Landing a job in London being Portuguese
(yeah, I thought Adriana would catch your attention)
Hello everyone,
As this being my first post in WSO, I'm trying to find out how it works so I hope I can have at least one reader that can answer to the following question:
Being a 23 year-old student from Portugal (as many of you SHOULD know, is that little messy piece next to Spain) and having finished my BSc in Economics and having enrolled in a MSc in Finance both at a top portuguese b-school (though certainly not a target one for bulge braket firms despite being ranked in the top 60 schools in FT rankings), do you thinkI have a chance to land a job in London in AM (WM would be a great job for me), IB, HF, VC, PE?
Or at least doing an internship in the next summer maybe?
Thanks in advance, I would really appreciate if someone could bring me back to the earth.
Recruiting is pretty tight in London for AM and WM. I went to a "target" in London and I know several people who applied for WM and AM who didn't even get interviews with internships, grades, etc. Its rate to get into PE and HFs straight from school but definitely possible. Your best bet would be email every shop, big or small, with your CV and cover letter and follow up with a phone call after a few days. Many of the smaller places don't have formal recruiting. You should definitely try getting something finance related in Portugal in the mean time - the economy might be bad but remember there are always a few jobs somewhere!
Thank you, Darety, for such useful advice. It is true that even in such difficult "conditions" there are some opportunities out there but the field of finance here in Portugal is a bit undeveloped I might say. Investment banking is like a mirage, the IB are only two that really are involved in some sort of major deals around the country and they both work almost in the shadow, as they don't have any kind of formal recruiting either. And for the rest of finance related jobs, they are only in retail banking, which basically is leading with client accounts and stuff like that, so there's practically no experience involved. So, you could be the brightest in your class, have an internship or two there and there, and even so i feel like being a small fish in an ocean full of sharks, even if work hard as hell, just because I was born in such a mediocre country like mine.
I don't think being portuguese makes it substantially more difficult. The Brits aren't racists.
I kind of disagree with you GS. Not because I think Brits are racists of course. Actually I do admire the British culture for its openness to people, specially Londoners who obviously are used to deal with different kinds of foreigners, at least more open than the typical new yorker, for instance (sorry if I'm offending some of you, it's not my intention at all). But despite the fact that portuguese people have the ability to adapt to any culture and work hard, we have no reputation regarding our schools. Here, with my qualifications, I would find a good job, poorly paid compared to similar jobs in any major european city but relatively well paid within our system, if we were talking about pre-2008. Now if we have at least some ambition in our blood, we have to move somewhere else, and there's where the issues begin, as, like I mentioned, we have none relevant experience and our schools none reputation.
Another option would be to get an internship outside of finance but where there is a skill set overlap. I know a girl who worked for a year in supply chain and leveraged that into a full time offer at JPM. Similarly I don't have much finance experience bar a part time internship but I've worked in sales and market research which interviewers found more interesting than my finance experience. Perhaps you could get a role in retail or business banking and explain the situation in Portugual a cover letter?
Being Portugese does mean you can work in London without visas, etc. which does make things a lot easier!
Another option would be to get an internship outside of finance but where there is a skill set overlap. I know a girl who worked for a year in supply chain and leveraged that into a full time offer at JPM. Similarly I don't have much finance experience bar a part time internship but I've worked in sales and market research which interviewers found more interesting than my finance experience. Perhaps you could get a role in retail or business banking and explain the situation in Portugual a cover letter?
Being Portugese does mean you can work in London without visas, etc. which does make things a lot easier!
Actually, darety, that's exactly what I'm trying to do right now - search for jobs in reputable companies here in Portugal, that could give me somehow more "valued" experience. And that cover letter idea is indeed a good one, thanks. And for the visas, yes, fortunately, it is quite easy.
You should concentrate on firms with an international reputation, even outside of finance. I'm not just talking about Google and other "premier firms" but even firms like Nestle, technology firms, etc. A brand really helps to attract attention to your resume.
Curious if you've thought at all about working in Brazil? Know the language is a bit different than Euro but exciting time and lots of opportunities
Dude , that's not a good idea. The Brazilians hate the Portugese.
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