*Official Investment Banking and Advisory 2021 Internship Thread*

How are people who haven’t got there A level grades/ uni confirmed place signing up for Goldman ?

Do you think it makes sense to apply in Paris rather than London to have better chances? (EU, non-French student)
What language level do they require?

Anyone else here in their final year? I’m kinda ****ed tbh since I didn’t get anything for this summer, but I’ll give it another shot. Just wondering whether you guys are planning on doing a masters (if you’re in your final year) because it seems most banks only want penultimates...

Tbh I get the opposite vibe. Seems like more and more kids who get in are doing an MSc (or at least claiming to) and the ones who aren’t are acc 2nd year students on a 3yr course.

Would it matter if you just claimed to have one yr left when actually you’re doing a MSc? I’ve heard of a lot of people doing this and just convincing the team to hire them straight after the internship

Lmao, saying you plan to do a masters on your CV then changing your mind is not fraud
Grow up

So what happens if someone applies for internships and masters programmes, gets an internship but gets rejected from all the masters they applied to? Have they now committed fraud in your opinion?

Literally never heard of this happening, given the importance of integrity in financial services it's really hard to conceptualise a universe where a candidate publicly commits fraud in their application and everyone at the bank (HR, Compliance, etc) is totally cool with it.
Lots of people say on forums "I am going to claim that I am doing a masters and apply anyway" , they have no chance of being hired FT.
There are lots of tricks for gaming the system that work, this isn't one of them.
I am sure you mean well but you are inadvertently sharing inaccurate advice that if people follow could ruin their professional life. If you are in your final year and haven't bagged a SA at a bank here is what you need to do.
1. Apply for FT anyway.
2. Network via LinkedIn targeting the boutique banks that don't have formal grad programs (there are about 30/40 of them in London) and try and get your CV in front of someone.
3. Apply to the big 4 grad schemes and try to convert to IB after you become chartered accountant.
4. Apply to a finance masters program at a target university (must be target) and apply for summer internships 2021.
5. Apply for off cycle internships at banks at the end of your degree.
6. Apply for graduate programs at the specialist financial valuation firms and try to switch over into a small bank once you are a modeling ninja.
What you must not do is
1. Commit fraud on your application by claiming to be applying for a masters program when you aren't. You will be busted you won't get an offer.
2. Apply for a back office or middle office role and hope you will be the unicorn who converts to front office, you won't.
Good luck to everyone who didn't get a SA and is still determined to make it in IB.

Ridiculous post. And for the record, I know someone who did just this. They're now GS/MS/JPM M&A. They joined FT a year after doing SA (post 3rd year) without doing the masters.

You misread my post I am not saying you can't do SA post 3rd year or that you won't pick up full time in the following cycle i.e. SA 2021 to FT 2022. What I said was
1.That faking a masters application is stupid(I have heard two bank recruiters at on campus events say don't do this we know all about this scam)
2. That you won't go from SA 2021 to FT 2021 because FT 2021 recruitment is finished before SA 2021 has even begun.
3. That if you want FT 2021 then apply for FT 2021 not SA 2021 because if you apply for FT 2021 you get two bites of the cherry FT 2021 and OC 2021.
Also while some banks do recruit up to half of their analyst teams from masters programs (the banks you mentioned plus Citi, CS and BOA are famous for it) other banks hardly give masters applicants a second look. Masters applicants tend to have a very different profile from undergraduate applicants, i.e. European target school, multiple European languages, 2 or possibly 3 excellent finance summer internships ideally with at least one IB summer internship at a small European investment Bank on the continent. The kid from the UK who didn't get a SA last time and now has an empty hole in their CV where that internship should be doesn't really fit the profile.
But again everyone is free to do what they want and believe what they want, so if you think applying for a program that asks for penultimate year students when you are in your final year will work then good luck. IB is a very small world the recruitment teams know the game inside out.
Out of interest your friend who is now top tier M&A, did they lateral into that group from another FT position or was that their first full time position?

Hello Guys,

Im going to CASS for Investment and financial risk management. I know it is a semi target but my A-level results are BBB. Will this mean investment firms will not even consider my application due to the low A-level grade. Will it be hard to get an internship?

Hello Guys,

Im going to CASS for Investment and financial risk management. I know it is a semi target but my A-level results are BBB. Will this mean investment firms will not even consider my application due to the low A-level grade. Will it be hard to get an internship?