Hi all,
I have been following this forum for a while now and have decided it is now time to write a post. Unfortunately, for you, it has been asked a thousand times before – how can I get on to the Sales & Trading desk at an investment bank? I would really appreciate any feedback. I apologise in advance for the long post however I thought it might help you to understand my position better.
My background is as follows:-
I went to a local grammar school where I obtained 10 GCSES A*-A’s, an A in AS-Level IT and AAB in Mathematics, Economics and Physics respectively – my Physics grade was highly disappointing as I was only 1 UMS mark from an A.
I then read Economics at the University of Southampton achieving a 2:1. Throughout my first and second year, I tried to obtain an internship at a number of Investment Banks, which proved to be fruitless. In light of the aforementioned, I decided it would be best to open up a trading account and start trading. I also taught myself about technical and fundamental analysis – I have read a number of books such as Market Wizards 1&2 and “Technical analysis of the financial markets” etc.
In my third year and Post-graduation, in July 2011, I applied to all the Investment Banks once again – I was restricted to the graduate schemes as these are designed for individuals who have recently graduated/in their final year. I took a number of the bank’s online tests and I know that I passed some, if not all, of them. However, once again, this proved fruitless. My only assumptions for not obtaining an interview were because I either did not have an internship on my CV (even though I mentioned I have a personal trading account), my Physics A-Level let me down (and an auto-filter picked this up), they decided to interview the individuals who scored the highest in the online tests, I did not go to a target university or a combination of the above. I also understand that many interns make it onto the graduate scheme. This made getting on to a graduate scheme even more difficult in the current economic climate.
I am sure those of you who have been in a similar position can appreciate how frustrating this has been for me. Trading is all I have wanted to do and I have never really contemplated doing anything else. I intend on applying, once again, to the Investment Banks’ graduate schemes this year but some of them are limited to individuals’ who would have graduated more recently than I.
My question therefore is does anyone have any ideas about how I can get into an investment bank?
HR, at the banks, are not interested and they just shun me away. I also have a few friends at Citi/Goldmans (a few years older than me) who have told me that the IB’s aren't really hiring at the moment and that it is also very difficult to do things outside of the formal process.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Josh
I have been following this forum for a while now and have decided it is now time to write a post. Unfortunately, for you, it has been asked a thousand times before – how can I get on to the Sales & Trading desk at an investment bank? I would really appreciate any feedback. I apologise in advance for the long post however I thought it might help you to understand my position better.
My background is as follows:-
I went to a local grammar school where I obtained 10 GCSES A*-A’s, an A in AS-Level IT and AAB in Mathematics, Economics and Physics respectively – my Physics grade was highly disappointing as I was only 1 UMS mark from an A.
I then read Economics at the University of Southampton achieving a 2:1. Throughout my first and second year, I tried to obtain an internship at a number of Investment Banks, which proved to be fruitless. In light of the aforementioned, I decided it would be best to open up a trading account and start trading. I also taught myself about technical and fundamental analysis – I have read a number of books such as Market Wizards 1&2 and “Technical analysis of the financial markets” etc.
In my third year and Post-graduation, in July 2011, I applied to all the Investment Banks once again – I was restricted to the graduate schemes as these are designed for individuals who have recently graduated/in their final year. I took a number of the bank’s online tests and I know that I passed some, if not all, of them. However, once again, this proved fruitless. My only assumptions for not obtaining an interview were because I either did not have an internship on my CV (even though I mentioned I have a personal trading account), my Physics A-Level let me down (and an auto-filter picked this up), they decided to interview the individuals who scored the highest in the online tests, I did not go to a target university or a combination of the above. I also understand that many interns make it onto the graduate scheme. This made getting on to a graduate scheme even more difficult in the current economic climate.
I am sure those of you who have been in a similar position can appreciate how frustrating this has been for me. Trading is all I have wanted to do and I have never really contemplated doing anything else. I intend on applying, once again, to the Investment Banks’ graduate schemes this year but some of them are limited to individuals’ who would have graduated more recently than I.
My question therefore is does anyone have any ideas about how I can get into an investment bank?
HR, at the banks, are not interested and they just shun me away. I also have a few friends at Citi/Goldmans (a few years older than me) who have told me that the IB’s aren't really hiring at the moment and that it is also very difficult to do things outside of the formal process.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Josh
