What's going on with SA 2025 roles?
Are things that ridiculously competitive that you have to apply on the very same day?!!!!
For one internship I literally tried to apply only ONE DAY after applications opened and the system doesn't let you submit an application lol. Probably had 500+ applications on the first day and they closed things.
The deadline was supposed to be in November LOL.
Bear in mind uni hasn't even started again yet and most people only find out about these internships during career events at September end/October.
I've heard you should try and send things off within 24 hours and many people have said they are going to apply for around 300+ internships given the competition fml.
Things are still super early and it feels you have to do same day applications smh.
Hey OP,
I'm not sure which firm you're referring to - my guess would be Citi?
Most firms I've applied to within 7 days have replied back to me with HV / OA etc.
It's always been this competitive, even more so recently but firms are slow and take their time in replying.
I have heard about this 24 hour / same day application and apparently this was suggested at a GS Spring week. However, firms I've applied to in the past have got back to me even if I applied a week from the deadline in Oct / Nov but I wouldn't suggest it for the obvious points you raised given the elevated competition levels.
Best to apply relatively early ( 7-9 days after opening) since 90% of applicants will just be firing applications for the sake of it without any real experience or extracurriculars to back up their decision to apply for IB. If you are qualified with previous society / work experience and you apply in early timing, it shouldn't be an issue for you.
I commented / posted previously in WSO about how only around 15% of CVs are ever actually worth looking at because of the volume of random applicants who full-send applications on the basis of the £100k analyst salary package but then fall short on the extracurriculars, work experiences, University (less relevant but still), language, motivations etc. If 300 people a day apply, I'd say only 45 of them are worth looking at. Then, maybe out of that 45, only 5 or 10 are worthwhile candidates with a well-constructed background and motivations.
I hope this helps :)
Long and short of it is: don't worry and you will be ok!
William Blair.
There's definitely a lot of randomness to it. My friend at Cambridge didn't even know what IB was until he attended a careers event in October and applied to a bank 1 week before their deadline and still managed to get an internship there. Granted he went to Cambridge and that firm has like 90% Cambridge/Oxford analysts lol.
I don't have any IB experience unfortunately but have corporate finance experience so I'm hoping that's enough for some random boutique to take a chance on me lol. Definitely don't expect to get into a top firm.
How many applications are you thinking of making?
It appears William Blair is currently open. (Link) Does the form not submit at all?
Corporate finance is a great experience! As long as you can sell the experience, quantify it, give the correct impression that you were a part of the team and developed some relevant skills e.g. accounting, Microsoft Office etc. you should be all good.
Yeah, some firms are like that. They'll take one last glance at people a week before the window ends. However, it's more of a rarity than commonality so I wouldn't recommend you leave it until the last minute. Do your application within 7-10 days and you're all good :)
EDIT: Sorry, I missed your last question. I am making a few dozen applications. The number according to Bristol trackr more than 40-50 although this may not be feasible as I study a non-quant background, so some roles are not accessible.
Yeah obviously when you hear things like 2000 applications were received that doesn't worry me since most aren't competitive, but there are still loads of competitive applications. Out of the 2000 I'd say probably 300 are competitive which is still a fuck ton of people to be competing against.
Quant roles and S&T roles tend to have a lower volume of applicants but a higher average entry requirement since they're far more technical roles. IB isn't complicated whatsoever and has a lower minimum entry requirement in terms of how hard the job actually is, which is one of the reasons why so many people apply.
You don't even get £100k as a AN1 lol unless you're at CVP or Q or some other super high paying boutique. First year analyst pay tends to be around 70-80k including bonus.
It is for this reason that you are encouraged to seek society leadership roles, unique hobbies, a diverse profile and activities e.g. stock competitions, student portfolio roles in order to diversify yourself from other candidates who have just found out about Inv Banking or Sales and Trading etc.
Of course, you are correct that only boutiques pay £100k as AN1 but when there is hype, people jump onto the train without having justified any work towards that role in particular. I can say that in my experience, for every 100 prospective analysts I've met, only 3 or 4 can perform a thorough DCF model with minimal assistance or even be able to model a basic LBO on paper with a desirable IRR.
Until you've done the interviews yourself as an interviewer (according to my old boss, who was also a superb individual), you'll be extremely surprised!
Base at most banks is £70k so you’re implying that an average bonus is around 14% (£10k). Seem right to you?
BBs now pay between 60-70k. Most are at 65/70k.
EBs pay 65-80k.
Sign on bonus + normal bonus of let's say 15-20% easily puts you at 100k.
Know someone at a low tier BB clearing 130k. Someone at a normal EB clearing 120k. Someone at tier 1 EB for RX clearing 140k.
To be honest the ones who don't know about IB till winter of their 2nd year have been living under a rock.
You can only afford to live under that rock if you attend a uni like Oxford/Cambridge where there is On Campus Recruiting
Can add LSE Imperial and to a stretch, UCL as well. They have very heavy on-campus recruiting initiatives. However, with Oxbridge, it's more that the recruiting team has to visit on-site to speak to students whereas in London, they more often than not invite students to their London offices for networking purposes.
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Lol anyone who disagrees with OP doesnt realize that some applications have literally opened and closed within 24h, mainly at some boutiques and PE firms which is just ridiculous. Also some shadow apps that have opened for some MM banks that were advertised only internally to some target/semi-target schools that haven’t publically opened yet (I know because I was able to apply because of this, but they’re publically telling ppl it hasn’t opened yet). Super BS
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Which MM banks were these? I'd imagine the internships were advertised on university job boards right?
Blame the guy who made the Bristol tracker lol - never used to be like this
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That's the point though. Makes it easy for mid candidates to apply everywhere and stops hustlers differentiating themselves (previously you could grind research to find all the random MMs to apply to, but nowadays everyone can easily apply)
is there a U.S. equivalent of this?
Same tracker but they have a U.S. version too
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/1vPbQKHAa5-H8tgWxQ6VK2bHQxVg…
How can I access Bristol tracker? What did they do
following
Hey, OP. I feel you.
It feels super early, but the recruitment processes of many of these firms has felt more scattered than in other cycles (like last year, for example). RBC opened and closed in a day (they eventually reopened but practically gave most applicants insta-rejections). Citi is being Citi as usual. Even Barclays is acting weird. Everything is faster and less structured. The only banks being stable are the really big ones (JP, GS, and MS, basically). Helps that they're really slow, and the Bristol guy can't spread fake news around the status of some applications (said UBS had started sending out ACs in the first half of September).
they have though, offers came out super early already
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