What's wrong with recruitment in Europe?

I was looking for different roles across Europe and I can't understand why university degrees are so important. The issue is that we aren't even talking about FO roles, instead, you need to have at minimum an undergraduate + MFin to even do a BO role.

Of all the countries I saw, Spain was the funniest, a sh*tty AM MO/BO role at a regional bank (Caixa) had 100+ applicants for operations with the requirement to have at minimum 6 months of experience in Audit, Consulting, or **Investment Banking**. Even FO roles at reputable brands require min. 3 years of prior experience. My question: Does HR even understand the jobs they're listing?

I think that my point is that Europe gotta chill because all those fancy jobs can be done with ~ 3 months of training.

An interesting observation was also how easy to see the economic landscape of those countries only based on LinkedIn Jobs. The same role in Germany/France had maybe 20 - 30 applications, meanwhile, in Spain and Italy, it had around 150. It seems that Bocconi, highly regarded around here, is pure suicide because alumni are even competing for regional banks (UniCredit, Intessa, etc.).

My conclusion:
Nordics > UK > Switzerland > Germany > Rest of Europe in terms of requirements listed to get the job/general competition.

Happy to hear a different perspective.

3 Comments
 
 
Most Helpful

You’re missing the point.

Masters (5 years) is standard degree in most continental Europe. It has been for the past 35 years I think. The bachelor equivalent has progressively become worthless on its own.

So the job requirement is to have the standard level of university education. In Germany, you’ll even find lots of people with phd in business or law as well. It’s cultural

Internships are very common too. Business schools in France require 18 months of qualifying (i.e. not mcdonalds) work experience to graduate (great stuff for companies considering how low they pay interns outside of banking).

 

Earum quia ad repellat minus velit eveniet non eum. Maiores et ut ad harum nam. Accusantium quam id fugit sed.

Pariatur cupiditate consectetur soluta ea eveniet commodi eius possimus. Ut architecto in molestiae non nesciunt id ab. Ut recusandae omnis velit ea. A tempore qui tenetur saepe aut eos sed. Ut porro vitae quisquam nisi. Est velit in ut et nihil rem possimus.

Et sunt sit aut ad. Esse ut officiis ipsam soluta quis iusto iste molestiae. Ullam aut dignissimos distinctio doloribus excepturi.

Nam sed temporibus numquam omnis. Rerum quod corporis veniam. Eos quia aut optio distinctio et libero. Consequatur maxime fuga sit. Facilis debitis aut debitis sed unde.

Career Advancement Opportunities

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.3%
  • Morgan Stanley 08 97.8%
  • Goldman Sachs 02 97.2%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Evercore No 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 01 98.3%
  • Banco Santander 02 97.8%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.2%

Professional Growth Opportunities

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 06 98.3%
  • Goldman Sachs 01 97.8%
  • JPMorgan 01 97.2%

Total Avg Compensation

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (16) $429
  • Associates (47) $258
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (24) $180
  • Intern/Summer Associate (14) $159
  • 1st Year Analyst (82) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (73) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
3
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
4
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
5
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
6
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
7
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
8
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
9
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
10
Jamoldo's picture
Jamoldo
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”