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Should I apply for Grad Scheme or Internship?

Basically. I am in going into my final year (4th) this September (masters in chemical engineering) and am unsure on what to apply for when all applications open (yes, i'm aware some are open).

Quick low down:
4th Year Chemical Engineering Student - University of Birmingham: 2:1 (expected)
Barclays work experience completed last summer - (1 week in Corporate Banking).
No summer internship however this year.

Basically I fluffed the two interviews I had and came away with no summer internship this year.

My question is, in your opinion should I apply for a grad scheme position or an internship and why? Are banks unlikely to take final year students?
Original post by alexjones1994
Basically. I am in going into my final year (4th) this September (masters in chemical engineering) and am unsure on what to apply for when all applications open (yes, i'm aware some are open).

Quick low down:
4th Year Chemical Engineering Student - University of Birmingham: 2:1 (expected)
Barclays work experience completed last summer - (1 week in Corporate Banking).
No summer internship however this year.

Basically I fluffed the two interviews I had and came away with no summer internship this year.

My question is, in your opinion should I apply for a grad scheme position or an internship and why? Are banks unlikely to take final year students?


Front office grad scheme is a no go with zero experience whatsoever, 1 week work exp. doesn't count.

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Reply 2
Original post by alexjones1994
Basically. I am in going into my final year (4th) this September (masters in chemical engineering) and am unsure on what to apply for when all applications open (yes, i'm aware some are open).

Quick low down:
4th Year Chemical Engineering Student - University of Birmingham: 2:1 (expected)
Barclays work experience completed last summer - (1 week in Corporate Banking).
No summer internship however this year.

Basically I fluffed the two interviews I had and came away with no summer internship this year.

My question is, in your opinion should I apply for a grad scheme position or an internship and why? Are banks unlikely to take final year students?

You can still apply for summer internships in your final year to a lot of banks. It's far easier to get an internship than a grad scheme place. However, I'd recommend doing some more work experience first to build up your cv.
Reply 3
Original post by Princepieman
Front office grad scheme is a no go with zero experience whatsoever, 1 week work exp. doesn't count.

Posted from TSR Mobile


Okay, so are you inferring in that case that applying for an internship with only one week work experience isn't as bad? Are my chances still pretty slim?
Original post by alexjones1994
Okay, so are you inferring in that case that applying for an internship with only one week work experience isn't as bad? Are my chances still pretty slim?


Nah, it's not as bad. You're not expected to have mounds of experience as an summer applicant (albeit it would make much life easier) as much as you would were you to go for grad (banks have their pick of those who didn't convert their summer internships or those who are switching banks for some reason).

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Reply 5
Original post by Trapz99
You can still apply for summer internships in your final year to a lot of banks. It's far easier to get an internship than a grad scheme place. However, I'd recommend doing some more work experience first to build up your cv.


Okay. Well I have had a couple of unrelated jobs. Retail etc. Also am the current VP of investment society. Not much I can do between now and September :/. Any suggestions? Thanks
Reply 6
Original post by Princepieman
Nah, it's not as bad. You're not expected to have mounds of experience as an summer applicant (albeit it would make much life easier) as much as you would were you to go for grad (banks have their pick of those who didn't convert their summer internships or those who are switching banks for some reason).

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Okay thanks bud. I've seen you post quite a bit in this section during my short use and you seem to be in the know how.

(In you opinion obviously) do you think banks are likely to discriminate with me and other applicants considering i'm a final year student?
VP of an investment society will still be relevant, and you can spin a lot of what you have done to be made relevant. I will say that I was in a similar position but with consulting last year - in my final year and didn't do an internship for various reasons. I applied to a few consulting internships for the next summer but most of them rejected me flat out for not being a penultimate year student, even when I put on the application that I would be applying for a Masters (which would make me a penultimate year student from graduating). So it's up to you! Read the guidelines carefully for the bank internship schemes, some will specify straight out that they only take certain years. It might be worth e-mailing ahead and seeing what the protocol is (but in my experience it's often hard to get a reply), or apply to a few and see what the general trend is! I realise banking will be different to consulting, but I don't want you to do what I did and end up with nothing - it might be worth applying to both internships and grad schemes and seeing which ones you tend to be more successful in as a starting point.
Original post by alexjones1994
Okay thanks bud. I've seen you post quite a bit in this section during my short use and you seem to be in the know how.

(In you opinion obviously) do you think banks are likely to discriminate with me and other applicants considering i'm a final year student?


Sorry just saw this, nah they wouldn't. Not for the ones that allow final years to apply anyway.

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Reply 9
Original post by roflcakes1
VP of an investment society will still be relevant, and you can spin a lot of what you have done to be made relevant. I will say that I was in a similar position but with consulting last year - in my final year and didn't do an internship for various reasons. I applied to a few consulting internships for the next summer but most of them rejected me flat out for not being a penultimate year student, even when I put on the application that I would be applying for a Masters (which would make me a penultimate year student from graduating). So it's up to you! Read the guidelines carefully for the bank internship schemes, some will specify straight out that they only take certain years. It might be worth e-mailing ahead and seeing what the protocol is (but in my experience it's often hard to get a reply), or apply to a few and see what the general trend is! I realise banking will be different to consulting, but I don't want you to do what I did and end up with nothing - it might be worth applying to both internships and grad schemes and seeing which ones you tend to be more successful in as a starting point.


Thanks for your answer. Yeah i'm going to applying for internships to ones that state they are open to anyone in final year. Emailing the ones that are ambiguous then applying if they are open. For the ones that don't offer internships to final years i'm just going to apply to grad schemes / leave it. My backup choice is to do a masters at UCL in Finance. So hopefully not doing nothing!

Out of interest, what did you do in the end?

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