Tips before starting Master's degree

I made a few posts earlier so I won't go into immense detail.

I'll be starting a Master's degree in the UK at a relatively prestigious university and wanted to get any general advice regarding IB recruitment.

I graduated with a first class econ degree from a complete non-target and have 8/9 months experience in accounting. I don't have any relevant IB internships.

Since I don't stand a chance at full-time IB grad roles, I'll be targeting summer internships and off-cycle internships only for IB even though my Master's degree is only 1 year long and I'll technically be classed as a final year student.

Do you have any tips regarding the cover letter and interview process? Any general advice?

Thanks.

7 Comments
 

If you tailor your cover letters in the same way you tailored your IB/Consulting posts, you’re cooked

 
Most Helpful

Hey. I’m a VP at a BB investment bank and also spend my free time mentoring interns looking for grad schemes.

On CV and cover letters: make sure you spend A LOT of time on these. Treat these as a part-time job if that makes sense. You need to work on it a little bit every day. There are lots of IB templates you can find online for both your resume and cover letter. Don’t reinvent the wheel, stick to the standard times new roman/11 font size/black and white/no picture/3 bullet points per experience type of resume. Cover letter should include your experience and why it’s relevant, why you’re applying to this team, why you would be a good fit for the firm (i.e. you are aligned with their culture) among other things. Make sure it fits on one page and there are no double spaces or typos. Recruiters look for any reason to throw CVs and cover letters in the bin because there are just too many to skim through.

As equally important: make sure you network. Go to any event you can. Be active and be seen. Raise your hands, ask questions, be engaged, be likeable - you need to be memorable. I do loads of these events and usually share with HR about 3 names of people who I enjoyed interacting with.

 

You should try your best to attend all the events your uni (and uni societies) will organise which involve some external speakers from different IBs. Also register your interest on all their websites and make sure to apply to all the insights day you are eligible for. That’s mainly how I did it back then. Then of course, you can reach out to specific people on linkedin (recent summer interns or analysts 1) when you have secured a superday and need more info on the interviewing process

 

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