Hiring freeze I London IBD

Hi guys

I've just finished my studies and I'm looking for a full time M&A,analyst role.
I've heard several times lately that EB and BB have been in a hiring freeze in London for the past months, and Lazard quite recently I think. Can anyone confirm this or have any information about it? Have all recruitment processes come to a halt or have there been instructions to recruit much less? 

Thank you very much! 

15 Comments
 

No direct insight, but I doubt FT recruiting this year will be anything other than a complete bloodbath. I think they will manage to fill spots with summer interns. The only way for FT recruiting to pick up is if activity picks up significantly later in the year and we might then see FT hiring in the autumn / winter rather than in August / September as usual. I think there are several BBs that won't even recruit for FT this year. I know GS didn't take on any FT hires at all last year in IBD London. 

 

Thanks, wow didn't know about GS, sounds crazy

I'm looking for an opportunity for January/March 2024, and I hope that activity will pick up again so that there are a few more possibilities... 

 

I hope so too. What also makes this year extremely difficult is that you have a ton of people who got fired from various BBs, EBs and boutiques recently. So anyone applying for FT spots will be competing against fired analysts with solid work experience. It's not like 2021 where you could go from Big 4 M&A to a BB because banks were desperate for people. 

 

Currently intern at an EB, will obviously try to convert but an Associate told me that It would be hard to convert regarding the current market situation

 
Most Helpful

Very good advice. Would be cautious with placing too much hope in PE though. Very few PE shops recruit for FT positions and the ones that do are heavily skewed towards females and diversity. For example, WP are only interested in hiring females for their FT process. The same goes for e.g. Silver Lake that has traditionally taken on analysts but exclusively diversity / females and occasionally prior interns.

This is a very strong trend across most PE firms. For example, just look at some of the early careers events at Permira. Not a lot of white males in there...

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/permira_a-busy-few-weeks-of-summer-inter…

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/permira_throughout-the-month-of-july-the…

 

Very good advice. Would be cautious with placing too much hope in PE though. Very few PE shops recruit for FT positions and the ones that do are heavily skewed towards females and diversity. For example, WP are only interested in hiring females for their FT process. The same goes for e.g. Silver Lake that has traditionally taken on analysts but exclusively diversity / females and occasionally prior interns.

This is a very strong trend across most PE firms. For example, just look at some of the early careers events at Permira. Not a lot of white males in there...

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/permira_a-busy-few-weeks-of-summer-inter…

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/permira_throughout-the-month-of-july-the…

Warburg, Silver Lake, KKR, Apax have non-diversity intake as well. 

 

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