Networking to break into IB in London

I've sent more than 2000 cold emails over the past 2 years. What's ironic is that in the end I got my BB offer with no networking involved. I'd say networking/cold emailing in London is useless for banks with an HR division, because HR people are the ones doing the gatekeeping and deciding who gets a first round interview. Therefore cold emailing doesn't work if you're targeting BBs. For EBs, I think it depends on how competitive your profile is: if you have stellar experience and academics, then cold emailing can get you a foot in the door, but if you don't it's equally unproductive.

From my experience, cold emailing works best with smaller banks with a less structured hiring process. That includes the LMM banks (Raymond James, William Blair, Baird, Arma Partners) and the London offices of traditionally American boutiques (I'm thinking about Liontree/Raine notably, which mainly recruits from LBS but will include you in the process if you email them). I also got a high response rate from PE firms - if you're still at uni and can prove that you have strong valuation/LBO skills, you could get an internship. I wouldn't recommend going after hedge funds, since multi-managers have an HR division and a structured recruiting process while single-managers are very secretive, emails are difficult to find and I only got annoyed/lowkey angry answers from the people I managed to contact (I'm looking at you, Egerton Capital).

Finally I wouldn't recommend "networking" like the Americans do. Do not suggest a coffee chat or any other cringe thing like that, go for the jugular in your cold email and state clearly that you're looking for an internship, that you have X/Y/Z skills and experience and include your CV (resume). No one's going to blame you for being direct, it's all business. Even bankers who don't want to be contacted will respond or at least forward the email to someone else, since they know that if I get no answer I'll send them the same exact email in 7 business days.