London IB BB is a challenge

Just started at a London IB and yeah, it's not easy at all

  • Everyone's on edge and juniors seem to be very cliquey because of how intense the workload is
  • Seniors either love the work they do or would rather be anywhere else but the job 
  • I feel bad for the non-Eu and british students that don't speak french or italian because about half the floors are 50% italian and not knowing the language makes it difficult to form meaningful connections
  • staffing, resources and availability of other data sources is v limited

not sure if to recommend to other people as a career, most often it's easier to get by if you know what you're doing but if not, can be brutal

17 Comments
 

Associate 1 in IB - Gen

I did IB in the US but why are the UK teams so European? They cover all of Europe from the UK I assume?

So you mainly have foreigners working in the Investment Banks in London. I wonder how the brits feel about this lol.

Brits with one language are the ones who struggle the worst because they don't have the language possibilities to really connect with Italians or French who are in England for the first time and trying to connect

Really tough on them but it's what it is, normally the lateral Brits tend to do better imo

 

Brits are also in general the weakest as they studied completely random subjects and join with 10 weeks of work experience. On the other hand, Europeans have >12 months of IB/PE internships (also internships in Frankfurt/Milan/Paris are very rough) and a master’s degree

 

Associate 2 in PE - LBOs

It’s sustainable if you’re from Europe and speak one of the languages. Brits seem to do OK if they land in one of the UK teams. Miserable and isolating for everyone else. 

Buyside is generally worse.

Where I work the UK teams are also staffed by non Brits so it's still super difficult alas

 

As a brit in a EMEA team and I couldn't give a toss about wanting to be in the Italian cliques. 

If you grew up your entire life in London, you have your friends in the city. Work and Life, strict church/state seperation is needed.

 

Analyst 1 in IB-M&A

As a brit in a EMEA team and I couldn't give a toss about wanting to be in the Italian cliques. 

If you grew up your entire life in London, you have your friends in the city. Work and Life, strict church/state seperation is needed.

For british interns it can be a problem depending on which team theyre in but yes agree once FT its something no one really needs to worry about, provided work product is there

 

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