How To Navigate Finance Jobs In UK

For all those planning to apply for jobs in the finance sector in UK, Some key points to sort out the landscape for you to provide clarity!

1. You need to make a choice between asset management, investment banking, and private equity and venture capital: These are the three broad categories you can apply to if you want to go into core finance.

2. IB is the most popular choice. Apart from genuine interest, it’s also the most popular choice because it has been the most popular choice (herd mentality). Also, there are many people who desire to enter PE VC directly but most roles in that sector require prior IB experience. Hence, it’s popular to see people apply for IB roles primarily and try their luck with the PE VC roles once in a while.

3. Asset Management is mostly back-end hence it invites fewer number of applicants. However, considering how competitive the bulge brackets can be, it’s often a good choice to apply for asset management roles in these organisations and then switch to IB after 1-2 years of workex.

4. Don’t neglect boutique investment banking firms during the initial phase of job applications, mainly august to november for IB. After getting some rejections from the top choices, people realise that they should start applying to the boutique firms as backups. This means that not only do they apply late, but for the intial couple of months they don’t put in much effort into those applications too. Don’t do this! Firstly, even the boutique firms have very good reputation (which you’ll realise after spending 3-4 months in the UK) and secondly, it’s always wise to consider a back up “back up” once you actually have it in hand. Don’t assume!