¿PE/IB/MBB opportunities Spain?
I posted this yesterday but it was reported/flagged because it was written in spanish:
Not long ago I found about this website, which is really helpful, and after reading about some "non-target --> BB", I was wondering if any Spaniard has a similar story. I have seen that most of those who work at BB, MBB or PE in Spain come mostly from IE, ICADE, overseas universities and some from Enginering backgrounds (Politécnica Madrid, for example), these being always in the top 10% of the class. Many interned in finance related reputable firms within the industry. Honestly, I understand that these universities have a better reputation and that people would rather recruit from the universities they went to and that many of the best internships available are only possible through referrarls.
About me: finance related degree (top 20%) at a top 10-15 university (not top 5), I come from a city with 100-300k inhabitants, state/public school all my life and did the "Bachillerato Tecnológico" (wanted to study engineering prior to finding out about finance), with my grades not being the best but still good (>12 in total after Selectividad). I had no clue what Bloomberg, the S&P 500 nor LinkedIn or Goldman Sachs was until COVID 19 lockdowns (probably the only thing I knew was: money printing = inflation, which I now know is not entirely true) but slowly I started reading and learning more about finance and business (valuation methods, the financial plumbing, macroeconomic trends..) and I found out that I both enjoyed and had a genuine interest in these topics (I even did a "DFC model" for Carrefour). Furthermore, I also started following some very interesting twitter accounts (there are many but some examples could be: @TheLastBearSta1, @AlessioUrban ,@Maroon_Macro, @Michaelxpettis, and for spanish ones: @GalicianInvestor) and started listening to some podcasts (such as Value After Hours - Tobias and Eurodollar University - Jeff Snider). Lastly, I am keen to work in the previously mentioned industries but I am aware thet PE is basically impossible straight out of university and when referring to IB I don't mean M&A (more like AM).
During my 1st year at university I tried networking and although I had some (very few) positive responses, nothing is available until you get half the credits at university (however, these internships were not some of the "fanciest" out there, but still better than nothing).
I don't know anyone working in anything related to finance (not counting the guy that works at the local bank branch that my mom goes to) so I came here seeking for advice because my chances to get in these industries look very slim (if not 0).
I would love to read about any of you in the comments.
Thanks!
P.D: the website keeps adding canada in the region section for some reason
I'm in the same situation, wich university are you enrolled? Universitat de Valencia here😅. I didn't started networking yet bc you can't really do almost no internships until the summer after 3rd year (you can do after 2nd year but, most of the summer internships are for students on their last or penultimate year), but will start soon.
If you want, we can talk on pm.
I tried but I can't, I guess there is some restriction for new users.
Happy to talk if you can PM me
Change to a better positioned university like IE or ICADE or go to a very good university abroad. That's what is required if you want to entry to the industry.
Thank you for your honest response. Would you be 100% sure that there isn't another way to enter the industry? For example, if somehow you get relevant internships or if you are a top performer at your class (not at these universities).
And, what would you define as a good university aborad? Surely ICADE is not at the same level as Cambridge (other countries usually have better universities).
Go to CUNEF. Is literally the finance/Investment Banking university of Spain. It's owned by the big banks.
Is there a way to transfer from a public Spanish university (eg. Carlos III) to a private one like CUNEF or ICADE?
No you cant. I went to ICADE
Don't deep it, you can 100% make it without being from the top private Universities. Just need to work harder but perfectly doable
Hey, could I PM you to ask you a few questions about the industry in Spain?
I know this is a late response but I'm pretty sure it will help someone in the future if not.
I studied at ICADE and ended (E2) which is the standard BA degree. Currently working as an intern at a Megafund in Madrid after having worked for a year as an M&A intern in a small M&A boutique (<10 employees) based only in Madrid. Have to disagree with you when you say that only ICADE, IE or CUNEF are able to enroll in this kind of internships. You do indeed see many people from these, but only because most of their parents are able to "enchufarlos". It is something that ICADE shows off about, but the truth is that this is mostly possible because student's parents.
Even though my working experience isn't the longest I can tell you that I know enough to tell you that it doesn`t matter where have you studied as long as you get to land an impeccable first summer internship (off-cycle works too). I have many friends that were absolute trash at university and that currently work at BB because they were able to network and keep scaling.
In my case I did 3 internships during my 4 years degree. Each of them got better than the last one (starting from marketing ended up auditing at a Big 4) until I managed to jump from Big 4 auditing to M&A at the small boutique I was telling you about. This means that you only need to keep scaling internships until you are able to land a proper IB job.
Another important thing is that you won't be able at the beginning to land many interviews, so you cant allow yourself not to do them perfect as you will be competing against better CVs and Universities students that may have big advantage over you.
If you need further help feel free to DM me and we can have a call regarding this topic
Best of luck
Hey, I'm currently a first-year year student at CUNEF majoring in business with a minor in finance. What was your first internship? I know being in ICADE, CUNEF or IE makes things easier. Literally I get a response from 95% of people I contact for advise/network, probably because of the university. Im looking to do a great internship in my second year, what do you reccomend? I still wayn to do something in my first year, but I think that isnt possible right?
Hi. Let me first congratulate you on being this early to find a finance job in Spain. People mostly don't give a fuck about internships until they are in 3rd year (almost none) or last year. You are not getting good response rates because CUNEF, but because people really tend to respond in LinkedIn in Spain and you will start to notice that soon. As for my recommendations it is very simple. CUNEF doesn't allow you to use its portal de empleo until you reach 3rd year of career. So you either ask for credentials to someone older or you limit yourself to linkedin offers and M&A teaser jobs website. Appart from that you can always speak to your parents. Im not gonna lie, landing an internship that early is very hard without dads help. If you manage to land an internship that is nice you will see that for the next one you aplply, everything will be much easier. I cant tell you were i did my internships as people would find me then. Only thing i can tell you is that it was real estate related. More than happy to further speak by phone if you need any additional info
It's definitely possible to get an internship in your first year. However, this is very difficult as many firms will ask you to have half the credits of your course. I doubt you can get one in M&A or something like that (although anything is possible). My advice would be to get any internship, if the firm is well known even better (audit in PwC will make you stand out), it doesn't matter if you are not interested in such internship (you can't really choose).
Didn't study in Spain but we could talk if you want more help
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