What are the most and least competitive cities for breaking into IB?
Based on experience, does anyone have any data on this in terms of language requirements, applicant pool, office size, deal counts, etc?
Most: The Vatican
Least: Papua New Guinea
Can only speak for Europe, but here’s my take:
London: cutthroat, albeit significant opportunities (I.e., all banks and boutiques have a meaningful presence there), you’re competing against the world. Also, very much relationship-driven. If you’re good at networking and already have strong inroads, you may have a good shot. Most offers at AN and AS level I am aware of were extend by preceding informals that led to interviews via referral. HR is swamped with applications and official channels work accordingly inefficiently, and recruiting firms are simply painful to go through as hardly any of them ever gets a search exclusive, so tons of CV collectors / blast email senders
Paris: Language barrier already effectively limits the applicant pool, and school counts for more than (immediate) competence - I.e., if you went to a prestigious haute ecole, you’ll be likely to receive an interview invitation (preceding experience assumed). Also, Paris seems to be a bit more permeable in terms of Tiers, that is, moving from SocGen to JPM is certainly possible, equally from Big 4 straight to EB
Milan: Small market overall with according less opportunities, seems to be geared to Italians-only, but didn’t appear to me other than nationality overly competitve
Frankfurt: language barrier is big, as office language is largely German (same as in France - if you don’t speak French, you have a really hard time), also very inflexible re background and previous experience - want to see Big 4 TAS, MM on your CV and a business background to be considered at all. Once this is cleared, however, not super competitive, I.e., bit self-selecting via hiring criteria
hope this helps!
Thought London got rid of networking
Yeah networking defo not the same like it is in America.
Most large firms have structured recruiting i.e. apply online and pray.
I would also add a half language barrier for London.
Unless you are a brit from Oxbridge/LSE/DEI or lucky with existing network - a lot of PE and IB firms prefer you to know European languages.
In my experience, language skills matter more in bigger cities like London or New York. Larger offices mean tougher competition but also more chances to learn and grow. It's about finding the right fit for your skills and ambitions!
Vancouver Canada is ridiculous
Real
Vancouver finance industry is very competitive with very limited seats available and plus salaries are way lower relative to COL.
+1. Would say both SF and LA show complete favoritism towards out of state and international students who attend certain target schools in California, rather than students who are born and raised in California but attend out of state schools or non target schools within California.
In the US easiest would be Charlotte and Chicago--both have lots of IB activity relative to the number of competitive schools in the vicinity. Yes NYC has more seats but the culture in these markets tends to be more laid back, and that reflects in the recruiting process and caliber of AN1s.
California is completely lopsided in the opposite direction.
At least in the US, you need strong ties to any of the regional cities - usually go to school there or grew up there and really want to go back. They will not hire someone in Houston who has no ties to Texas, same goes for most of those cities, except maybe Charlotte which is essentially only WF these days with BofA's IB team leaving. So applying because the data is slightly better is a waste of time because you won't get hired if you have no reason to be in that city.
NY is very likely the most competitive on an applications per seat basis - but has the most seats and they do not care where you are from.
Agree with regional firms wanting local connections more often than not, but there are some exceptions. For example, Piper will hire people from across the country in Minny or Charlotte, knowing they'll likely be out after a couple of years. HL is similar in Minny or Dallas.
Also, a bit confused on the Charlotte comment. I always felt Charlotte had more bankers per capita than almost any market. Aside from WF (legacy Wachovia) and BoA, there's Blair, JEF, Laz, Blackarch, Leerink, DCF (old McColl).
Toronto. Have an entire country competing. Plus ive seen a few resumes from US mbas for ib up here too.
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