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The "Am I good enough for Investment Banking/Consultancy?" Thread

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Original post by Trapz99
What do you mean by more involved? Like sports/societies or in terms of financial work experience?


Both

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Original post by Princepieman
He needs to get more involved at uni. The LSE brand might net him a couple spring week interviews but beyond that, it'll be down to him to stay competitive.

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Original post by Trapz99
Asking for a friend who's applied for uni:

-Good GCSEs
-Offer from LSE (forgot what course it was but he did mathsy a levels)
- No financial work experience
- Weak extracurriculars (just plays sport in his spare time but has nothing to show for it, volunteers, has bronze DofE, is a prefect but so is half of my year)
- Doesn't know anyone in the banking industry

Does he have a chance of landing Spring weeks/summer analyst positions in S&T/IBD? Maybe at the non-BB banks?


Well, he can't apply for Summer Internship positions until second year so he has first year to improve his ECs. Does he have any academic awards? Olympiads/Golds in Maths/Bio/Chem/Phys etc Challenges?
He can always put his prefect position down anyway; he doesn't need to mention how many there are. At my brother's school about 50 are Prefects.
Does he play an instrument? Can he get any sort of work experience sorted for this summer even if it's not in an investment bank?
He should try to aim to get as many A*s and As at A Level - something like 3A*s is going to look good. You don't need that much for Spring Weeks and Spring Weeks really aren't the be all and end all.
Original post by yl95
Well, he can't apply for Summer Internship positions until second year so he has first year to improve his ECs. Does he have any academic awards? Olympiads/Golds in Maths/Bio/Chem/Phys etc Challenges?
He can always put his prefect position down anyway; he doesn't need to mention how many there are. At my brother's school about 50 are Prefects.
Does he play an instrument? Can he get any sort of work experience sorted for this summer even if it's not in an investment bank?
He should try to aim to get as many A*s and As at A Level - something like 3A*s is going to look good. You don't need that much for Spring Weeks and Spring Weeks really aren't the be all and end all.


Yeah he got the GCSE prize and AS prize at my school and he gets gold in the UKMT maths challenges. He can't play any instruments though
Original post by Trapz99
Yeah he got the GCSE prize and AS prize at my school and he gets gold in the UKMT maths challenges. He can't play any instruments though


Any other languages spoken? You'd be surprised to find there are more things to write on your CV than you think initially for those sorts of things.
Original post by yl95
Any other languages spoken? You'd be surprised to find there are more things to write on your CV than you think initially for those sorts of things.


Yeah he speaks Spanish and some Indian language. Thanks for the help btw
Original post by Princepieman


Thanks for the help again bud
Agreed!

I would strongly encourage anyone to try to apply. The question "am I good enough for banking" should not even be asked if you want to apply for banking! You really don't know what your potentials are until you pushed yourself to the limit.

Plus, from my experience (7 years IBD. Interviewed loads of analyst and associates), what interviewers are looking for in a candidate vs. what job applicants thought banks look for still have a bit of gaps


Original post by Princepieman
Original post by CitySail
Agreed!

I would strongly encourage anyone to try to apply. The question "am I good enough for banking" should not even be asked if you want to apply for banking! You really don't know what your potentials are until you pushed yourself to the limit.

Plus, from my experience (7 years IBD. Interviewed loads of analyst and associates), what interviewers are looking for in a candidate vs. what job applicants thought banks look for still have a bit of gaps


Original post by Princepieman


Guys, do you think that banks will look more towards what you do in university (in terms of extracurriculars and societies) than what you do in school when selecting for spring weeks/summer internships? I know they care a lot about school extracurriculars but do they care more about university societies and positions of responsibility?
Original post by Trapz99
Guys, do you think that banks will look more towards what you do in university (in terms of extracurriculars and societies) than what you do in school when selecting for spring weeks/summer internships? I know they care a lot about school extracurriculars but do they care more about university societies and positions of responsibility?


They definitely care about uni societies, especially being in the Committee. I was in a senior position of a Society from second year and I guarantee that made it easier for me to get interviews (plus the rest of my CV) and got asked a lot of questions about it.
Original post by Trapz99
Guys, do you think that banks will look more towards what you do in university (in terms of extracurriculars and societies) than what you do in school when selecting for spring weeks/summer internships? I know they care a lot about school extracurriculars but do they care more about university societies and positions of responsibility?


Depends what's on your CV obviously, but you certainly don't need university extra-curricular/sports/society stuff on your CV to get interviews (I have none on my CV). From my own experience, I'd say they care a lot more about decent work experience, but my view is biased from the fact that this accounts for the majority of my CV.
Would really appreciate some advice:
I'm currently in Yr 13 completing Alevels in Maths, Fmaths, Chemistry and Physics. I have a conditional offer to study mechanical engineering at Leeds and an unconditional from Nottingham. After Graduating my aim is to go into IB. I was wondering if it would be advantageous to take a year out and reapply to somewhere like UCL? If I did this what would be the best way to spend my time in this year? Any other tips on how I can give myself the best possible chance of getting into IB from this stage would be very much appreciated
Original post by Jbird1
Would really appreciate some advice:
I'm currently in Yr 13 completing Alevels in Maths, Fmaths, Chemistry and Physics. I have a conditional offer to study mechanical engineering at Leeds and an unconditional from Nottingham. After Graduating my aim is to go into IB. I was wondering if it would be advantageous to take a year out and reapply to somewhere like UCL? If I did this what would be the best way to spend my time in this year? Any other tips on how I can give myself the best possible chance of getting into IB from this stage would be very much appreciated

Nottingham is really good anyway and is a semi-target so you can get offers for internships if you are good enough. Just make sure that you build up your CV by doing sports and gainin experience as well as volunteering and whatever interests you.
Original post by Noble.
Depends what's on your CV obviously, but you certainly don't need university extra-curricular/sports/society stuff on your CV to get interviews (I have none on my CV). From my own experience, I'd say they care a lot more about decent work experience, but my view is biased from the fact that this accounts for the majority of my CV.


So you don't do any extra curricular activities? Surely banks care a lot about extra curriculars, at least that's what I have heard...
Original post by Trapz99
So you don't do any extra curricular activities? Surely banks care a lot about extra curriculars, at least that's what I have heard...


Yeah, but this guy has some solid work experience already haha

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Original post by Noble.
Depends what's on your CV obviously, but you certainly don't need university extra-curricular/sports/society stuff on your CV to get interviews (I have none on my CV). From my own experience, I'd say they care a lot more about decent work experience, but my view is biased from the fact that this accounts for the majority of my CV.


I wouldn't say they care a lot more because I pretty much had two insight days for finance based and got interviews from all but one. I've definitely noticed that most people at ACs had more work experience than me, although many of them were either on a Masters and/or applying to their second internship.
Original post by Princepieman
Yeah, but this guy has some solid work experience already haha

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So if you have work experience, that makes up for having fewer extracurricular achievements?
Original post by Trapz99
So if you have work experience, that makes up for having fewer extracurricular achievements?


High quality work experience*

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Original post by Princepieman
High quality work experience*

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What examples are there of."high quality" experience? Does this require having contacts in the industry?
Original post by Trapz99
What examples are there of."high quality" experience? Does this require having contacts in the industry?


Internships at hedge funds, prop trading firms, finance, IB, PE etc. Setting up your own business and having some form of success.

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Can anyone else help with my question ^^?

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