European/British Students & Masters Degrees
I spoke to a full time analyst at a BB the other day who emailed me a breakdown of the analyst class at his BB. He works in IBD and sent the breakdown of the entire London analyst class (from the past 3 years).
Over 50% were Masters students AND over 70% were students from European universities (excluding the UK - and not including people studying in the UK who may be from abroad). There was actually only 1 British citizen in the 100+ pool of analysts.
I then emailed several other analysts at BBs and elite boutiques I know who sent me a similar breakdown.
My questions are:
Does a high qualification help with job prospects (in London/EMEA region) or is networking more important... (as I know that the USA and UK have a different culture)?
Why are the classes dominated by European students? If such a small amount of British students get into London BBs then who works in the European branches... more European students? Does this mean British people stand no chance? Where do all the chinese/indian/black/mixed race etc people go...?
I then went onto LinkedIn and kept seeing that people from 'other' ethnicities tended to have more qualifications/experience (on average) before landing a role at a BB for IBD (perhaps its just the people I saw). Why is this? Racism in the 21st century? haha
No racism intended. I have nothing against anyone getting into these roles - merely curious about the breakdown.
I was the only native Brit in an intern class of 60 at a BB in London. Go figure
The Brits only know English. Fact.
This is a key point. Unless you work in a team which ONLY deals with UK clients, you as a English-only native are less valuable than an equivalent European who speaks 2, possibly 3 languages fluently. I think this is a big part as to why boutiques are dominated by UK people, whereas most BBs are European-staffed.
Well, I was obviously joking when I said it was a fact, but it is common. I was recently told by the HR that they are putting even more weight on language and communication in the next few recruiting cycles, looking for the usual suspect languages - Russian, Spanish, Portuguese etc... (Tip: learn Portuguese, not Russian, Rio>Siberia)
I worked with a European bank, and my class had a lot of Brits. But now that I think of it, most of them were in either in sales & trading and middle office kind of roles. In IBD I honestly can't even think of a single native Brit.
roth and laz are full of brits, the rest there are none.
they just go to markets.
can't comment on masters, i think its more correlation than causation, europeans tend to do masters regardless, whilst uk unis u only do bachelor. hence if you hire alot of europeans u end up with alot of masters.
...but many brits can speak a EU language fluently. also why do they have to be able to speak an EU language fluently when most countries in the EU speak english anyway? what about languages like chinese etc? surely non-EU languages are useful in the workplace also....?
Does this problem only happen in IBD or ER etc too? For markets, as you get more senior, don't languages matter?
Do BBs in the USA care less about the language thing?
Im not sure if my theory is correct but maybe its also because some banks run off-cycle/winter etc internships and these can't be completed by UK students because they are studying... they can only complete a summer internship?
just no.
yes actually... many of my friends moved from an EU country to study here and have been living here for 5-10 years. they are still are able to speak an EU language fluently because thats what they speak at home.
Question - if you were to learn an EU language... which would it be? Spanish?
people from eu at uk universities are strongly hired into banking. they are by far the best candidates because they have excellent english skills (this is seriously lacking in some of the continentals) and speak their native language.
They are the best candidates also because these people are usually the best people in their country. The fact that they were good enough to be accepted in a UK college and they were committed enough to move to another country after high school just to study show that they are motivated, flexible and smart enough to be successful also during their internships.
surely you can show motivation/flexibility/smartness through other things....?
if a british person gets an offer from oxford (for example for econ) and so does someone from france (for econ also)... how does that make the british less smart/flexible/motivated then someone who has moved country? they both were quality enough to get the offer. the british person getting the oxford offer was the 'best in their country' also.... and often they move 'to oxford' so technically end up moving anyway. not convinced by your argument. granted moving a country is a lot different to moving a state... but form the breakdown it seems most students are from EU schools... so actually they haven't moved at all.
re: language skills - this is not always true. i know plenty of people who do speak english but you can't understand a word of it/they have errors in emails etc... but yea they speak their native language well.
bit unfair though to base a whole intern class year on year on what languages they can/can't speak vs individual merits. :S bit racist/stereotyped also imo...
Plus what you are forgetting is UK domestic is one of the largest (the largest?) EU M&A market, and that will always be covered by Brits, just look at MDs covering the UK, all british.
being a Brit and born in the UK, compared to another major EU country, is a fundamental disadvantage, no way around it.
well thats sucks. haha what do you suggest the brits do then if they want a FO role?
oh i think i wrote my point pretty vaguely. i meant i get why EU languages are needed e.g. in a Spanish UK team you need people who speak spanish. makes sense. what i don't get is if the UK market is that big then why are all intern classes full of EU students (80%+)? Surely all British students can't be THAT bad. haha
also the MDs etc are British because the recruiting was different then wasn't it? most british people went to oxford/cambridge etc - its only become really international from the year 2000+? also many people from the EU come here, intern in london, but then transfer over to the EU office. i could be wrong. also, again the 'white british' tend to be VPs+ (no racism intended) - i have rarely seen a chinese/indian/someone from an ethnic minority 'on the top' (for IBD only).
Btw I have nothing against the current system... just playing devils advocate here.
the MD's are British because they have much better connections in Britain than a random continental guy, it's also somewhat self-selecting, alot of the British guys just head to markets (which is pretty smart, why work 100 hours a week if you can do 60 for the same/better pay).
Lazard and Rothschild are predominantly British.
I see your point tough on the predominantly European class, I think some of it is preference for language capabilities and part of it is self selection.
Another point is that continental European university education tends to be longer (masters etc...) and those guys graduate with a lot of internships (especially in France), it makes alot more sense for a bank to hire a more mature european student that has done 1+year of internships in ibd compared to a british guy that has 2 months worth.
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