Investment Banking After My Degree

Hello everyone,

I have just graduated from Oxford with a 2:1 in English Literature and am looking at getting into investment banking or investment management. I was wondering if anyone knew of the steps I should take and how to get an internship. Are there any non-summer internships or are they all in the summer?

Does anyone have any suggestions for the best job to get in order to get a summer internship?


Any other thoughts or suggestions? I would like any help I could get on the best way forward from here.

Many thanks.

Also, thoughts on MBAs. Are they worth it?

I'm sadly no expert on investment banking, but I just wanted to say good luck! You can definitely get into it with an English degree! It's so good to hear of a fellow humanities student going into IB; it just shows what nonsense the STEM Nazis peddle on here.

My brother's in the year below you at LMH doing History and Politics, and he's planning on going into investment banking too. Any advice for him for the final year?

Hope it goes well!

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I guess apply for internships early. I regret it now, heavily. *sigh*

Also, thoughts on MBAs. Are they worth it?

I meant for the exams mainly! But you don't need an internship by any means, especially if you went to Oxford - you could also take a masters degree to buy yourself more time. Take a read of this from targetjobs:


A number of investment banks and investment management businesses don’t just accept candidates without a finance degree – they actively encourage them to apply. A common theme is not wanting to recruit an entire intake of economics-graduate clones.

Gemma Adams, vice-president of recruitment at Mitsubishi UJF Securities international, explains: ‘We don’t want a class that is a complete carbon copy of one another, so I don’t want 20 students who have all achieved a first at a red-brick university in economics. That just isn’t how we work here. We want a really diverse class, we want people that have opinions, are happy to argue a point, to put their hand up in a meeting, challenge our CEO.’

The Citi recruitment team is keen to state that graduates can ‘apply to any business area from any degree discipline’ and that the bank needs ‘a diverse range of people from different backgrounds’. Jane Clark, head of campus recruitment at Barclays, agrees on the need for diversity, adding ‘We focus on educating people so they understand that they don’t necessarily need to have a financial degree background.’

Edinburgh-based investment management firm Baillie Gifford is well known for taking a long view of the financial markets, and as such is particularly keen to recruit arts and humanities graduates for their broader approach towards culture and society. HR manager Richard Barry comments: ‘The firm looks for graduates who can think freely and in a structured way, and who can follow up their interests with considered, well-formulated arguments. Any degree background that develops the ability to do this is an advantage.’

Fellow investment management firm M&G Investments said it 'positively encourages candidates from all backgrounds to apply, as they bring a different way of thinking to the typical economics or finance graduates'. The organisation adds that it wouldn’t expect candidates to have relevant internships and those who haven't gained experience in the industry would not be at a disadvantage during the recruitment process.
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OP definitely would need an internship and it would help if you didn't repost the same stuff and rather just provided a link.

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No it wouldn't - the whole article is long, this is the relevant extract.

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The whole article would make for a better read tbh.

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I meant for the exams mainly! But you don't need an internship by any means, especially if you went to Oxford - you could also take a masters degree to buy yourself more time. Take a read of this from targetjobs:


A number of investment banks and investment management businesses don’t just accept candidates without a finance degree – they actively encourage them to apply. A common theme is not wanting to recruit an entire intake of economics-graduate clones.

Gemma Adams, vice-president of recruitment at Mitsubishi UJF Securities international, explains: ‘We don’t want a class that is a complete carbon copy of one another, so I don’t want 20 students who have all achieved a first at a red-brick university in economics. That just isn’t how we work here. We want a really diverse class, we want people that have opinions, are happy to argue a point, to put their hand up in a meeting, challenge our CEO.’

The Citi recruitment team is keen to state that graduates can ‘apply to any business area from any degree discipline’ and that the bank needs ‘a diverse range of people from different backgrounds’. Jane Clark, head of campus recruitment at Barclays, agrees on the need for diversity, adding ‘We focus on educating people so they understand that they don’t necessarily need to have a financial degree background.’

Edinburgh-based investment management firm Baillie Gifford is well known for taking a long view of the financial markets, and as such is particularly keen to recruit arts and humanities graduates for their broader approach towards culture and society. HR manager Richard Barry comments: ‘The firm looks for graduates who can think freely and in a structured way, and who can follow up their interests with considered, well-formulated arguments. Any degree background that develops the ability to do this is an advantage.’

Fellow investment management firm M&G Investments said it 'positively encourages candidates from all backgrounds to apply, as they bring a different way of thinking to the typical economics or finance graduates'. The organisation adds that it wouldn’t expect candidates to have relevant internships and those who haven't gained experience in the industry would not be at a disadvantage during the recruitment process.
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you need an internship buddy

Most people get internships from programs though that they underwent during AS or A2 level of study, typically from the same banks.

Huh? Source?

Not everyone does insights..

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Cannot source but this is conducted from quite some research. I will just say that those with insights are at a much higher advantage than those without. No source needed for this because common sense should prevail here. Also quant degrees are most definitely the preference (Finance, economics, maths, engineering, physics) as opposed to degrees such as English something.

Cannot source but this is conducted from quite some research. I will just say that those with insights are at a much higher advantage than those without. No source needed for this because common sense should prevail here. Also quant degrees are most definitely the preference (Finance, economics, maths, engineering, physics) as opposed to degrees such as English something.