Do A-Level Grades Still Matter for UK Banking Recruitment?
Given that you are at a target uni studying finance, getting good grades, and have some experience, do banks in the UK still care about A levels?
Obviously if you are at a target you probably got really good grades... but what if you went to a non-target for undergrad then target postgrad/masters?
At Master's level it doesn't matter - most candidates don't even have space for their A-levels in their CV. If you manage to get into a good Master's school it shows that you buckled up during your undergrad which compensates for bad A-levels in my view. It does matter for springs and summers out of undergrad though
Yea thats true... however it's not that it would be on my CV but rather on the application itself where you have to enter pre-university info. And for a MSc you apply to analyst positions unlike an MBA. That was my only concern
only if ur sameer merchant lol
💀💀
Matters more than you would imagine especially if your recruiting in the UK.
Certain headhunters (Dartmouth partners who control the hiring process for a lot of entry level EBs/boutiques/buyside) will literally not put you forward if you dont AAB, despite if your getting firsts and have a strong masters - it sounds crazy but I know people who literally got turned down despite LSE/LBS masters in screening calls because of there A-level grades.
Additionally, I have heard A-level grades at some firms are screened for in the ATS systems, I am not sure how true this is though.
yea thats what I thought... seems IB might not be a possible path for me. Thanks tho
Its annoying asf cause I've been grinding and im on track for a 85-90% for a undergrad in CS and I was planning on doing the MSc in finance after.
This question has been asked many times. If it is on your CV, it can look bad if it is under AAA. If it is NOT on your CV, no one will ask or care. The ATS thing is false. I know people who put BBB and and still pass screening and progress for spring week/summer internship interviews. You can get extremely unlucky and get asked in an interview but this rarely has ever happened. In the US, it's common to only include undergrade + GPA though. In the UK, many ppl include A-Levels for spring weeks. So, it's much better to have it - later down the line it's not a deal breaker.
Hmm... thats why I get confused. I mean in this thread alone some say it really matters and others like yourself says it doesn't.
However the Dartmouth is so true. Huge pain.
Is this also applicable for breaking out a undergrad, I got BBB but go to a solid semi-target because of a contextual offer
A Levels deterimine which uni you go to so it is important (they screen on the basis of uni)
There is no such thing as target at postgrad. Targets only exist at undergrad level - so by definition if you have bad A-levels you wouldn't be at a target
What
Doing a masters at Oxford or LBS is not a flex - the only people doing masters are ones who couldn't get a job after undergrad so you're competing against a weaker pool as opposed to competing against everyone at undergrad level
No, but my MD did judge me very much for only getting an A in Further Maths...
Not as important as you might think. I went to a target MSc Finance in London and have horrible A-level grades. They did not ask me that on my summer analyst application, therefore I managed to get into an EB. But I only have bad experiences with headhunters, they did not get me in any process lol
When you say HHs, you mean for exiting into buyside? Or you referring to Dartmouth for summer internship applications
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