London Recruiting is Paradise
You wake up in a top target UK university, which max 1% of people outside of Europe have heard of. It's 8:00am, and the sky is grey and it's raining; August 1st, and the weather has never been this nice.
All of the internships come out today, so you're reading over 40 copies of near-identical CVs in your recruitment Google Drive, ready to press 'Submit Application' the second each form opens.
You didn't get any springs, but that's okay, because unlike the US, networking does nothing here. You'll probably have your CV tossed docked within seconds of applying because 50,000 people are applying for the same 10 open roles at each firm, but that's okay, because you're at a top target. Surely the offer won't be given to a QMUL/UEA student. Surely.
You already have an interview for an investment bank- yes, a REAL investment bank, whose applications opened early- in a few hours. You know your behaviourals, and your technicals are as good as they can get- $10 depreciation, linking the financial statements, pitching a stock... it couldn't get much better.
You dreamily imagine the possibilities- working on Liverpool Street, in Canary Wharf, in Mayfair, working 90 hour weeks while earning 50% of your American peers... One can only hope at this stage.
The interview is coming up, and HR pings you an email with your analyst interviewer's name.
Great, an Italian woman from Bocconi. I'm sure she won't favour the Bocconi students she inevitably interviews, you think smugly to yourself. You'll prove yourself, definitely.
2 hours pass. You've just filled out the same Workday and Dartmouth Partners forms 40 and 10 times each. Dartmouth won't let you down, you're sure.
You're now wearing your blazer, shirt, and tie, and you're sitting in front of your laptop, all ready to go. You've written down your questions in advance on a piece of paper, in case you get nervous.
You smile to yourself. This is it, you think, I'll be an investment banker soon.
You join the call and shortly the Italian is on the call with you and you smile and say hello. She asks you to introduce yourself with the thickest Italian accent imaginable- you barely understand what she's saying- and you deliver your battle-tested response.
She didn't understand a word of what you said. Being Italian, and all. You wonder why you even showed up.
London recruiting is paradise.
The post captures how competitive London recruiting can feel, especially when applications open simultaneously and firms receive huge volumes of similar CVs. Being at a target university helps, but it cannot guarantee an interview or offer. Preparation still matters, and staying flexible about firms, roles, and interview styles can make the process less overwhelming.
Ok clanker
Honestly London recruiting is turning into a joke. With trackers and AI you have thousands of people sending their applications within the minute the bank posts the role. No networking, only luck. You can just pray that Karen from HR will open your hirevue video
literally. i wrote this post 'as a joke' but this exact situation happened to me over the last week.
I know I have friends recruiting right now. I am an2 and can see how rigged the system is. Among the 20 CVs pre-selected by HR I receive, half of them I wonder how tf it passed the screening. Think about 2-pages CV, weirdly formatted, no experiences, etc. While I know for a fact there are hundreads of over qualified candidates that don’t pass the screening for some reason
What the hell lmao. Wish i could say i was surprised
Spoiler alert (and something I only realised after getting lucky back in 2018-19 time but that has definitely become clearer since) - networking actually helps more than you realise. While ostensibly it's all HR / automated, having someone at the bank (especially in the IB department) vouch for you means that your CV is much more likely to make it through the "HR screening" round and be seen by actual bankers.
Tenetur ut veniam explicabo vel rerum. Et iusto exercitationem tempora velit ab beatae. Similique et qui laboriosam expedita maxime voluptatum quod. Sed dolorem ipsam molestiae cupiditate. Alias sit velit voluptas quia ipsum.
Et ipsa dolores omnis qui. Ut voluptatem voluptatum sunt repellendus corporis. Vel et deleniti illo aut quas. Libero non est et dolorum. Dolor sint sed est ab qui.
Facilis perspiciatis omnis esse dolorum consequatur quia. Laborum ipsam sed officia natus veritatis nostrum.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...