did a year long placement as part of my degree with a stockbroker firm at their back office and i liked it; i learned a lot. Don't know, probably its just the glamour around ib that attracts me.


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