Investment Banking in London

I'm currently a HS senior who will be attending a top 10 US University next year. I've been interested in Investment Banking for a while, obviously the work days seem long bit the work itself seems up my alley, and obviously the pay is good too. Although I'm an American, I'm definitely interested in heading over to work in London after college and I'm pretty familiar with the city. Does anyone know how IB is in London compared to in the US? If anyone has worked in London and could share their experiences that would be great, but if anyone just knows some of the similarities and differences that would be really helpful too.

 
Best Response

First off - do NOT go into banking for the pay. When you've been getting 3 hours sleep a night and have to deal with inane requests from your seniors, the pay doesn't make you happy.

Banking in London is very similar to that in the US. The main difference from a recruiting point of view is that it is FAR less networking-intensive. All your applications are done online, and you are not required to golf every weekend with 3 MDs just to get an interview. The other difference in recruiting is that they actually test your intelligence. You'll have to do timed maths and logic tests (which are very simply, just a test of time really) and at your Assessment Centre (not a Superday) you'll have role play exercises, group tests, more mathematical testing etc.

In London you'll either work in the City (Goldman, UBS, DB) or in Canary Wharf (JPM soon, MS, Citi, BAML, BarCap, CS). You will get around either by walking, the underground (~£2.50 per journey) with an Oyster card or by taxi at night after 10pm.

Housing costs for a 1 bedroom flat start at around £1200 per month ($1900) for a short-term rental (under 6 months) or £800 ($1400 per month for a longer lease. The most common places to live are the City, Camden, Shoreditch, Tower Bridge, Docklands, Canary Wharf, Isle of Dogs or Bow.

The hours are similar to that of the US, around 80-90 hours a week but this will vary a lot depending on your bank. For example, most of the people I know work from around 9am till 2am most days, with an all-nighter at least once a week. I however work from 7:30am until around 11pm-midnight every day, and havn't had to stay later than 2:30am yet. This is for front-office IBD in a top BB.

Culture-wise again it is similar to the US although varies a lot from bank to bank. In some places, MDs will be treated as untouchable gods whom you never interact with; I sit next to mine and we chat football etc. My team has very little hierarchy but then in other teams its incredibly strict and you only deal with analysts or associates.

For exit-opps it is very dissimilar to the US. It is not just 2 years as an analyst, 2 years at business school and then to buy-side. A lot of people still go to the buy-side but this would be after 3 years as an analyst and you don't have to go to business school.

TLDR; London is extremely similar to NY for IBD but it can vary a lot depending on which team or bank you are at. The main difference is recruiting.

Asatar seems to have most of it covered, as with what he said the different recruiting environment seems to translate into a less comptitive process, not just because of the way it is handled, but also because there's a lot less people around. Ivy Leagues would be extremely well respected in the UK.

Damn you Rodger! My WSO Blog
 

@"Asatar" I'm assuming then that a huge amount of recruiting goes into GPA and previous experience, and from there the interview would be the most influential. Do most of the companies host the timed logic and math tests in the States for people going to school over here?

 

I'm in London and I've had offers in New York but I'd still take London. London has overtaken New York in someways, but New Yorkers aren't nearly as poncy. Plus, it's much easier to Boo the knicks from Jersey than from Canary wharf.

 

ratul you must be at rothschilds.

I also had New York offers and went with London. The hours are still outrageous, but they are slightly better. RobertSmith if you are american, transitioning to the states from london would be easy, but getting hired in the EU might be difficult.

 

A MSc won't put you beyond analyst unless you have experience. Most people in IB in europe do MSc's or in some cases course's are done in such a way you come out with 3 MSc's (French schools)

HEC (France)would be one of the top MBA's. Check out the FT's top 100 should give you a better view.

 

the Cambridge mba is pathetic go to insead/lbs or the us.

you also seem to be clueless - only experience/mba/phd (in rare cases) will get you an associate interview. a year at lse is not equal to one years banking experience.

 

not clueless, just trying to understand alternative routes to london, after at least 2 years of exp. elsewhere aside from the obvious INSEAD/LBS MBA and Top 10 US

considering relo from a BB or HSMP before going to school

previous posts suggest oxbridge, LSE, dominate at the analyst entry, just wondering how they would fare for the associate level, with min. 2 years ofcourse

what about the LBS MiF over their MBA?

i'd much rather be in europe for school, preferably the UK

 

I've seen a fair bit of misinformation on this thread, so let's clear this up.

As an American who did his MBA in Europe and got a BB London associate role, I know how this game is played.

LBS is far and away your best bet for London placement.

Other than that you have basically 2 other european schools that are targets at most banks: INSEAD and IESE (Barcelona).

Forget the FT rankings here...HEC Paris, Manchester, Cambridge, Oxford, whatever are NOT TARGET SCHOOLS!!! A few people from these schools work their way in, but you will kick yourself if you want to do banking and go to one of these schools.

For INSEAD a side note is that you must start at the January start date because the program is only 11 months and otherwise your timing will be off and you won't be able to do an internship.

Most London MBA Associates are Europeans studying at the top US schools (HBS, Wharton, etc.). Then LBS, IESE, and INSEAD.

Very few Americans at American MBAs will get brought over to London because you have to convince them that you can/want to do the Euro thing. So unless you have a background that would be a logical fit for them and you are American, you should go to one of the Euro schools i mentioned above.

 
EuroMonkey:
Bocconi's BSc/MSc is very good for getting an analyst position in London but the MBA gets no respect, definitely avoid it.

I only know one guy in London IB with the Bocconi MBA and he's in a dead end situation.

EuroMonkey is right. It's in the same group at HEC, Manchester, etc.

I know a couple from Bocconi, but they are not a target school.

Many of these schools are targets for ANALYSTS, but not for MBAs.

 

I'm also an American working in London, but I have a degree from a British university. I have never met a single American who got an analyst/associate position in London outside of the following:

  1. studied at a European university (Oxbridge, LSE, LBS, Insead, HEC). This includes people who did study abroad in London, got internships there, and then took full-time offers.

  2. experienced bankers sent to the London office

There may possibly be one more category:

  1. Americans who have dual citizenship with an EU country so don't need a Visa

If you're not one of those, it's pretty much not going to happen.

 
fp175:
I'm also an American working in London, but I have a degree from a British university. I have never met a single American who got an analyst/associate position in London outside of the following:
  1. studied at a European university (Oxbridge, LSE, LBS, Insead, HEC). This includes people who did study abroad in London, got internships there, and then took full-time offers.

  2. experienced bankers sent to the London office

There may possibly be one more category:

  1. Americans who have dual citizenship with an EU country so don't need a Visa

If you're not one of those, it's pretty much not going to happen.

Overall I would agree with this.

The one thing I would clarify is that some schools are good for analyst recruiting and other are good for associate recruiting. So just be sure not to confuse the two when choosing schools.

 

Probably ibtalk.com which is London orientated, you'll find all the starting salaries and bonus info there but not as much about exit ops etc which I think is more to do with the fact that you are usually hired full time not for a two year stint, well in theory at least. There isn't as much activity on that site though so I only check it once a week.

 

I worked at Mizuho International, an Investment Bank Subsidiary of Mizuho Financial Group, and at the Royal Bank of Scotland. I am an American at University of Wisconsin. I think I can answer most of your questions pretty well.

  1. Don't worry about the work permit. If they give you an interview they know what they are getting into. Basically it'll only take 50 pounds and 20 minutes of some HR person's time to get you one. London is an international city, and is usually pretty lax on work permits for high up professions. The opposite cannot be said about the US, so consider yourself lucky.

  2. Pay used to be better when the pound was 2 to 1, but now with the pound at 1.5 to 1 the pay won't be even close. Some American banks will pay you in dollars, but only if your doing a year after your analyst stint. The pay will be lower if you intend to always exchange pounds for dollars. But in the long term who knows, maybe the pound will be 2.5 to 1.

  3. Differing Jurisdictions most certainly impact deals. But it won't hinder you in any way, if anything you will learn a shitload more because you are in london. London is basically a hub for the rest of the world. Everything may not start there, but it always goes through there. Most banks have smaller offices in every european country for this reason. Their biggest office is in London, but they have small staffs everywhere so they can know everything about the local laws and customs. During two months at RBS I was on conference calls with Germans, Italians, Spanish, and Polish people. This will help you with any type of banking job in Europe, but severely hinder you with US banking jobs. When I interviewed with US banks no one gave two shits that I knew German Renewable Energy code to a T. To them its all about US. But you will still get good modeling and valuation experience.

  4. I would say there is stereotypes when you are American in London. But it worked to my advantage. People expected me to be a brash, close minded, hardworking asshole because I was an American. So when in my interview I showed that I was a smart, nice, hardworking American, and they jumped for me. There are so many Americans working in London mostly because they know that we work hard, yet you can't be a complete dick if you want to work there. Just make sure to tone back your confidence when interviewing, cause British banks are much more low key.

I would recommend working in London, most of all because you can drink 5 beers during lunch and be more sober than your MDs. And that Guinness sure tastes a lot better closer to home.

 

I'm in Undergrad still. I got a FT offer to do M&A Advisory in a division owned by a reinsurance company.

I studied abroad in London, and through my program worked at Mizuho 3 days a week and took classes the other 2. That was spring semester from Jan-May. I applied to RBS online for their summer internship, and got the job, then stayed in London over the summer. Good luck on the job hunt there, it is definitely looking different.

 

I am American and started in London at (probably) the best boutique bank. Studying abroad is your best bet. You'll be set for London recruitment if you go to Oxford, Cambridge, the LSE, or Imperial.

It will not be easy to get a job in London if you are not in the UK. Similarly, if/when you want to move back to the US from London, that won't be easy either, so you should keep that in mind (especially since it seems you haven't spent any real time in London, so saying, "I could spend the rest of my life there" sounds a bit retarded).

 
natew6338:
No I have spent a lot of time there, actually.

So studying abroad there will be sufficient? I will be abroad from Brown, as an Econ major.

study at one of the following schools abroad:

UK: LSE, Oxford, Cambridge, UCL, Imperial, Warwick Continental Europe: Bocconi and HEC

The UK schools obviously give you the geographic advantage for London, but the Continental schools will allow you to become bi or tri-lingual, which is very desirable for IB in london and for future endeavors.

 

It should be noted that although one of the benefits of attending a target school in London like LSE is that banks heavily recruit from there, another benefit is the fact that at LSE specifically there is a great chance to network not only with the companies that come on campus to give presentations (there are presentations several times a week), but also with the LSE students themselves. Something like 70% of LSE's student body wants to go into either banking, consulting, or to the big 4. This is a huge number and also LSE's student body is extremely international and I'd even say wealthy for the most part. It wouldn't be hard to make a few friends only to discover one of their dad's is head of a banking division or something along those lines. So yeah, I think the networking aspect of attending a target school in London (like anywhere) should also not be overlooked, especially since it will be more difficult for you as an American to get an internship / FT offer in London.

 

"What does US citizenship have to do with London?"

Nothing at all. I meant that I would be a US citizen already, by the time I would be applying for a job in London, so I'm guessing getting a Visa would be easier and I could travel more freely. I have lived in England for a while, as a matter of fact I just moved here from England about a year ago. Are you actually Nigerian? Your screen name is very Yoruba haha

 

Im UK based too. Yes you can do an summer internship in your final year if you wish to do a Master. Some banks allow you to do it even it is your final year of education. So this won't be an issue. Off-Cycle would be your best bet given that the calibre of people tend to be stronger for summer internship. I know a few at my uni who managed to squeeze in during semester time. All in all, it will be difficult for you if you don't have any experience in this field, gotta find something meaningful to fill this summer.

 

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