International student
I’m aiming to get into an NYC IB role from the UK. I’m about to begin studying at LSE, and I’m wondering how to go about networking to bankers in the States? I guess that going through LinkedIn means it doesn’t matter where you are, but I’m not entirely sure on that thesis. Is LSE reputable enough in America, because I was also considering pursuing a post-grad at Cambridge in Economics should the opportunity arise. A final question is in regard to bulge-bracket’s green card policy after hiring you. Do they try and max out your H1-B visa before applying, or do they do it earlier? Any information would be greatly appreciated!
Borderline impossible unless you have US citizenship or some other very strong tie to the US. H1Bs are very hard to get and companies won’t sponsor a non-US graduate for a visa.
Don’t. Focus your energy on recruiting in the UK. It will be near impossible. I haven’t heard of any firms hiring internationals from outside the US in recent years. It is already difficult as is recruiting as an international student studying in the US, someone studying abroad would have no chance. Here are a couple of reasons why,
You don’t have access to the OPT or STEM OPT programs which give US international students 1-3 years after graduation to work on their student visa. This means that firms can use this time to apply for an H1b on behalf of them multiple times (4 at max). Since you can’t get OPT the only way to enter the US is through the H1b. H1b is a lottery and there’s only around a 20% chance of getting selected. So for them to hire you they would first have to enter you into the lottery and hope you get through. They won’t put that effort at a 20% chance of hiring someone when they could just hire domestic students and internationals on OPT. Not to mention even if you get an H1b, your earliest start date would be October, a whole 3 months after the rest of the class starts.
London is the next best market and the experience is comparable. But if you’re so focused on getting here, your best bet is to do a STEM post-grad program here or work at a firm in the UK for a couple of years and get an internal transfer. Or better, come to the US for an MBA.
Good luck!
Forgive me for sounding crude here, but why would investment banks rather hire students who go to above average US unis, than international ones who studied at LSE and Cambridge. Furthermore, upon research, it appears that the top BBs all have circa 95% success rates with their H1B visa applications and have applied for countless over the last two fiscal years. I don’t want to seem stubborn, but it just seems wrong to me that huge firms like JPM or GS just don’t hire internationals when they know there is huge talent pool abroad. I understand for MMs because the process is complex and expensive but for larger firms, it is oblivious to me why you would say that they don’t.
Lol you are an absolute tool the above poster is absolutely right p, do some research on h1b before speaking bs. Also sorry to burst your bubble but UK universities are far behind their US counterparts in almost every regard. LSE, in my opinion, is average.
International here who was deciding between going to school in the UK vs the US. Agree with the others on the thread here that 1) you’re massively overestimating the quality of LSE compared to American peers and 2) the difficulty of H1B.
Another commenter already talked about H1B so i’ll talk about how LSE actually stacks up against top US schools.
Top UK unis are a substantially easier to get into than the top 10-15 or so schools in the US that fill up BB/EB analyst classes, especially for internationals.
At the T10 school I went to for undergrad literally every international I knew who applied to LSE got conditional offers and used it as a safety for their US schools — if you have 43+ for IB you’re pretty much guaranteed to get in. Can’t say the same for top US schools where you can get a 45 and strike out at most top schools.
So if you have a quality international talent pool already in the US that has work authorization, why would you bother recruiting from abroad for a group of students who are not better and also a bigger headache to deal with logistically?
Remember all the above is without even considering domestic students. I went to a similar school and pretty much every domestic student I met was either a Valedictorian or Salutatorian (1st or 2nd in the HS graduating class). 99.9% of these kids don’t apply to schools abroad for undergrad.
Also, here are some numbers on the H1b selection rate. It was 28% this year.
https:// www.fragomen.com/insights/uscis-s-fy-2022-h-1b-cap-statistics-show-sign…
Like I said, just focus your energy on getting into banking in the UK. It’s an extremely competitive process and it’s very likely you won’t get in if don’t put in a lot of time into it.
Lol OP, what an absolute dumbass, no wonder u didn't get into any US schools.
1.) the 95% H1B petition success rate u r referring to is for people that have already been selected thru the lottery. The H1B filing/petition is a 2-step process. First, u apply for the lottery, which is a 20%-30% chance of being selected depending on the year and # of applicants. Then, once u get selected, u fill out the official paper work, background check, other admin work, etc. and that is where 95% of H1B-lottery-selected are officially granted H1B work visas. The 5% that get rejected r people with criminal backgrounds, fake transcripts/college diplomas, fake Chinese/Indian "companies" sponsoring them, etc.
2.) Except for Oxbridge, all international schools are second-rate at best, if not tier 3 and lower compared to any US T20 school. I myself am an international student from Canada and had various acceptances in the US, UK, and Canada and ultimately chose NYU Stern over LSE, UCL, and other Canadian colleges like Western Ivey and Queen's Commerce. all of my friends made the same decisions.
Lastly, even if u weren't so retarded and attended Oxbridge, u still wouldn't be able to make it to the US because u don't have a valid US work visa/passport/PR status/OPT. Stay in ur lane prospect. I doubt you'd even break into IB in London with that attitude.
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OP, the only way for you to work in the US is to work for a bank in the UK and use that to lateral internally to the bank’s US business. You’ll have to demonstrate why you want to lateral to the US but it’s possible to work in US IB. You’ll get an L visa which unfortunately will tie you to one employer, so no switching employers, unless the bank sponsors your green card a couple of years later before your work visa runs out.
If you have American citizenship or a Green card, then you can just network with American bankers when you go to NYC but your best bet is starting from London and moving across the pond.
If you don't have American citizenship or a Green card, it is impossible due to visa reasons. Only viable way is either (1) do MFin in a great school or (2) MBA. Either way it sucks because you need to go through H1B lottery (work visa lottery) which yields around 20% success rate. So unless you are STEM (which gives 3 year extension period to obtain H1B), it is better to avoid US without citizenship or green card.
1) Transfer schools to a US schools with US tuition/fees and a US degree. Then walk through cpt, opt, h1b, green card, marriage, (..)
2) J visa/ internship in the US, does not lead to any other advantages except for a paid internship in the US. Chance that the US firm might sponsor for H1b, but still a lottery
3) Focus on UK recruitment and then transfer to the US later on, this may or may not work out
4) work a little in the UK, save money and then attend grad school in the US to land a visa/placement, Then walk through cpt, opt, h1b, green card, marriage, (..)
some banks try to get the green card early on, some don't and rely on the 2x three years H1b.
There are other options if you hold NAFTA citizenship or Australian or if you want to invest money to gain a visa or a green card.
In my entire time at WSO, I believe I met one (!) user who studied in Europe and managed to get an internship in NYC on J1. Quite remarkable feat, IMO. no follow-on offer for him either... I think he landed in London afterwards.. not sure what happened to him.
Give up on the dream. Not possible unless you transfer. Also breaking into London banking is very tough good luck on that, LSE is good but most people don’t land bb ibd. If you wanted nyc you should have applied to the us
Its' not going to happen unless you have citizenship.
Don't do a masters in econ, they're not relevant for finance recruiting. I'd also try to temper your expectations, most students at LSE that try to break into top banks fail to do so because of the lack of on-campus recruiting in the UK and the minimal effect networking has in London. You then have banks pushing for more diversity (in all forms of the word) so they're hiring more STEM students from other universities. As someone who has gone through the process and did fairly well, I can confidently say that it is 80% luck.
Why the heck would a bank waste their time trying to support your visa applications when they could probably pick a US homegrown analyst type from a T10 for way less effort? There's no incentive for them to help you out here. Supply and demand - there are lots of keen banker college kids and limited spaces. I've flirted with this dream as well but I gave up ages ago. You should've gone to a US college if you wanted to go work in the US...
As C8 said, the only way to squeeze in is perhaps acquire a J1 visa (you will not get sponsorship; you'll have to apply via an agency I think?) and try your best with smaller boutique shops in US for an internship. But most likely to not yield any results...
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