Rate my chance for London/EMEA IB recruitment
Hi all,
I was hoping if you could help rate my profile for London/EMEA IB recruitment and suggest some next steps.
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Sciences Po Paris, 4.0 GPA majoring in Economics, scholarship laureate
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Currently in sophomore year, graduating in 2025
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First year summer interned at MBB, worked on a banking strategy project
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Had 1 gap year before that and did 9 months in television, worked on the daily news team
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High school outside of UK, 4.0 GPA
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Speak English and another non-EU language
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Asian Female
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Require visa sponsorship to work in UK
I applied for summer 2024 in London and currently waiting on results, no offer yet. I think the weakest part of my profile is that i require visa sponsorship to work in the UK, and apparently this year not many places are willing to offer that for internships. Also, I cannot apply to work in Paris because they recruit mainly master degree students.
If it doesn't work out, I will do a finance or IB related internship back home and apply again next year for full time position. But i really do not want to do a master due to financial reasons. Any suggestion on what I could also do? Should I apply to off-cycle or graduate roles next year or start considering for masters?
Many thanks
if you do a Master's degree in the UK, you can apply for a graduate visa afterwards. Ofc major banks sponsor visas, so that might not be necessary but if a visa turns out to be a dealbreaker, this might be an idea. Overall looks like a good profile, with a strong point being a woman (diveristy).
On a side note, I had a convo earlier today with my Asian friend who is looking for a job in London and all the companies which normally sponsor visas rejected her. She went through some CV screening service and it looks like the lack of visa is the key problem. The job market is difficult atm
Thank you for the great insights. Do you think that i should apply for off-cycle/ graduate roles next year or start thinking about masters? Related to your friend's story, I think my profile is worth at least an interview but any many places i never even got through the CV screening/ OA round.
If you can afford it, then definitely go for a Master's degree, ideally in the UK. From a strategic point of view, you will then increase your chances of getting an offer either in London or in Paris (and considering some banks like BofA are transfering people to Paris, the London seat is getting more difficult to land).
Off-cycle might be an idea as well, but London is crazy competetive and I've seen many people getting off-cycles after finishing their Master's, especially grads from outside of the UK. Once you prove your value to the bank, they will convert it into FT.
Yeah, your profile is good, but the job market is awful. I have friends who are literally jobless because their summer internships didn't convert and are getting ghosted by headhunters, or Oxbridge grads eventually settling for Audit at Big4 (which pays peanuts as you might know). Hopefully the situation will get better
Great insights, thank you so much. Crazy to see the number of high-performing ppl not getting converted. Hopefully the situation will get better next year
visa is not an issue for many banks, they sponsor dozens of applicants each year
Edited.
Realistically speaking, why would they take you over 1) students from British universities who do not need visa sponsorship for internships and 2) European/ French graduate students who might already have a 6-month IB internship under their belt?
A good way to know whether your plan is realistic is to try and look on LinkedIn for people who did what you want to do. You probably won’t find many for them I’m afraid
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