2028 SA Recruiting: Toronto vs London
Hi everyone,
I’m a Canadian student (Ivey/QCom) and I’m starting to plan for 2028 Summer Analyst recruiting, meaning I need to get serious starting next year.
At this point, I’m basically assuming the US pipeline from Canada is broken for the foreseeable future. In other words, I’m treating NYC as a non option, or at least so unreliable that building my entire plan around it is a mistake.
That leaves me with a real strategic question:
- If the US path is effectively off the table, is focusing heavily on Toronto actually the right move, even if it means an even more crowded and competitive market?
- Given the size of the Toronto market, do you expect the bar to move up significantly if everyone who would have gunned for the US now concentrates in Canada?
- Because of that, I’ve been considering London IB more seriously as a primary target. For a Canadian school candidate, how realistic is London for SA and eventual FT if you fully commit?
- If you were in my position, would you go Toronto only, London only, or run a structured dual track? How would you split networking and prep time between the two?
Would really appreciate any advice from people currently in the industry, especially anyone with recent Toronto or London recruiting perspective. Thanks in advance.
London also has high competition for limited seats - you will be competing with 25 year olds for the same internships and they will have significantly more experience under their belts.
What's the prize / target that you're aiming for exactly? what do you want to attain?
I want to go into investment banking. I want to work in the same environment as the best people in the world. I’m open to any investment bank I have a realistic chance of getting into.
Lmao “best people in the world”
You won’t find that in IB let alone Canadian IB
Okay so any investment bank works with a preference for "top" deal flow/rep groups - you have that everywhere, so your real constraint is time and how you can allocate it. Given that you're recruiting for SA 2028 - you have tons of time so you can legitimately recruit everywhere if you wanted to invest enough effort into it.
That means starting networking now, learning technicals now, understanding the landscape differences between London/Toronto/USA bank rankings now.
So to answer your specific questions:
1. If the US path is effectively off the table, is focusing heavily on Toronto actually the right move, even if it means an even more crowded and competitive market?
Yes it's the right move, but you should also go for London roles if: a) there are banks operating there that you want to work for; b) you're okay with learning EU deal dynamics/companies/landscape for now in your career; c) you will enjoy living in europe while you're there.
2. Given the size of the Toronto market, do you expect the bar to move up significantly if everyone who would have gunned for the US now concentrates in Canada?
Yes. More people chasing fewer seats as the Canadian economy gets destroyed by the U.S. for refusing to play ball. Eventually I do think the U.S. will annex Canada and then the field will be open across all of CAN/USA for both Canadians/Americans but that's for another post.
3. Because of that, I’ve been considering London IB more seriously as a primary target. For a Canadian school candidate, how realistic is London for SA and eventual FT if you fully commit?
Realistic - lots of people have done this, you just need to have your "why london" story be rock solid and network hard.
4. If you were in my position, would you go Toronto only, London only, or run a structured dual track? How would you split networking and prep time between the two?
Dual track to max chances, start early enough and prepare hard so that you don't have to force yourself to not give one enough time over the other.
Thank you so much for the thoughtful response.
Is the London recruiting timeline different from the US? In the US, it usually starts around December to January of second year (second semester), but I’m not sure if London follows a similar schedule.
Also, are the interview questions materially different? I’m planning to prepare using the BIWS 400 and WSP courses, but I’m not sure whether that preparation translates directly to London interviews as well.
And do you genuinely think the US and Canada will eventually merge? Honestly, if provinces could keep their legal systems and gun regulation stayed strong, I can see why some people might be open to it under certain conditions, but I’m not sure how realistic it actually is.
For now, I’ll move forward assuming a London and Toronto dual track from this point on. I’ll network in both countries and spend more time learning the London landscape. Thanks again.
No worries happy to try to help.
Is the London recruiting timeline different from the US? In the US, it usually starts around December to January of second year (second semester), but I’m not sure if London follows a similar schedule.
Don't know recruiting timelines, too far removed at this point. Assume it's around the same maybe a month delta?
Also, are the interview questions materially different? I’m planning to prepare using the BIWS 400 and WSP courses, but I’m not sure whether that preparation translates directly to London interviews as well.
No they are not materially different. You can prepare the same way. If you go into restructuring, there are some legal differences that you will need to be aware of but that's an edge case.
And do you genuinely think the US and Canada will eventually merge? Honestly, if provinces could keep their legal systems and gun regulation stayed strong, I can see why some people might be open to it under certain conditions, but I’m not sure how realistic it actually is.
Don't want to de-rail the topic but my view is that if Canadians were offered:
Canadians would flee en masse to the United States for the greater opportunities/culture - especially anyone who leans more conservative. Imagine 10-20% of the population takes that offer from the U.S., the damage to the Canadian economy would be so significant, that Canada would no longer be able to operate, and would be forced into something along the lines of a bankruptcy/restructuring, at which point the U.S. would make a rescue offer, and would acquire Canada. The 80% holdouts who stayed in Canada would likely receive a worse offer than the 10-20% who originally accepted the first proposed offer.
Just my 2c - I'm sure someone will say that's a crazy thing to imagine but I think this offer would have had a much higher chance of landing with Canadians than Mr Trump calling our Prime Minister "Governor" and saying he would forcefully annex us to be his 51st state - left a bad taste in peoples' mouthes.
replying to this since it seems like you know what you're talking about: do you know when london SA 2027 IB/S&T applications start to open and how soon should I start networking?
Getting into the target investment clubs should be a priority esp if you're not DEI.
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Should get swiping on tinder in the US for the green card. Working in Toronto for half the pay and same hours is negative NPV
I'm a Canadian citizen at Oxford right now studying maths and it's hard... Like super fucking hard... I don't know how you're gonna break in. Also tryna recruit for SA 2028. Why not just go to Toronto?
Don’t even bother with London, your odds of breaking in are zero given your background. Recruit Toronto, it’s hard but very possible if you do all the right things. I’m wishing you the best but it is very likely you won’t land anywhere given the current climate so start preparing for MBB and other finance roles too. The only way to break into London is if you do a masters in Europe/the UK but at that point you’d be better off working in Toronto and lateraling eventually.
Why is London especially hard? People from all over the world apply to the US too, so shouldn’t NYC be harder than London? I’m genuinely curious.
No they don’t. The only ppl that can work in the US in finance are Americans and ppl who study in America. Canadians used to be able to. That or you work for MNC and they transfer you in.
The difficulty with London is that is it the 'centre' of European finance. So what you get is everyone from around continental Europe and the classic targets (Oxbridge, LSE, Imperial, UCL) applying for the same SA and FT spots. I am heading to an EB for FT this year and very few of the incoming AN1s are final year undergrads. Many have already graduated or are masters students (European UG can be 4 years and masters can be 2-3), meaning they have minimum 1-2 SA and 1 off cycle internship at a satellite European office and are 23/24-ish before coming to London. These candidates mop up SA and FT places over 19/20 year old UK undergrads. Coming from Toronto it would be difficult.
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