jackson read1
New member
- Feb
- 6
- 1
I have now been at over 20 institutions for work experience within the Finance industry.
People always ask me “does your dad know someone in the industry?”.
My dad is a barber and my mum doesn’t work due to illness...so no.
I set out at 14 years of age to get as much work experience as possible to prove to future employers that I had what it takes and that I had a REAL interest in getting the job I had always dreamed of ever since watching Wall St.
I never wanted to be Gordon Gecko, but I loved the look of the buzzing trading floors that it featured.
I now study at the LSE in Political Science (BSc Government) Does this effect my chances of a summer internship? I always get asked “why don’t you study maths or economics?”
You don’t need to be a maths person today in the world of banking. I recently received an offer from JP Morgan to join the Cash Equity Sales Trading desk in June.
But how did I get this work experience? The answer is simple…Put in the time and effort with speaking to as many people as possible, whether its over the phone or walking into the god damn office yourself to hand out CV’s. It is inevitable that you shall face rejection and the odd baffled security guard, but 1 in a 100 times, it’ll work out. I have now been to Winton Capital, Commerzbank, ICAP, BP, BNP Paribas, JP Morgan, Marex Spectron and various other financial institutions. These experiences allowed employers to see I had a real determination to succeed and break into the industry. I cannot stress enough how much leverage this gave me in interviews and the application process. Not because of the skills I could demonstrate, but the interviewer would always ask me “how have you got all of this experience?” This then allowed me to go on about how my interest in banking was sparked and where I see myself within the industry. So I recommend highly that anyone interested in gaining access to any top banks or institutions do their best to get work experience as much as possible and as frequently as possible, because not only do you learn valuable skills, it shows that you are interested, more so than everyone else applying for the same position.
In terms of interview advice, being an Essex boy myself (unfortunately), I am naturally geared towards Sales and Trading and have found that the people who work in Sales and Trading (throughout my experiences) value the demonstration of interest rather than market intelligence you already have. This is because no matter how good you are, no Cambridge Economics undergrad will know the markets better than the guy sat in front of them. Typically, I have sat in front of ED’s and MD’s for my interviews and these guys know what they are doing. Stereotypically speaking, ED’s and MD’s have been with the business in question for years and years. Therefore, try to show that you are interested and show that you are keen to learn about things, do not try be clever and shoot yourself in the foot by trying to price bonds or explain how the market is going through a huge price correction because 9999/10000 times you will slip up.
Don’t rehearse answers either, if you do your research properly before an interview your conversation should flow naturally. An interview is a two-way process, not an audition.
Lastly, just be honest about why you want to work in banking. “I want to work at (banks name here) because of the culture and the people.” 1. You don’t know what the culture is like yet 2. You probably haven’t built a network large enough within the business yet to understand the people you are talking about. Interviewers see through that stuff. Go in there and be yourself. There isn’t any more advice that is more valuable than that.
Good luck!
Jackson Read.
People always ask me “does your dad know someone in the industry?”.
My dad is a barber and my mum doesn’t work due to illness...so no.
I set out at 14 years of age to get as much work experience as possible to prove to future employers that I had what it takes and that I had a REAL interest in getting the job I had always dreamed of ever since watching Wall St.
I never wanted to be Gordon Gecko, but I loved the look of the buzzing trading floors that it featured.
I now study at the LSE in Political Science (BSc Government) Does this effect my chances of a summer internship? I always get asked “why don’t you study maths or economics?”
You don’t need to be a maths person today in the world of banking. I recently received an offer from JP Morgan to join the Cash Equity Sales Trading desk in June.
But how did I get this work experience? The answer is simple…Put in the time and effort with speaking to as many people as possible, whether its over the phone or walking into the god damn office yourself to hand out CV’s. It is inevitable that you shall face rejection and the odd baffled security guard, but 1 in a 100 times, it’ll work out. I have now been to Winton Capital, Commerzbank, ICAP, BP, BNP Paribas, JP Morgan, Marex Spectron and various other financial institutions. These experiences allowed employers to see I had a real determination to succeed and break into the industry. I cannot stress enough how much leverage this gave me in interviews and the application process. Not because of the skills I could demonstrate, but the interviewer would always ask me “how have you got all of this experience?” This then allowed me to go on about how my interest in banking was sparked and where I see myself within the industry. So I recommend highly that anyone interested in gaining access to any top banks or institutions do their best to get work experience as much as possible and as frequently as possible, because not only do you learn valuable skills, it shows that you are interested, more so than everyone else applying for the same position.
In terms of interview advice, being an Essex boy myself (unfortunately), I am naturally geared towards Sales and Trading and have found that the people who work in Sales and Trading (throughout my experiences) value the demonstration of interest rather than market intelligence you already have. This is because no matter how good you are, no Cambridge Economics undergrad will know the markets better than the guy sat in front of them. Typically, I have sat in front of ED’s and MD’s for my interviews and these guys know what they are doing. Stereotypically speaking, ED’s and MD’s have been with the business in question for years and years. Therefore, try to show that you are interested and show that you are keen to learn about things, do not try be clever and shoot yourself in the foot by trying to price bonds or explain how the market is going through a huge price correction because 9999/10000 times you will slip up.
Don’t rehearse answers either, if you do your research properly before an interview your conversation should flow naturally. An interview is a two-way process, not an audition.
Lastly, just be honest about why you want to work in banking. “I want to work at (banks name here) because of the culture and the people.” 1. You don’t know what the culture is like yet 2. You probably haven’t built a network large enough within the business yet to understand the people you are talking about. Interviewers see through that stuff. Go in there and be yourself. There isn’t any more advice that is more valuable than that.
Good luck!
Jackson Read.
(im joking!)