Work Experience before Top UK Master’s

I was top 10% of my cohort for my bachelors at the best university in my country;

I am working as an analyst at a Big 4 TS/FDD group in a EU country;

I am also an incoming masters in finance student at a target UK school (think lbs, lse, oxford). Do you think I will be competitive enough for London IB if I just stay at my Big 4 firm until July, trying to master QoE, NWC and NFD adjustments? Or should I try to get an internship at a small PE fund for the summer before my masters.

Need some opinions from London monkeys

13 Comments
 

If it is LSE do not go.


I was in your position and struck out of all summers. Good luck!

 

Could you elaborate on this? How does the programme compare to LBS etc.? Did the majority of your peers strike out at recruiting

 

Some of the cohort got quite lucky and got a few lower tier BB with less relevant experience.
Most of the people who got good placements had super profiles (would have placed anyway) or were some form of DEI

In my experience I did not have the opportunity to land a single interview with a profile that is extremely similar to yours. So, please do reconsider.

 

You can always apply for internships whilst still working at your job. Most MSc students get their offers via internships and not full time recruiting. If you do not want to go back to Big4, you will most likely have to do another internship and then it would be best to apply as soon as possible i.e. start looking now just do not leave your job before you have a good offer.

 

I’d be applying for SA positions in london during my masters. What I meant is if I should still look for an internship in the EU before heading to london

 

Try to get whatever you can, PE experience will help you no matter whether it was in the EU or UK. It is not a taker market. Get your offers first before even thinking about the tradeoff.

 

Assuming you’ve been in your current role for a good period of time, I think your profile will be pretty good already (top masters + big4 TS exp). An additional experience in PE (or even M&A) before the masters would be even better in getting looks for SA apps, so if that is a possibility I would push for this. But certainly not a deal breaker and I think m you’ll be fine in any case 

 

Do you think an experience in M&A/Corporate Development at a MF-owned energy firm in my coutry would be considered relevant experience? It is probably one of the fastest growing companies here, and I believe I would have a good shot at getting in if I applied

 

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