Internationals in IB/PE - Where are you now?
Anxious sophomore recently landed at a top EB (which does have London offices). Given the visa situation with international students, it seems a finance career in the US is quite uncertain. I hear that the most common route is to get relocated to London, but how would your career play out if that's the case?
Specifically:
1. How has your career played out?
2. Why would the firm lateral back if they know you are only spending two years here?
3. How would PE recruit look like given all that moving?
4. Did anyone recruit for PE FT? Is that a better way to approach PE then? (tho you probably still have to go to London for a bit, but at least they might be more motivated to bring you back)
5. Why isn't Canada a popular option? I heard that quite a few firms have Canadian presence (more applicable to BB and not all EBs)
If you don't feel like answering all, just your story/story of someone you know would be really helpful!
You can always return to your home country
I know this a pretty common response, but a caveat no one told you about is your family/upbringing. If you are wearing designer clothes to school, you will WANT to go back. Most rich families especially in East Asia (not as applicable in Europe given Oxbridge etc.) do this. You are just trying to get an Ivy degree and then go back where you would be set for life. For those that comes from middle-class background or worse, why would you want to come back early when you strived to get to the US in the first place? And later down your career, if you come back, you'd have to consider that you don't have the network (probably the single most important thing in Asian businesses). All in all, just doesn't sound great from a career perspective.
At least that's my view for now. Hence would appreciate someone coming in with a different perspective.
at least in finance, or prob any other industries, starting your career in the US pays a massive dividend down the road. even so, the pay, work quality (the deals you work on), etc.. are all the highest in the US, so it is better to stay here then to go back as long as the visa situation works out. This is true regardless of whether your family is loaded or not (most international students come from wealthy families though)
there are numerous options to when you don't get the H1B after like the 4 tries you will have with STEM OPT extensions. personally have not seen a lot of ppl being relocated to London, but def heard about it. but should you worry about that now? i honestly don't think so
In general there just aren't that many investment banking seats in Canada with an overwhelming majority being filled by Ivey / Queens / McGill which makes recruiting for the BBs/EBs in Canada extremely competitive especially if you don't go to a target school. Also worth mentioning that Canada has a distinct lack of exit ops meaning theres less turnover at the analyst level and a lot of people go A2A. For context have friends who have gone from the US to Canada and have worked with Canadians in the US.
I did one year of ib at a national bank of Canada and am looking for pe or corp dev opportunities.
Can you pls chime in on how is national regarded for exit opps? And how is corp dev perceived vs PE in Toronto? I want to transition into US PE next year.
Canadian here -- Will be hard to recruit for USPE from NBF; Actually quite difficult from any Big 5/6 (have seen it from RBC/BMO/CIBC toronto --> US PE).
Would say it might be better if you can try for globals in toronto or even PE at Pensions.
following
Completed a year as a top-ranked analyst and will be going to get a STEM masters program before returning to my group.
We explored international options but most of them wanted someone who would be there for the long-term so I didn’t go through with it as I wanted to be back in the US and this was the most certain way of doing that.
I participated in on-cycle and went 2 for 2 in my interviews. Both the firms were supportive of hiring me, one of them wanted me to get on the H1B first but also explored having me joining them directly in London since my H1B didn’t work out. Ultimately, we have a solution in place where I’ll go join them. The other firm was willing to sponsor the H1B for me. Unlike other international students’ processes, my PE recruiting process made me believe that a PE firm was extremely supportive if they thought you were a great fit. Will caveat this by saying this was all industry focused PE groups for a non-NY city. Both PE firms ran multiple informal references (including from my university) and one of them was through my VP referring me. The second was through a HH but I didn’t tell the HH about the need for sponsorship until later (since we never had an intro meeting). I was uniquely qualified for the this position given my particular experience.
My bank doesn’t have a Canadian office.
Bump
Graduated from top 10 school that luckily classified economics / econometrics as STEM. Did 2 years at an EB and started as an ASO in PE this past summer. Thankfully got the H-1B, so I’m definitely one of the luckier ones.
I’ve seen associates at larger PE firms that are supportive of the London/Europe transfer and moving back on L-1. With a STEM OPT you’d get one year as an associate if you only do 2 years of banking, so it’s a point of negotiation throughout your recruiting process.
Based on the immigration climate today, I would 100% only get a US education if it meant I got the STEM extension. Otherwise your chances of landing a work visa are severely low and not worth the cost of education, IMO.
Do you mind sharing fund size? Did you see any internationals at megafunds or is it impossible
Latest fund >$10bn; if anything, MFs are more doable because they have global offices and generally have more HR infrastructure to navigate visa stuff
big bump
I'm an international whos gonna be starting as aeo(ivey) at western this fall. I sure hope that BBs in canada recruit internationals, the work permit stuff is a lot more lenient i guess.
btw, would be great to get to know any other incoming international students! please do reach out to me since we are far and few
There's absolutely no problem in recruiting an international at BB or Big 5 in Canada
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Can add one data point, albeit being the absolute exception. Know a MF partner who was an international student. Did STEM degree --> 2Y consulting --> MF PE and been grinding to the top since. There's still hope for my international fellas :)
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