So much orientation around the US and NY here, what about all the people working in London! Thought I'd make a general thread for people in IB in London for questions, random chat, maybe even meet ups!
I'll start with a couple of general lifestyle questions:
Whereabouts in London do you live and why? City or Canary Wharf? Which do you prefer and why?
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I live in kensington, we should get some WSO pints one of these days. Cheers!
DP
Good idea, I'm working in the Wharf at the moment - prefer it to the city as it's real nice being at the docks!
Im prospective but from what I've seen, Wharf seems to be the nicer environment! Right now considering living in CW and commuting to City or CW depending on office location.
I've worked in both. I can honestly say I prefer the City. Canary Wharf has no real character to the place and doesn't have a single shop/restaurant that there aren't at least another 20 of in London. Though it does have The Gun not far away. Not too many women in Canary Wharf after 8pm either - it is very finance and very male. Probably why there isn't a single club.
One nice thing about the Wharf is that you can live in Greenwich and have a 15 minute (max) bed to desk commute.
London is by far the nicest city on the planet to live in. Met plenty of NYC/Ivy kids who couldn't agree more, every aspect of life: london > rest. City/Mayfair are the places to wrok. Canary wharf is lovely, but personally wouldnt enjoy the commute. Best place to live are south kensington / knightsbridge / belgravia / marylebone / maida vale / notting hill / hampstead. Plenty of choice. Every billionaire in the world wants a place in london for a reason (not nyc), quality of life is amazing, simple as that.
Agree, its probably the best city in the world to work in finance. Not such a nice place to live if you aren't earning good money though, I find the quality of life gap between people who work in Finance/Law and people who don't to be staggering (much larger than in NYC where there are many high paying jobs).
Regardless, to this day I am still amazed at how nice the high end neighborhoods are, there is nothing in NYC that even remotely compares to neighborhoods like Mayfair, Marylebone, Chelsea, St. James, Kensington, etc.
Don't get me wrong because I love London, but the weather alone prevents this from being true. Maybe the nicest major finance city, but...
Totally disagree. Dude, you've got Miami, Ibiza, Saint Tropez, Monaco, Capri, Barcelona, Moscow... those are great places to live and to party.
London sucks as a place to live. No sun, grey and ugly buildings, no crazy nightlife, ugliest ladies ever... All the decabillionaires of the world own places in London/NY to do business, not to enjoy their time... To enjoy their time they own places in Saint Tropez (Steve Schwarzman from BX spends summers in St Tropez, Vladimir Putin owns a $500m home in St Tropez as well).... dude, have you ever tried nightlife in Monaco, in Ibiza, in Barcelona, in Moscow? Those are the places to be. OK, Moscow might be grey and cold but ladies there are really top notch and cheap.
This post makes no sense. Ibiza, Capri, and St. Tropez are not cities, they are holiday destinations and no one lives there year round. As a place to live and work London is tops. There are no other international finance centers that are as nice as London, NYC is not even close.
Fisher said that London is the nicest city on the planet. If you read well my post, I am saying that NY and London are the places to be to do business/finance. I am disagreeing with Fisher regarding London as nicest city on the planet "in general", not "for finance". Miami, Barcelona or Monaco are way better cities to live than London: weather, parties, quality of life, etc
He did say "on the planet" and didn't say only finance centers. I would rather live in any of those locations, if work wasn't an issue. I agree on the international finance centers part, of which there are maybe 5?
There are a ton of real cities that I would choose over London or New York for overall quality of life...Barcelona, Milan, Zurich, Sydney, Buenos Aires, San Francisco... You just might have to sacrifice some career opportunities.
I already chose to live in a second (or third) tier market for better weather and quality of life than is available in NYC or London.
Have worked in the City and Mayfair. Prefer the latter.
When I was in the CIty, I used to live in Shad Thames--easy commute, and you can even walk it.
For Mayfair, Marylebone is a really nice area and you can walk it too.
Worked and lived in both. Prefer the City to cwharf. As another user above mentioned- cwharf is very cookie cutter filled with your run-of-the-mill prets and eats and costas and starbucks and itsus. The boxy buildings lack the architectural feel of London that you can get, at say Bank for example.
Live in the dirsty east (Bethnal Green) and work in Mayfair - have worked in the city as welll, preferred the drinking in the city where I had a few more non-colleague mates but it is pretty nice over here in Berkelysquareshire....have never lived West but dont actually think its worth the extra rent and my social life is dominated by Shoreditch, Hackney, Camden etc so no point being in Chelsea darling.
Any foolios got questions on PE in the UK let me know - no PMs though if possible.
No need to be down on NYC though, spend a few weeks at least each year there and always enjoy it - Greenwich village, meatpackers etc are great fun...
I've got a question on London PE.. When do you think is the optimal time to jump? 2nd yr analyst, 3rd yr analyst, 1st yr associate? What are the comp levels in lower MM firms? (say EUR 500m funds) In the US you usually do the 2 yr PE stint and then go to bschool, how's the progession in London? Are direct promotes (to post MBA associate) common?
No. MBAs aren't nearly as important or as prevalent in the UK than in the US. From what I've seen, most people do their analyst programme with a bank of some sort, then jump ship.
On finishing my second year, I intend to join a small, family-owned PE/VC fund for a while, then move on to bigger things. I know a couple of people that have taken this route.
work in mayfair live in marelybone. pints sounds awesome
I was just in London for a visit, loved every minute of it. I'm actually trying to get an internship in London for next summer. I'll be a sophomore at Wharton when i get back to school next month. My experience has all been with the same family in the middle east. I worked for their holding company this summer and the IBD division of their bank last summer.Any advice gents ? Do PM me.
I am an american doing an internship at a big ibank in the city. I live up north in the slum of wood green (SA salaries arent that great!!!) because rent was cheap and I can take the overground straight to moorgate station in20 min.
So far living here has been a damn hassle, coming as a foreigner anyway. Getting shit set up here as a foreigner is tough (things like bank account, getting internet/tv/ cell phone) because you have no credit.
There does seem to be a huge discrepancy between high eaners wuality of life and everybody else here.
All that said london is damn compelling and I had a great night out in shoreditch last weekend.
BTW fod in england is treated unfairly poorly, i find the food here fucking awesome!!
And yes, i defintiely second getting together for some pints.
American that has been here studying for the summer. It's a great city. I enjoy going down to the kensington and mayfair area. Lots of Ivy League kids down here also. I have not been impressed by the food and the exchange rate is pretty bad, but I would definitely would consider a SA position next summer here. A WSO meet up would be a good time, maybe somewhere in Mayfair. PM
I work in the City. It is unquestionably better to be than in Canary Wharf. Canary feels so artificial and contrived; it lacks any character and soul. The surrounding areas are also complete wastelands. I'd hate to be stuck there late at night or at the weekend.
I live in what was formerly my family's "pied-a-terre" in the heart of Mayfair. Cheap and convenient, but the morning rush is a nightmare.
Let me know when you guys go for a pint !!
Prefer Wharf to the City. City is too busy and pedestrian, and full of annoying tourists and shoppers. Wharf is laidback and chill, almost like a little village just for bankers. Wharf Mall also has conveniencee of having all the best shops in London in one place.
lolz at the guys complaining about character and soul. When you're working 90 hours a week, who gives a crap about soul.
When you finish your degree and you start work full-time, your views will have some legitimacy. I don't think you can really argue that the atmosphere doesn't matter when you've not yet completed your summer internship. You've been here for, what, 6 weeks?
Pipe down, son.
Would strongly advise you get the sand out of your vagina.
Work in the City live near C.W ( I know bizzar...)
I am doing an internship in S&T right now.
Would be interested in some pints at some point.
PM me.
hi guys, i am also doing SA in Sales & Trading. I like to work at the city, however i also like wharf area a lot, apart from its remote location.
setting up some wso pints is a great idea. any proposals for date, time & meeting location?
Hey, great read and very interesting post. Let's keep it alive!
I just received an offer to work in Canary Wharf. I am pretty pissed off because I would prefer working in the City and living in the CIty in order to feel the London "soul and character" that someone mentioned above and also in order to be able to go walking to museums, cultural events, top notch stores, and above all, my loved top notch clubs in the west! That's all that matters in banker life, working during daytime, partying hard during nightime from time to time.
I seriously don't know where to live. I would prefer living in the City but I don't want to commute every day to Canary Wharf, plus it's expensive to live in the City. On the other hand, I can live in the Docklands and go walking to work every day, which is great, but the DOcklands are really ugly, with greay neighbourhoods with no life. And I don't want to spend 200 GBP on taxis every time that I go to night clubs in the West from my place in the Docklands. I know I will stop partying if I have to pay so much for cabs, so I won't go out and to me it is really important to party especially when you work hard as a banker. Not to say as well that my preliminary guess is that there no interesting night clubs in the Docklands...
So I was just reading one of your posts above and read that someone was mentioning living in Greenwhich. I've just been researching about Greenwich and it really looks great! Living there would be like living in a cute village while being 3 DLR stations far from top notch finance in Canary Wharf. Besides, rental prices in Greenwich are really low compared to the City/Canary Wharf/Docklands close to Canary Wharf. You can live on great places at just 800-1000 GBP per month! OK, I would have to commute but I think it is worth it. Has anyone insights on life in Greenwich? Are there good places to go out there, like in Western London (think Mayfair, South Kensington, Chelsea and the likes)? I am ready to sacrifice going out to the West if I can live in a village like Greenwich, I am ready to put the daily commute as well, but having some decent night life in Greenwich would be a minimum requirement.... if not, I wouldn't be leaving in the grey docklands at least, which is worth the commute... seriously guys, how do you go out when you live in Canary Wharf? Do you really spend a fortune on cabs every night or how do you do it?
Cheers!
I intensely recommend you avoid Greenwich. Its surrounded by very rundown poor areas and is in the middle of nowhere.
Don't care about what surrounds Greenwich. Canary Wharf and the Docklands are also surrounded by very rundown poor areas. The Docklands themselves suck. What matters is Greenwich itself. The place looks cute, like a village, with a huge beautiful park and it's cheap. Why not leave in Greenwich if it's beautiful? Who cares about what surrounds it? It's like saying: "Don't work in finance in Canary Wharf. It's surrounded by very rundown poor areas". Yeah, OK, but Canary Wharf is what matters, not the surroundings.
Don't care about what surrounds Greenwich. Canary Wharf and the Docklands are also surrounded by very rundown poor areas. The Docklands themselves suck. What matters is Greenwich itself. The place looks cute, like a village, with a huge beautiful park and it's cheap. Why not leave in Greenwich if it's beautiful? Who cares about what surrounds it? It's like saying: "Don't work in finance in Canary Wharf. It's surrounded by very rundown poor areas". Yeah, OK, but Canary Wharf is what matters, not the surroundings. So how's Greenwich???
sorry to deviate a bit. I'm U.S. based and want to get into PE in london. Any idea which headhunters to speak with / which avenues to pursue?
PER - http://perecruit.com/
I can vouch for them.
Guys, my office is somewhere along the HMS Belfast near London Bridge tube / Tower Bridge. I'm looking for a place thats not too far from there. Any recommendations? Earning £40k/year so...
To anyone who's spent time both in NYC and London, how would you say they differ in terms of culture, work ethic, lifestyle etc?
Grew up outside NYC, live in London.
I have only worked in London, but I can say that the city is a better place to live than NYC by a mile. Beautiful quiet neighborhoods that you actually want to walk around, green spaces everywhere, amazing architecture, good transport, etc. The people are definitely less neurotic, and in general are more chilled out. The problem with that is London does not have the go-getter driven American attitude that NYC does, and sometimes I feel like the people here are lazy and don't demand enough with regards to customer service (though this applies more to the general public and not people who work in high finance).
Nightlife is comparable to NYC, you can find pretty much everything here.
London bridge is optimal; approximately equidistant to City, Mayfair, Canary Wharf.
I haven't visited London since 2005. I need to get back there...
Ok, a whole thread, 2 days latter and still no beer plans :D, anyone suggest any place? or maybe first search for some pub near a relatively central tube station?
Question for people on this thread- What is the best way to get into finance in London (not necessarily IB)? Typical application proccesses? I've always dreamed of going to London one day while I'm still young to work, and thought maybe going to Bschool in London would be a good way to meet people, network, etc. Any feedback would be great. Thanks
Guys, my office is somewhere along the HMS Belfast near London Bridge tube / Tower Bridge. I'm looking for a place thats not too far from there. Any recommendations? Earning £40k/year so...
I would maybe suggest Southwark if you want to be super close. Do a search for "living in Southwark" online to read a bit about it.
I personally consider the west end to be optimal, and completely worth the commute (South Ken, Chelsea/Sloane Square, Notting Hill, etc.), but that does not seem like an option on 40k a year.
God, I need to get transferred to London! This thread is making me realize how much I really miss that place...
I live in Southwark, right behind the Tate Modern and it takes me ten minutes to walk to work on the other side of the River.
why anyone would want to live in Canary wharf is beyond me - like saying you want to live in midtown in NYC, except if midtown were in fucking harlem (really far away from everything)
Kensington/chelsea is the shit for sure. st johns wood and maida vale are also nice but for older people
London certainly is one of the worlds greatest cities, you must be insane to say otherwise...
living in midtown is my idea of hell on earth. when i walked through Kensington for the first time I think it was the first time in my life i felt a neighborhood might actually be too wealthy. the place literally smells of money.
South Ken, not the High St. The High St is very...democratic.
Please stop talking about Barcelona. This city is a piece of shit.
B2T: I have been to London several times and truly enjoyed it. Hence I would love to live there for a couple of years.
Bringing it back to living locations, I have a quick question for all you Londoners! I'm not yet sure whether I'll be working in the City or CWharf, and I'm not sure if I'll be told nearer the time or not. What area would be good for BOTH these locations (short commute being main priority).
Just started work in the City in July and got a place close to Aldgate cause i wanted to avoid the daily commute as tube SUCKS and buses suck... except totally regretting Aldgate cause its a dirty dirty area. Unless youre a stupid hipster.
Will be looking to move to the West, but still soemwhere as close to the City as possible.
Toilets in Canary Wharf station are HIDEOUS for the record...
Jus' sayin'
on the london debate:
best city for finance.
but, for fun when your young barcelona is muuuch better.
When your old london is the last place youd want to be, incredibly expensive housing, communist taxes.
Past 35 just move to zurich/geneva.
lol like what on your jr semester abroad?
dont think its a great place for the mid 20's
Is it weird that I read all these posts with a British accent?
Anyone live/work anywhere near where the riots & looting have occured?
I live in tottenham and have fled to the city in a hotel.
So much for the " oh it would be awesome to do my SA in London"
This is fucking ridiculous. My bank is even making us dress down tomorrow (we are forbade form wearing suits) and work is pseudo-optional tomorrow.
Scary times
Well, given that the City borders the Borough of Hackey and Canary is in the middle of shitville, then yes, I imagine a lot of us are working near the riots.
Impressed by Cameron; similarly Boris for talking to some of the proles.
This video was shot 50 yards from my house....will be interesting to see how the police respond tonight.
I acknowledge this is a dumb question and I'm asking only out of curiosity.
Are the hours for an ASSOCIATE Investment Banking role in London a whole lot better (or even slightly better) than a comparable role in NYC?
I know long hours come with investment banking regardless of location but do analysts and associates work till 1am every night, have all their weekends ruined and have next to no social lives in London as well?
it will be slightly less intense and slightly more friendly/humane tough, banking is still banking tough.
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