Summer 2017 Applications

Reply 4620

ivoras

1

Hey guys, anyone had interview with Bloomberg for Global Data?

Reply 4621

ESTATEREAL

5

Original post by gman888

Guys i was just thinking to myself is ibd really worth it? Working 15 hours a day mond-sat at mininum sometimes sundays. Always stressed, bad on health, hardly get to see family and friends. For what? £50k and a bonus?

Im more inclined towards going into consulting tbh. Pay is £40k+ for graduates plus a lil bonus. Hours arent long. No work on weekends. Get to work on different projects and move around instead of being stuck in an office all day.

What u guys think?

I don't know where you got the idea that the hours aren't long??

Reply 4622

Commercial Paper

21

Original post by gman888

Guys i was just thinking to myself is ibd really worth it? Working 15 hours a day mond-sat at mininum sometimes sundays. Always stressed, bad on health, hardly get to see family and friends. For what? £50k and a bonus?

Im more inclined towards going into consulting tbh. Pay is £40k+ for graduates plus a lil bonus. Hours arent long. No work on weekends. Get to work on different projects and move around instead of being stuck in an office all day.

What u guys think?

It depends on you and what your goals are in life. If learning about finance does not interest you fully, or you are not sure, then IBD is probably not a good option. Also, if you are the type of person who has an extremely active social life and highly values it, you will find it challenging to adapt to IBD. But lifestyle in IBD can be bad, but it's not always bad. You will get some weekends off, you won't always be in the office past midnight. You do have quiet periods, particularly in summer and Christmas. Most people use IBD for the exit options and also like knowing they will benefit from rapidly increasing pay to achieve their financial goals.

Your perceived benefits of consulting are correct. But I've also worked in consulting and can tell you, the grass is not always greener. I've generally found people in consulting (especially on the client side) more difficult to work with than in IBD. If business is not good, you can get staffed on projects that are really bad (tedious, boring, extremely stressful). And sometimes, you do have to work weekends and you can also end up working extremely long hours on projects. If you end up on a consulting project working past 10pm, you feel nothing but resentment for the fact you're doing this on half the pay of your mates in IBD.

I ended up reaching the conclusion that leaving the office at 8pm on average (but sometimes later) in consulting, instead of leaving at midnight or 1am in IBD is marginal, either way you have lost your evening so might as well take the higher pay. Travelling is also exhausting (who wants to get up at 5am to catch a plane to Edinburgh to start work at 9am?). People are a lot more socialable and interpersonal in consulting though and you'll meet people you can pursue interests with outside of work, whereas in IBD people tend to keep themselves more to themself.

Just my observation in both from personal experience so don't take it as gospel. There are also great projects in consulting with great hours, but it's hit and miss. I'd also say it's more difficult to get promoted in Consulting than in IBD. Reason being, it's harder to prove yourself when you're constantly working with different people and different teams. You really have to push your name out there in Consulting to be recognised and work very hard at the politics.

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(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 4623

Hamsa18

3

I've applied to around 10 places in early October for IBD and haven't heard back from any? Is anyone else in this position

Reply 4624

username738914

21

Original post by gman888

Guys i was just thinking to myself is ibd really worth it? Working 15 hours a day mond-sat at mininum sometimes sundays. Always stressed, bad on health, hardly get to see family and friends. For what? £50k and a bonus?

Im more inclined towards going into consulting tbh. Pay is £40k+ for graduates plus a lil bonus. Hours arent long. No work on weekends. Get to work on different projects and move around instead of being stuck in an office all day.

What u guys think?

Strategy Consulting (because no other consulting will put you at £40k+) is 60-70 (or more) hours a week.. Plus travel.

If you want to make more than the average grad and have superior exit opportunities, any 'top' career route will work you very hard at the beginning. If that's not what you're into, just get on a finance grad scheme for £30k working 9-5pm.

Fyi, comp growth is more important than first year comp - you need to look at the larger picture.

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(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 4625

Ladbants

21

Original post by Princepieman

Strategy Consulting (because no other consulting will put you at £40k+) is 60-70 (or more) hours a week.. Plus travel.

If you want to make more than the average grad and have superior exit opportunities, any 'top' career route will work you very hard at the beginning. If that's not what you're into, just get on a finance grad scheme for £30k working 9-5pm.

Fyi, comp growth is more important than first year comp - you need to look at the larger picture.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Tbh most other top career routes don't make you work 80+ hours a week continuously throughout the year. I've heard consultants usually work around 60 hours a week and tech firms work you around 50 hours a week. AM firms usually work you around 50-60 hours

Reply 4626

fabulanoctis

Has anyone had a Macquarie AC? Would be super grateful if you could PM me with any insight/tips!

Reply 4627

DomStaff

2

GUYS I NEED URGENT HELP.

This is the last day I can do the Citi Online Assessment.

Logging in you arrive at a website called Talent Q. What are our usernames and passwords for it? I tried to use my Citi login but it hasn't worked.

Please help.

Reply 4628

username738914

21

Original post by Ladbants

Tbh most other top career routes don't make you work 80+ hours a week continuously throughout the year. I've heard consultants usually work around 60 hours a week and tech firms work you around 50 hours a week. AM firms usually work you around 50-60 hours

(Large) tech firms (as a technical employee) are an exception - startups will make you work your ass off. AM is not a piece of cake either - 60+ hours are the norm.

And let's be real, IB is really 70-80 hrs most weeks - the horror stories of 100+ hour weeks aren't that common.

Anyway, my point is, hard work is a pretty much set criterion when you're looking at entering as a junior in any top line, high paying career.

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(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 4629

ay42

1

Original post by DomStaff

GUYS I NEED URGENT HELP.

This is the last day I can do the Citi Online Assessment.

Logging in you arrive at a website called Talent Q. What are our usernames and passwords for it? I tried to use my Citi login but it hasn't worked.

Please help.

Don't use the link they provide in the email invite. Log in as if you were going to check the status of your application. You will then have a link somewhere that will take you to the talent Q website

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Reply 4630

DomStaff

2

Original post by ay42

Don't use the link they provide in the email invite. Log in as if you were going to check the status of your application. You will then have a link somewhere that will take you to the talent Q website

Posted from TSR Mobile

That's what I mean! When I follow the link, which I copied and pasted from the website, it asks me for my username and password on Talent Q.

Reply 4631

Commercial Paper

21

If anyone has any experience with Rothschild, please PM.

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Reply 4632

ay42

1

Original post by DomStaff

That's what I mean! When I follow the link, which I copied and pasted from the website, it asks me for my username and password on Talent Q.

Sorry, don't know what to do here!

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Reply 4633

Ladbants

21

Original post by Princepieman

(Large) tech firms (as a technical employee) are an exception - startups will make you work your ass off. AM is not a piece of cake either - 60+ hours are the norm.

And let's be real, IB is really 70-80 hrs most weeks - the horror stories of 100+ hour weeks aren't that common.

Anyway, my point is, hard work is a pretty much set criterion when you're looking at entering as a junior in any top line, high paying career.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Maybe AM at an iB is longer but from what I have been told by employees the asset management firms only work you around 50-60 hours a week, rarely 60+.
And IBD really is around 75-85 hours, trading is also around 60-70 hours

Reply 4634

jcwh

8

Does Citi screen before sending out tests?

I never received a test from them...

Reply 4635

networx

5

anyone here who knows whether Credit Suisse has started interviews / ACs for summer/autumn ?????

Reply 4636

athrowaway

1

Original post by gman888

Guys i was just thinking to myself is ibd really worth it? Working 15 hours a day mond-sat at mininum sometimes sundays. Always stressed, bad on health, hardly get to see family and friends. For what? £50k and a bonus?

Im more inclined towards going into consulting tbh. Pay is £40k+ for graduates plus a lil bonus. Hours arent long. No work on weekends. Get to work on different projects and move around instead of being stuck in an office all day.

What u guys think?

In London, for most teams in most banks, those hours are way excessive and only really the case if you're working on a particularly intense project. 75-85 hours a week is more realistic (and it's closer to 70 during the quiet periods).

"Always stressed" is fairly subjective. IBD is more of a marathon than a sprint and like consulting, how "stressful" you are is mostly dependent on the client... Even in finance trading is probably way more stressful.

"Hardly get to see family and friends " - in consulting you'd be working 60+ hours a week, those additional 10 hours will be used for sleep, not for catching up with family and friends lol. As someone else mentioned at that level the difference is marginal and certainly not life changing.

Also think you're trivialising the pay differential a bit. All-in first years in IBD earn c.1,5x more and I'm fairly sure that gap widens as you move through the ranks.

Lastly (and for some most importantly) you're not accounting for the fact that IBD gives juniors better career options than consulting. A very vanilla example - you can quite easily move from IBD to consulting but not the other way round...

Reply 4637

Matthew8792

Original post by gman888

Guys i was just thinking to myself is ibd really worth it? Working 15 hours a day mond-sat at mininum sometimes sundays. Always stressed, bad on health, hardly get to see family and friends. For what? £50k and a bonus?

Im more inclined towards going into consulting tbh. Pay is £40k+ for graduates plus a lil bonus. Hours arent long. No work on weekends. Get to work on different projects and move around instead of being stuck in an office all day.

What u guys think?