Recruiting From US to the UK

Hi! Would appreciate any insight from both US and UK IBD.

Honestly developed an interest in IB pretty late and I'm pretty adamant about breaking in no matter the odds and no matter how late. Currently a rising junior at Penn State double majoring in Finance & Math (Math bcuz finance courses weren't stimulating enough for me). Due to the fact that I was late to recruiting, I didn't have much luck with any banks (that sponsor) here. I'm trying to recruit to the UK but want to know of anyone else's experience in doing so, if anyone has done it. I'd be closer to family and a lot of friends are in the UK already because they went there for university opposed to the US and would love to be near them. I have a few questions and would love anyone's opinions. Is the sponsor situation in the UK easier opposed to the US? I've tried networking (sent a few 60+ emails) with not even one response, is networking not a thing there or am I just a shit candidate? Is it based more on merit there? Will my application get ignored/discarded because I'm not a UK target (OX/LSE/CAM)? I understand my credibility isn't great but will I get through to an interview at the least? I know that I will interview well but it's a matter of getting there and I'd love anyone's input.

Thanks!

2 Comments
 
Most Helpful

Will be very difficult for multiple reasons. For one quality of school is much more important vs. US which you can overcome with good networking (Penn state is not likely to show well and will be treated like any other state school like lsu or bama). Securing a visa is only easy if you went to university over there and even then they would prefer not to sponsor in this market; it’s much easier to make this jump internally.

What I would say, though is qualifications or certifications can help more, such as becoming a chartered accountant. Often MM banks higher analysts from big 4.

To summarize, this seems a bit futile vs still recruiting for the us. Also, bad time to be in the uk imo

 

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