IB in London vs. NYC

Hello!

I am going to be a freshman at Brown University in the fall majoring in economics, after recent conversations with a close friend and my uncle who both work in IB, I am debating IB in London vs. NYC. I am planning on working in IB after college and was always just planning to go to NYC but our friend used to work in London and it sounds like I would enjoy the lifestyle over there more. But I have heard it can be very hard to get a job in London so I was wondering if that was true, and if it would be worth it to try to get a job in London over NYC?

Also would it be easier getting a job in London if I went to a British university, such as LSE, because that is what our family friend did before moving back to the US for business school. I was planning on studying abroad at LSE anyways but would transferring there be more prudent if I would like to work in IB in London? Or would applying with my degree from Brown still hold weight?

Also I forgot to mention I do speak English and Spanish and know some German, so I will be taking German in college to become fully fluent.

9 Comments
 

Agree with the ‘fit’ part and yeah in London getting the interview or in front of someone is much harder, but the interviews are relatively easier to get through. 
 

I don’t agree with the FT part though - this year only about 7-8 of the 30-35 reputable banks even opened in London - and the ones that did took almost no one at all (outside of Barclays capital markets) - overall I don’t know a single person personally (was at a target) who managed to get an FT without an IB summer

 

I do speak Spanish and some German so I will be taking German in college to get up to full fluency if that makes a difference. Since I know Spanish I am looking into learning Italian as well since I like learning languages

 

Ok thank you, that is actually so helpful, I was wondering if going to a U.S. uni would hinder me at all but that is all good to know, I will definitely keep up with my language skills then. I also did not know you could apply to both the London and NYC offices for some companies so that is also something I will keep in mind.
 

Are there certain languages that are more helpful to know? 

 

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