Working in Investment Banking (London) as a foreigner - possible?
Recently I've been thinking about moving to London to continue my career as an Analyst in Investment Banking/M&A. I live in one of CEE countries. I have a Bachelor degree in Finance from the best school in the country and currently I'm pursuing Masters degree. I work as Analyst in M&A team in one of Big4 companies and I plan to stay there before end of my studies.In 2021 I had an opportunity to work as an Intern in a local bank which has its own small Investment Banking Division.In November I plan to pass CFA level examMore and more often I think about trying to apply for Summer Analyst program in London or even give a shot to apply for full-time Analyst position in IB.Question to you is: Do you know anyone who achieve this the way I want to do it? I see a lot of people from CEE who work in the industry but has at least Masters from LBS etc.Thanks for any comments!
Keep in mind that, if I’m correct, you may need a visa sponsorship for your SA internship from the babble of your choice. Hopefully someone more experienced will tell us here how eager they are to grant one, because I’m also looking into a similar option now!
Definitely possible. Loads of kids from HEC, Bocconi et al come for SAs and they need to be visa sponsored, but depends if the bank will recognise your university or not and if they’ll let you do SA having already started FT.
Thank you! Very encouraging to try to apply this year! The plan is to accomplish CFA level 1 in August to boost my CV and show interviewer I have knowledge despite lack of top European university degree.
On another note, do you think it might be easier to lateral than to get the SA? For instance 1-1.5 year of being an Analyst and lateral to either A1 or A2?
Was asking in terms of the visa sponsorship for laterals ofc*
Very possible for foreigners. Assuming you’ll need sponsorship, which will make it a bit harder for smaller firms. Not a problem otherwise (obvs assuming ur good lmao)
Lovely, thanks!
Great, more immigrants... Just what we need
Good luck getting deals done across Europe without them. Or do you genuinely think that a bank has any realistic chance of doing a Merger between two Italian companies with only Englishmen on the team?
The “price” (because getting high qualified culturally similar immigration if anything is a gift) of London being the finance hub of Europe is, well, European immigration.
Western European immigration is fine I guess, but anything from the (South) East is just not what we need.
Of course possible especially if you're interested in cee ib or other more generalist geographically product groups. You'll fine all kinds of people in tech m&a for example or in lev fin, but if you look at eg rothschild cee like you'll find many Greeks, Czechs, Poles, Russians
Tough to break in but not a matter of nationality
Hey, I'm from CEE and work at a top MM bank in London. Best way is to network, however that might be hard given you are working in your CEE country. Personally, I moved to Germany and worked at a no name boutique there as analyst for a year before moving to London through a headhunter. Would suggest trying to move to a more developed country in Europe (Germany, France etc.) and recruiting from there. Might be hard finding an English language job in the respective countries, but it is doable, especially if you network (this is how I got the job in Germany).
Good luck!
do you think there is plenty of jobs in English in Germany? (In case of IB M&A) THX!
A master in London is your best bet!
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