UKL Investment & Finance Society

One more question - I am very interested in politics and am active in my local area - I hope to continue this at university - would this be a useful thing when it comes to applying for work placements/jobs?
Thanks

I'll join Jools! (birthday buddy )
Oh...you want me to pm my background (the bit that relates to the soc lol)?

I was just wondering, how did you come across such a summer placement, is it because you go to one of the best private schools around the London area and therefore more informed on what is available to you? I knew they existed for university students in their penultimate year, but not A-level finalists. btw if you were to do not so well in your exams would you still get on the placement?

It depends on what you want to do. For stuff like law, consultancy and any pre-graduate jobs, it's pretty useful, for IB/finance it isn't at all really, just a bit of evidence that you're 'rounded'. No point saying "I have an interest in politics" though, you need to prove it, eg with an elected position. Even if it's not that useful when applying for jobs, it's a bit of fun (provided you don't take it too seriously and let it take over your life as it has done for people here), and a good way to pass the time.

What are your political interests? OUCA (Tory) and OULC (Labour) are pretty big here, as is the Union ("world's most famous debating society"), OUSU (notoriously left-wing) and college JCRs (fairly insignificant).

I was just wondering, how did you come across such a summer placement, is it because you go to one of the best private schools around the London area

It's not so much swotting up on publications as just following what's happening on a near daily basis... if FT doesn't take your fancy, then BBC Business Online, Bloomberg, CNBC etc.

I think part of the reason why the preference for Economists is so extra-ordinarily acute is that you're discussing a very limited position. I don't know how long your internship is, but I'd be surprised if it exceeds 10 weeks. There just isn't the time to teach people things they lack the basic skills for. However, for full time employment, there is much more flexibilty with teaching people things from scratch and therefore economists/mathematicians have a reduced advantage. Having said that, any application without evidence of high competence in all the key skills (numeracy, literacy, data analysis and interpreation, etc) is going to seriously struggle and this may affect, say, Classicists more than Economists.

I don't think it's a case of them favouring any subject greatly, in my experience it's just the case that most applicants come from an Economic/Finance/Maths background, so the internships given out reflect this. Haven prior Economics knowledge won't help much, on my internships I didn't need anything beyond A-Level knowledge, possible at a push simple first year undergraduate.

I've heard that these internships pay pretty well, don't worry i won't ask how much.

Is a first in your first year a prerequisite to landing an internship?

On your programme which universities do students mainly come from?

This one.

I think part of the reason why the preference for Economists is so extra-ordinarily acute is that you're discussing a very limited position. I don't know how long your internship is, but I'd be surprised if it exceeds 10 weeks. There just isn't the time to teach people things they lack the basic skills for. However, for full time employment, there is much more flexibilty with teaching people things from scratch and therefore economists/mathematicians have a reduced advantage.

I don't think it's a case of them favouring any subject greatly, in my experience it's just the case that most applicants come from an Economic/Finance/Maths background, so the internships given out reflect this.

But these days when there's 60+ applicants per place at the big banks, if you don't get an internship somewhere in the first place you have next to no chance of getting a graduate offer.

I suppose that must be a difference between the really big banks and the less major ones.

It's notorious for being a bit boring though, and where a lot of grads head off to if they don't succeed with IB applications. Btw I know you're looking at doing an arts degree, but if you are considering Accounting then I'd say go for Maths and another science (/Economics) at AS/A2.