Help me, i really need advice!

Hi everyone,

I am really new here and ths is my first thread. i have got my offers for studing L100 at uni, they are Loughbourgh (AAC), Newcastle (AAC), Leicester (300 points) and essex (300 points). since reading everyone elses threads i have become really worried that these uni's are not good enough. I would love to become an investment banker, but i dont know whether these uni's will be targeted. in your honest opinions do you think i will be targeted and become an investment banker if i go to one of the above?, also i am thinking about having loughbourgh as my firm and leicester as my insurance, do you think this is the right decision in terms of employment?, thanks for reading this i really would appriciate your thoughts.

Reply 1

kyril

Sarah I think you should not worry that much. Just make sure you get 320 points at A-level , get at least 2.1 in your degree, do a lot of outside stuff and you will be considered. I am sure you will be fine . My sister is doing a degree at Brunel and she is at one year inteship as analyst in top 4 amercan bulge bracket. Ok, I accept it is in technology but still it is really competitive( slightly less than IBD, or sale/trading) and way better than operations. And she competed with people from the all mighty Imperial, Oxford , Cambridge. Yes there is university elitism out there but still if you are a quality person you have as much chance a they have. I think Essex or Loughbourgh will be an excellent choice. Dont think that someone will come to look for you though. You have to go and look for them and you will succeed :biggrin:

. Good luck.

Reply 2

Drogue

19

sarah.johnson

Hi everyone,

I am really new here and ths is my first thread. i have got my offers for studing L100 at uni, they are Loughbourgh (AAC), Newcastle (AAC), Leicester (300 points) and essex (300 points). since reading everyone elses threads i have become really worried that these uni's are not good enough. I would love to become an investment banker, but i dont know whether these uni's will be targeted. in your honest opinions do you think i will be targeted and become an investment banker if i go to one of the above?, also i am thinking about having loughbourgh as my firm and leicester as my insurance, do you think this is the right decision in terms of employment?, thanks for reading this i really would appriciate your thoughts.

While they are good universities, no, you won't be targetted. There's a lot of talk in the investment and finance section of careers about IBs and where they target, but I don't know of one that targets any of those. IB is *incredibly* competitive - virtually the whole undergrad population of LSE and UCL's economics apply, and there aren't enough places to go around.

I think that's the right way around, Loughborough has a placement year and it's a good course, so should be employable. A good degree from a university like Loughborough and Newcastle and some extra curriculars will be enough to be a good candidate for most graduate positions, but excluding IB and top level management consultancy.

Reply 3

Traum

Well, i don't know... i mean you won't be in the best positions, it's gonna be harder for you... but there are people who work their way up... (i.e. some dude in the Apprentice started off as a shop floor worker or something...)

Reply 4

Drogue

19

Traum

Well, i don't know... i mean you won't be in the best positions, it's gonna be harder for you... but there are people who work their way up... (i.e. some dude in the Apprentice started off as a shop floor worker or something...)

Not nowadays, not in IB. Everyone starts off at the bottom, as an analyst. However that's a hard to get grad job.

Reply 5

MMA

10

Sentooran

(yes, Loughborough is the best of the three)

I would have thought that Newcastle was the best of the three.

Reply 6

Drogue

19

MMA

I would have thought that Newcastle was the best of the three.

I wouldn't. Worse links with industry, no placement year and I'd argue not as good teachingwise too, though there's little in the latter.

Reply 7

President_Ben

15

kyril

Ok, I accept it is in technology but still it is really competitive( slightly less than IBD, or sale/trading) and way better than operations.

Sorry, just correcting this factual error...

There is significantly less competition in ops/tech/fin (OTF or whatever xyz bank call it).

Those divisions on their own account for about half of the intern pool and applications to them are a fraction of what they are to the front office.

The most competitive I've seen back office roles go for is about 40:1. That is nothing like the most competitive front office roles which are in the region of 300:1.

Reply 8

achwplc

why does everybody want to be investment banker?

Reply 9

Googloo

i heard some people who work in the city don't even have degrees. You may want to apply next year if u think u could do better.

Reply 10

Drogue

19

achwplc

why does everybody want to be investment banker?

Starting salaries of £40k+, virtually anyone left in on over £200k after 5 years... it appeals to a lot of people. Plus it's less boring than accountancy. Personally, I think they appeal to the same people - those who do really well and want to go into finance go into IB, those who do less well go into the Big4. Then there's the small (but growing!) number of people like me who want to go into public finance.

Salary+responsibility gives people the grad job they're looking for. After 3 years, you're minted and with a great CV in case you want to switch to something easier :smile:

Reply 11

Traum

achwplc

why does everybody want to be investment banker?

the quickest way to money without being famous, beautiful, have any real talent whatsoever, robbing a bank... :rolleyes:

Reply 12

kyril

Win on lottary :p:

?

Reply 13

N9ne

7

Traum

the quickest way to money without being famous, beautiful, have any real talent whatsoever, robbing a bank... :rolleyes:

It requires significant intelligence and a sharp mind, something which most celebrities will never have :wink:

.

Reply 14

kyril

Drogue

Starting salaries of £40k+, virtually anyone left in on over £200k after 5 years... it appeals to a lot of people. Plus it's less boring than accountancy. Personally, I think they appeal to the same people - those who do really well and want to go into finance go into IB, those who do less well go into the Big4. Then there's the small (but growing!) number of people like me who want to go into public finance.

Salary+responsibility gives people the grad job they're looking for. After 3 years, you're minted and with a great CV in case you want to switch to something easier :smile:

Drogue but when you look at FTSE100 companies probably at leat 60% of them have CEO,CFOs or COO that come from accountancy (Big 4) background which is quite impressive. The training they get there and the experience/contacts are great when you work in London and have large clients. Accounting practises can lead to the rise and the ruin of every big company(Enron, Parmalat). The only part of investment banking that gives similar experience is mergers & acquisitons and still I dont think there are that many people that move to work as CEOs compared to Big 4. I doubt that people starting work at Big 4 are thick. May be they just prefer to work in a different environment and culture( a bit different from the "dog eat dog" culture at some IBs).

Reply 15

Traum

N9ne

It requires significant intelligence and a sharp mind, something which most celebrities will never have :wink:

.

It's actually surprising the number of A-listers that are oxbridge graduates...n who said people who are rich/famous n beautiful need to be celebrities...

Reply 16

Red Dragon

1

I'm an economics student at loughborough, and I admit that it does not compare to the likes of Oxford, Cambridge, UCL, LSE et al in terms of a target institution for IBs, but it is recognised as a growing modern institution with a lot af talent.

The teaching is excellent, and all of the Professors who lecture us have good links with industry. My professor of money and banking still works for the IMF, World Bank, FSA, FSCS, is an advisor to the South African treasury, and also sits with the EU commission in Brussels on regular occassions.

The most prolific IBs dont target here, but in the Spring Career fair next week there are many financial institutions attending, including the Big 4, Accenture, JP Morgan, HSBC CIBM, RBS, Deutsche Bank, Schroders, Bloomberg, UBS and a couple of VCTs and Hedge Funds that have links with the Money & Banking Professors.

In my time here I have also met people from Credit Suisse, DrKW, the FSA, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, RBC Capital Markets and several others.

Many of my peers taking placements next year have secured jobs with IBs. Two of my friends are joing GS next year, and i know of several others going to ML, RBS and UBS

In my limited experience, having a degree from a target institution makes it easier for you to get your foot in the door, but if you are a hard working and ambitious person it should be easy for you to make up the ground. From then on its up to the individual, no matter what institution they are from.

Reply 17

Drogue

19

kyril

Drogue but when you look at FTSE100 companies probably at leat 60% of them have CEO,CFOs or COO that come from accountancy (Big 4) background which is quite impressive. The training they get there and the experience/contacts are great when you work in London and have large clients. Accounting practises can lead to the rise and the ruin of every big company(Enron, Parmalat). The only part of investment banking that gives similar experience is mergers & acquisitons and still I dont think there are that many people that move to work as CEOs compared to Big 4. I doubt that people starting work at Big 4 are thick. May be they just prefer to work in a different environment and culture( a bit different from the "dog eat dog" culture at some IBs).

I never said they were think. And of course they're more prevelent, there's many, many times as many people working at the Big4 than at IBs. IBs are elitist, they're harder to get and pay more. I don't doubt that many people do choose to go to the Big4 ahead of IB, but I'd imagine, being finance, they appeal to the same type of person, and IBs are generally more prestigious and harder to get into. Percentage wise, few Big4 accountants end up as CEOs, whereas almost every IBer earns huge sums.

Reply 18

President_Ben

15

Red Dragon

<stuff>

Back office (95% or so of the time).

Help me, i really need advice!

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