Does networking / coffee chats help when trying to land an offcycle internship in London?
I’m from NY where you pretty much have to network in order to land an internship. I’m going to London in 2 weeks and I wanted to meet a few bankers there to hopefully land an off-cycle internship with one of the big IB or PE firms. I’ve heard from others that networking isn’t as popular in London. Could someone who has experience with interning in the UK confirm if networking is seen as more of an optional thing to do, or if it’s required, or for whatever reason it is looked down upon. I’d appreciate any perspective on this. Thanks.
My view here is for most firms, but smaller firms in particular might be more idiosyncratic.
I'd say networking helps but, as you suggest, it's not a need-to-have by any means.
It's for sure useful to be able to drop a name during an interview and add some authenticity to your "Why Firm X?" response. It is obviously also a good thing to know people generally, and to actually learn something.
Your application will (again for most firms) be reviewed (in some way, but not necessarily a human) regardless of whether you've networked with anyone. If something internally references you, usually HR will make sure you get an interview or a serious look at your CV, but unless anyone is aware of the contrary, it's not common practice to reference people.
I’ve personally found networking to be fruitless in London. I’ve had referrals from associates to VP’s who circulated my CV around the team and HR but still didn’t get even a first stage interview. As the above reply says still useful for motivational questions and showing initiative but referrals won’t make a difference here no matter who refers you (at the larger banks at least). For boutique banks and some EB’s those referrals carry some weight (although this will vary greatly depending on how big the bank is).
I concur - I've interviewed with three MFs in LDN for internships without referrals and didn't even get R1 at BBs/EBs where I had referrals so yeah
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