Is this a smart idea?
Context - I’m a British student who will be starting college at a non-target in NY this fall. I’d also like to work in IB preferably in the US over London.
It’s unlikely I would be able to attend a Spring Week in London but should I try to apply for an SA position in London during my sophomore year, in the hopes that I could leverage it for a SA position in the US for junior year.
I believe it goes without saying that a SA position in London would be better than an alternative finance-related internship in the US.
Curveball - I’m entering with enough high school credits that I believe I can graduate from college a year early if I take heavy course loads each semester.
Sorry if I come across as naive or stupid. I’m relatively new to WSO.
You won't be able to recruit for London SA from the US, would be very hard from HYP so from a non-target you have 0 chance anyway. If you're going to the US focus on US recruiting (though I question if going to a non-target and paying all that much is worth it in the US; assuming finance is your main goal of uni which it rightly might not be)
Thanks for your input. I got significant financial aid so it's actually cheaper for me to study in the US.
I knew one single person who got into London from the US. This person had 0 family connections to the UK but met a prominent alum who pushed for them. So yeah very, very rare, but it can happen.
OP you should not go to the US with the intention to recruit to London.
Thanks for your reply. My intention is to recruit for the US but I thought having a SA position would improve my resume. But the collective opinion seems to be to focus on the US
Will you stop commenting on this subject? You’re British and a university student. You have never lived or worked in the US. You know absolutely nothing about the recruiting cycle in the US and are simply repeating what you’ve read from other university students on this site.
You do nothing but spread misinformation to other students and give advice that is blatantly wrong. There is zero reason for you to be contributing to posts like these and you do nothing but spread false information. You’re a university student in the UK who doesn’t even work in the finance industry yet. Stop talking about subjects which you know nothing about.
EDIT: was a bit douchey and insensitive in my initial reply so I’ll aim to be more respectful. I’m not looking for an argument since this thread is aimed at helping OP. I honestly don’t see the issues with the comments I make, fair enough it’s not from experience but if I’m well read on a subject I see no issue to drop my 2 cents. I’m hardly passing it off as gospel. Most of the things I say are from Pan European Monkey who is generally the main guide for london recruiting and works in the city. He made the 20 FAQ London edition thread on this site and got a lot of support for what he said; other verified people on r/fc are the alternative sources I use so it’s largely unfair to say im just copying other uni students.
People in the know tend to agree that its very difficult to recruit for NYC from the UK or vice versa for sellside due to structural differences. Mainly OCR vs target uni CV screens which filter out non-targets in London and as networking can’t land you interviews here either. That being said you’ve accused me of spreading false information that is potentially damaging to OP; if you believe that’s the case then feel free to correct me and point OP in a better direction. Seeing as though you went to a top US school and are now in London (granted buyside) your advice will be very helpful for them, and also me since it’ll let me know where I’m wrong and discourage me from spewing nonsense.
I look forward to your comments and thank you for calling me out if what I’m saying is genuinely wrong and harmful to OP. I also hope you’re doing better since the last time we spoke.
i think you can do it, not sure about the nuances when interviewing cross country for sa. actually, i remember reading a wso article about this, you definitely can intern in london sa although the odds play heavily against you, i emphasize heavy btw. in the wso article i read, the 95 to 100 percent sa intern from us were from top us targets rather than non target which is where your at, this will dramatically lower your chances of getting a sa in london, basically your fighting against wso undergrad and they are hypswc. and also for spring week, its very unlikely and in 2016, i remembered princepieman released his sw class on tsr, 0 us students, 0 harvard, only uk and eu, maybe sse, i think 1 guy from sse. i dint use the word impossible because it could be doable and the figure '0' usa students could be that undergrads at usa top targets never heard of spring week.
just realised you actually need to do 14 day quarantine in uk and usa if you do sa and sw as well as paying for the airplane tickets, taking into account all gov nuances, hr will have a hassle arranging this, i can say that your very unlikely to even get an interview for sw, maybe possible for sa but you gotta network cross continent to compensate for your non target us uni.
bro, just network in us, the effort you contribute to make your london sa is a huge oppurtunity cost waste, focusing in u.s. is much practical, literally and your efforts will actually contribute to getting a job. imo, networking from us to uk and all oppurtunity cost (im not writing all specific opportunity cost, it will take 30 minutes, im not doing it, idc) will contribute a negative expected value. imagine HYPOTHETICALLY, if you put all this effort in us, you will get a 25 percent increase in ib whilst, if you put the effort in uk, it will be a 5 percent, a genorous amount btw.
tldr, stay in us and focus your efforts there, oppurtunity costs are too costly and risky to bet on
Thanks for such a detailed response. You've raised some great points that I'm definitely going to consider.
Don’t rule the spring week out. Apply and if you can land it, find a way to do it
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