Should I take a gap year before university UK? What should I do?

Hi guys, I'm considering taking a gap year between my A-levels (final school exams) and going to Uni. In the year I would work for my Uncle who invests in companies and properties (he is a former Director of Investment Banking at Credit Suisse from the 90s) and take a Further Maths qualification before applying to Uni in the following year. My ultimate goal is to get a job as an analyst in BB IB. Is this a good idea? Do banks look poorly on this? Would working for my uncle be relevant experience?

 
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I can't comment on the working for the uncle too much, but in my opinion it is definitely valuable. Regarding further maths, I would say it is a huge fucking advantage for anyone wanting to do finance. I'm studying at Warwick (Accounting and Finance) which has a requirement for an A in Maths, but having done further maths has helped a stupid amount. For example, without matrices, it's hard to solve the optimal portfolio allocation for large number assets. Although you may not want to go into buy side, most introductory and intermediate finance courses will be covered by Further Maths. Of course if you are going to a target uni for Econ or maths or something more quantitative than business courses or humanities, your course probably requires you to have it and the course will give you sufficient training in that direction. I was the last year to do the old syllabus (modular maths, I did s1-3), and I would recommend you take the further pure and stats equivalents personally.

 

Further maths is useless for IB yet an other A* will look good on a CV - but a target school will be the key element here - my BB only recruits from Targets and few semis.

Working for your uncle will allow you to start building a CV, investing in Real estate is less relevant but in companies is very very relevant - learn about the valuations methods, accounting, KPIs etc and you'll have a great CV to apply to spring weeks! Banks will by no means look down on this as long as you do things!

 

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