Investment banking in London..

Hey! I was wondering how was the investment banking landscape in London...opening a thread so we can discuss about it.

Here are a few questions that I can think of right now:

-investment banker’s lifestyle in London (salaries, perks, taxes, workload, etc.) -how is London (housing, nightlife, girls, etc.) - what are the best places to work at? -LONDON mentality different that NYC or HK mentality? And why? -etc.

Any information is useful to be honest. If you’ve got something to say about the place, feel free to throw it in

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Salary: £70K-130K depending on if at BB or EB. Free taxis and £25 dinner allowance every night. London mentality is very different to NY. Shorter hours, 6 week holidays a year compared to 2 weeks. But theres not nearly as many exit opportunities in London. The best locations to work at are the mayfair area or the city. Canary wharf is generally the least favoured, because its in east London, which is a bit of a dump and pretty far from the trendy places, where young professionals like to hang out. As for girls, you will find a significant amount of essex goldigger types at most bars frequented by bankers, but Londons a big place and its hard to generalise.

 

At a US BB in CW, pretty cool at first but is about 30-60 mins from the clubs/bars which can be a pain but we still have a decent time. Mayfair is supposed to be an awesome and vibrant place to work. Salary around PS80K for A1 but does go up significantly for certain EBs (PJT CTW EVR). The best place to work will depend what you’re looking for. The US BBs are where you want to be to place into MFs/for prestige, though as said above good buy side shops are limited in London. For overall quality of life it seems the consensus is the US EBs treat bankers well with high pay, great cultures and decent hours. In terms of housing I’ve heard shoreditch can be fun but not that nice of an area - again depends what you’re looking for and whether you’re north/south of the Thames.

 

not sure how many people on here will have worked in both london and new york...

i live in london. i like it, but it is expensive - especially housing, if you want to live in a nice place with a reasonable commuting distance. many bankers live in clapham/battersea/brixton or the east end. both are nice places to live - the former is good for pubs and brunch, the latter is good for bars and nightlife, also brunch.

working in london, you'll either be in the city (area around bank station) on canary wharf. the city is better in my opinion. canary wharf sucks but many of the BBs have their offices there.

guessing you're interested in analyst level positions, so pay would be around £50k base, bonus varies a lot.

also, have you considered using this site's search function? this thread has been posted many times in myriad forms.

Thank you for your interest in the 2020 Investment Banking Full-time Analyst Programme (London) at JPMorgan Chase. After a thorough review of your application, we regret to inform you that we are unable to move forward with your candidacy at this time.
 

Do London bankers go out clubbing and if so, where? Is it possible to enjoy/party etc if you’re at a small firm with juniors who are hardos? Where do you meet others?

Starting a grad job in Mayfair soon so just wondering what the social/nightlife is like. Thanks!!

 

There is about a hundred million different clubs in Mayfair/Central London catering for various budgets so you will be spoiled for choice. If your coworkers aren’t into going out, you could always yolo and go on a one man mission or hit up chicas on Tinder; it is London after all, you have people going out every night of the week.

 

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