LSE MsC in Financial Economics --> FT BB IBD Analyst in London

Just wanted your opinion on something. I am an undergrad at a top 3 (edit: consistently ranked in the top 3) US undergraduate accounting program. I am interested in working in London at a BB IBD. I was wondering if anyone knew if the BBs hired out the MsC in Financial Economics or even MsC in Accounting and Finance from LSE to a 1st year analyst.

Any suggestions on other programs that might get me into recruiting with BB in London. School and program would be great, though the would all have to be graduate degrees w/o any full-time work experience.

 
futurebankinghopeful:

Of the LSE MSc Finance, Oxford MFE, and LBS MIM, which one has the best placement? Or it is pretty similar between the 3 of them?

LSE >= Oxford > LBS

Msc Fin is LSE's flagship if you're not looking at research oriented programmes and is basically focused on breaking into the City. Oxford is great and has even better name recognition, but you will miss out on some networking opportunities. LBS is good but their degree is in management, not in finance. You can tailor it somehow but not enough to compete with true finance programmes as you only have one year.

 

It's not a major problem, you just have to beat out the competition... and that is definitely possible, considering that I and a few other non-EU citizens in my MSc. (EU, but not UK) will be upcoming SA's in London this summer.

 
Best Response

From my personal experience in the US(working in teams where there were many foreigners), it seems like getting a job in the US as an international is much, much more difficult than getting a job in UK as a North American or non-EU citizen. However, I personally have worked with people in the US (youngest 23, oldest mid-40s) who were Visa holders and had only been working in the states for a few years.

Likewise (as I stated earlier), I know non-EU citizens in my MSc. who, along with myself, been accepted to SA internships in BB's this summer in London. Some of us even had EU citizens from the same school (even the same program) in our assessment centres, but we got the offers while they (in some cases) didn't.

While it's true that the firm does have to go through a few extra hoops and pay a little more money to hire an international student, they're also trying to look for who they consider to be the best candidate. So if the international student happens to be the best candidate (and believe me, many times we are the ones who will go the extra mile to prove ourselves vs our competition who have home-field advantage), I'm willing to bet that a BB won't care thaaat much about forking over a couple hundred (maybe a couple thousand? idk) pounds to get the candidate a Visa. This is for BB's though; I know for a fact that the Big 4 in London will not allow internationals (who are not studying in UK) to even apply for internships, let alone FT.

Again, personal conjecture. Take what I say with a grain of salt, your mileage may vary... BUT do not listen to people - especially people on WSO - who like to spout generalizations on one side of the spectrum or the other.

 

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