I started writing a reply to this post, and thought it would be better to make a longer post on it. This isn't a definitive answer to bank X vs bank Y, but it's a start.

We all seen the surprising results of the EU referendum on Friday morning. Whether you voted to leave or remain, it is without the shadow of a doubt that the result of the ‘Brexit” referendum will have severe negative effects on the UK economy and London’s banking sector in the near future. Unfortunately, that will also affect you – graduates looking to break into banking.

During my career in banking I worked as a corporate bond trader and later a fixed income sales person. In this post I will share with you the differences between working in trading versus working in sales.

If you are looking to break into the global markets division of an investment bank, it is vital when it comes to your applications and your interviews that you build a solid understanding of how the financial markets work.

Many of you are hoping and planning for a long and successful career in finance. This is definitely possible, irrespective of the length and severity of any bear markets en route. There are a number of career strategies to be aware of which is going to massively increase your chances of long term fund management success.

As I have discussed in my recent post titled most hiring managers will only give your CV about 20 seconds when they are scrolling through the initial batch of CVs.

Are you a female who's trying to make it in the male-dominated finance industry? I know, it's a battle field. It's especially harder for younger women. A lot of the time women are focused on doing a really good job. Yes, it's very important to be good at what you're doing. However, you also need to make sure that people know how awesome you are.

Thanks to @Expert #7451 for sharing this! Gwyn on competency questions: to be able to handle these, you need to have relevant experience. This means being involved in relevant clubs.

I’ll admit it upfront; I think there are better things for most of you high school and university students than going into finance. Anyone’s free to disagree with me in the comments below.

In this post I discuss the developments in technology and how they potentially able to affect future jobs in the industry. Popular, high-paying jobs, which are available now might not be around in 10 years.

I have good news and bad news. The good news is the investment management industry continues to grow and will always need high quality university graduates to join its ranks.

LinkedIn grown in popularity over the last five years and pretty much everyone in banking and finance is now on it. That makes it an excellent platform to reach out to people you otherwise wouldn’t have access to.

It took me three years and around 8,500 miles to discover that sustainable investing is not philanthropy but a legitimate investment strategy that has usually met, and often outperformed, performance of comparable traditional strategies.

That’s the conclusion of a recent report by The Wall Street Journal. As the authors describe, “Specifically, for business and other liberal-arts majors, the prestige of the school has a major impact on future earnings expectations.

Predicting the future is fun, but I also wanted to take a look back on the past developments in economics. At first, I thought about looking back on the past decade, but going as far back as 2007/08 makes more sense – the year of the global financial crisis.

You will have come about the term “debt ceiling” in recent news – so what is it all about and why does it matter? Although it is a concept in US domestic politics, its repercussions could be felt across the globe.

Congratulations - you have landed your first job and are just settling into the job world. One part of this is obviously pensions and savings for retirement.

The hiring process at GS is extremely selective, but also misunderstood. Here are 8 things you should know about applying to one of the most coveted firms in banking.

Networking is probably one of the most overrated and at the same time the most underrated aspects of business, especially if you progress in your career. Some of you might dread the thought of entering a room full of strangers to network, but having a robust network will help you with finding jobs before they are advertised and with sales before the procurement process starts.

Summer internships are an important step to impress a potential employer if you are eyeing the big names, especially in the summer before your final year. But do not despair if you did not get one.

In the finance world, Excel is where the technical work gets done, and keyboard shortcuts are your cheat codes. Few things are more frustrating than spending hours in Excel, clicking through menus with your mouse, only to see a colleague complete the same work in half the time, blazing through with multiple tips and tricks.

From spring week to summer internship, from summer internship to graduate scheme, from graduate scheme to Partner? You spent every Uni summer doing internships, you networked like mad, you did loads of research on the finance industry, you planned your entire career from day one to retirement (at 45, in the Bahamas), you studied hard for your degree… and you still didn’t get offered a job at GS.

London is one of the most international places in the world – one of the reasons why it is such an interesting place to live in. While diverse bars, restaurants and exhibitions are interesting (and enriching), things are getting a bit different when you want to do business with companies in other countries – stakes are getting a bit higher.

Breaking into top finance roles means embarking on one of the most intense and potentially rewarding career paths. Long hours, steep learning curves, and high-stakes deliverables will test even the most driven junior analyst or associate. But with the right playbook, you can not only survive but also build lasting momentum.

All of a sudden it seems as though everyone is talking about ESG. As with all such financial fashions, ignorance is a high-risk strategy – the subject is highly likely to come up at some point in an interview process and you should not only know what it is, but also have an articulate and defendable view on the subject.

Predicting the future is a mug's game as Douglas Adams famously said, but after a tumultuous three years, 2023 might turn out to be a bit calmer, so I’ll give it a try. In general, I am quite optimistic about the year to come.

Many young people who want to pursue a career in investment banking don’t know the differences between investment banks and simply apply to all banks to increase their chances of securing an internship or job. However, it is crucial to take into consideration the culture and the performance of the company before joining it to maximize your growth opportunities and reduce the likelihood of becoming unemployed after a short period (e.g, by joining Credit Suisse in 2022 or Deutsche Bank in 2023).

A crucial tool of the trade, PowerPoint is the powerhouse for your slide decks for every dealmaker in finance. It's used to create expensive, high-stakes, storytelling, marketing materials to sell a business or raise capital. However, PowerPoint can quickly become a huge time-drain, especially for juniors, with seemingly minor issues such as alignment, colour compatibility or endless iterations to improve slides...

By now, you will have seen the results of the US elections with Donald Trump heading for a second term. But what will that mean for the economy? It was widely assumed that he is the more pro-business candidate.

Ok, strictly speaking this is about my second job in finance, which is the one that most mattered to me from a career perspective. To get my first job out of the way, I joined a large retail bank out of University, applying – like most people – through the standard “milk round” of applications and interviews.

The following post is the first in a series, which is based on my previous professional experience working in KPMG’s corporate finance team. The series is meant to assist readers in their efforts to effectively build relationships with people at work.

You will have seen “base rate interest rate” hikes quite a bit in the news in the last couple of months , so it is worthwhile looking a bit deeper into what it is, how it works and what it means for the economy and also for individuals/consumers.

To check on my predictions for this year, I will try to review the past month from an economic point of view, hopefully every month from now on.

The purpose of this series of posts is to provide you the reader with advice as to how to enter the social flow in the context of being new and relatively junior in a corporate environment. Doesn’t matter whether you work in consulting, in banking, in an industry role or for an investment firm—if you work for a professional organization, soft skills matter. They’re not all that matter, but they matter.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. What should graduates do in today's economic downturn?

Excel, often called the backbone of finance, is a tool no professional in investment banking, private equity, or corporate finance can afford to overlook. Mastering Excel is not just about technical skills but about creating purpose-built, clear, credible, and efficient spreadsheets that people trust. This trust, when consistently earned, can significantly enhance your professional reputation. In this article, we aim to share our hard-earned experience with you so you can benefit from it.

Sooner or later in their lives and careers, individuals pursuing further educational opportunities go through a decision-making process whether such move is worth their while and if so, which institution to select. Motivations behind the choice to continue studying vary, spanning from advancing existing knowledge in a certain field, gaining a new skill or simply buying a ticket into the networking opportunities a prestigious institution would potentially offer via its alumni.

You might have read that government interest rates are (almost) back to Trussian levels which could mean that the Bank of England would need to raise interest rates to 5.5% later in the year. Two-year gilt yields, a key measure of government borrowing costs, are currently at 4.56 per cent – the highest level since the turmoil that followed the disastrous mini-Budget.

The next opportunity to speak with her presented itself in the gym. We attended the same gym, where I trained before work. One morning, I saw her on the treadmill four or five treadmills away from where I was running. I think she saw me there too, but I don’t really remember any more. In any case, I knew this was my moment. I got off my treadmill and walked over to hers. “I don’t mean to interrupt,” I said. “But it was so funny because my director told me I’m scared of you!”

This forum is focused mostly on banking and finance in the UK but I believe that it is important for people who want to work in the financial industry to have a global mindset. There is a ranking called The Global Financial Centres Index that is published every year and shows the most powerful financial cities in the world.

Now that your frame about who you are relative to your seniors is set (in a balanced way), a few words on building relationships. For starters, realize that building relationships is a process.

Are you a recent graduate ready to take your finance career to new heights? Look no further than Graduate Coach – the premier career coaching and employability service designed specifically for graduates like you.

When I was studying at university, it seemed to me that there are only a few available career paths for ambitious people - Investment banking, Asset Management and Consulting. However, later I realized that there are dozens of other options that are equally good and I will share with you a few interesting roles that come to my mind.

The foundation of an effective strategy to make more friends or become a better communicator at work is eliminating neediness from your vibe. I’m going to repeat and stress this point often because it’s really foundational, it’s really important to your success in the social arena.

Attending a target versus a non-target university makes a huge difference when it comes to landing your first role. These categories are based on the relative attractiveness of universities reputation and more concretely, recruitment activity and networking opportunities available on campus.

Excel serves as the primary platform for virtually all investment banking financial modeling, functioning as both the technical foundation and the analytical workspace where billion-dollar decisions are built, tested, and refined. Despite the availability of more sophisticated software platforms, Excel's combination of flexibility, transparency, and universal accessibility has made it the undisputed standard in the investment banking industry.

A commonly asked question by students is: would [insert degree] be "good enough" to break into [insert industry]? While a valid question to ask, the answer is complex and is not always a simple "Yes" or "No".

The financial services industry is split into two types of companies: the sell-side and the buy-side. While both are essential to capital markets and deal-making, they operate very differently. Let’s break it down from the perspective of both trading/markets and investment banking/deal-making.

There are many different industries you can go into and it's important that you choose one that suits your unique background. For example, if you are a textbook example of prospective quantitative trader, there is not much point to consider investment banking, and vice versa. Every one of these roles require different skills and suit different personalities. They also offer different lifestyles, career paths and so-called "exit opportunities".