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- How investment banking recruitment works in LondonThe route to a full-time analyst job at a London investment bank, stage by stage, in plain words.
- What finance job titles meanHow to read a London finance job title, part by part. Analyst, associate, off-cycle, coverage, sponsors, DCM and the rest, in plain words.
- How to become a quant at a bank in LondonWhat quant jobs at London banks are, how the kinds differ, what adverts ask for, and the routes in.
- Where to find finance internships in LondonThe places London finance internships and graduate roles are listed, each in its own words.
Briefings by question
- What the job isEach open job's day to day in one line, side by side.
- Who can applyThe year, degree or experience each open job asks for.
- Who tends to thrive hereThe kind of person each open job suits.
- Where it leadsWhere each open job usually takes you next.
What the words mean
Kinds of job
| Word | In one line | Open jobs |
|---|---|---|
| Graduate / Full-Time Analyst | A graduate role is a full-time permanent job for people finishing university, and in banking it usually carries the title analyst. | 71 |
| Industrial Placement / Placement Year | An industrial placement, often called a placement year or sandwich year, is a year working at a firm in the middle of a degree, usually between the second and final year. | 11 |
| Off-Cycle Internship | An off-cycle internship is a placement that runs outside the usual summer window, starting at other times of the year and often lasting longer than a summer. | 58 |
| Spring Week / Insight Programme | A spring week is a short introduction to a firm, usually a few days long, for people early in their university course. | 20 |
| Summer Internship / Summer Analyst | A summer internship is a paid placement of several weeks over the summer, doing the real work of a team alongside its analysts. | 145 |
Levels
| Word | In one line | Open jobs |
|---|---|---|
| Analyst | The first level, the one a graduate joins at. In most of finance it is a junior title, not a description of the work. | 172 |
| Analyst / Associate | A posting marked analyst or associate is open at either level, and the firm decides which title to give once it has met the person. | 17 |
| Associate | The next level up. People reach it by promotion from analyst, or join at it after a master's in business or some years elsewhere. | 92 |
| Intern | An intern is someone on a fixed placement at a firm rather than in a permanent job. | |
| VP and above | Vice president, director, managing director, principal and partner are the senior titles in finance, above analyst and associate. |
Parts of a firm
| Word | In one line | Open jobs |
|---|---|---|
| Asset Management | Investing money for pension funds, insurers and other institutions, in funds the firm runs. | 20 |
| Global Markets | The part of a bank that buys and sells shares, bonds, currencies and the contracts built on them, for its clients. | 15 |
| Hedge Fund | A hedge fund is a private investment fund that tries to make money whether markets go up or down. | 2 |
| Investment Banking Division | The Investment Banking Division advises companies, governments and funds on their biggest money decisions, buying or selling businesses, and raising money. | 87 |
| Private Equity | Private equity firms buy companies, work to make them more valuable, and sell them a few years later. | 17 |
| Research | Analysts who study companies and markets and write their views for the bank's investor clients. | 51 |
| Wealth Management | Looking after the money of wealthy people and families, from investing it to planning what happens to it. | 15 |
| Buy-Side | The buy side is the part of finance that invests money, buying shares, bonds, companies, loans and property with the aim of making it grow. | 1 |
| Private Side | Private side describes people and teams who are allowed to see confidential information about companies before it is public, such as a planned takeover or unpublished results. | |
| Public Side | Public side describes people and teams who work only with information that is available to everyone, such as published results, announcements and market prices. | |
| Sell-Side | The sell side is the part of finance that sells services and securities to investors and companies, mainly investment banks and brokers. |
What teams do
| Word | In one line | Open jobs |
|---|---|---|
| Debt Capital Markets | Helping companies and governments raise money by selling bonds. | 4 |
| Equity Capital Markets | Helping companies raise money by selling shares, when they list and afterwards. | 5 |
| Equity Research | Equity research is the team inside a bank that studies listed companies and tells investors whether their shares are worth buying. | 14 |
| Financial Sponsors Group | The bankers who look after private equity firms and the other funds that buy companies. | 3 |
| LBO / Buyout Execution | Buying a company mostly with borrowed money, repaid from the company's own cash, the way private equity buys. | |
| Leveraged Finance | Arranging loans and bonds for companies with a lot of debt, often ones being bought by private equity firms. | 5 |
| Mergers & Acquisitions | Advising a company that is buying another, selling itself or merging. | 12 |
| Private Capital Advisory | Advising funds and their investors who want to sell stakes in private funds before those funds end. | 2 |
| Private Credit / Direct Lending | Private credit is lending to companies by investment funds rather than by banks. | 6 |
| Restructuring & Special Situations | Advising companies that cannot pay their debts, or the lenders and investors in them, on how to fix the balance sheet. | 11 |
| Sales & Trading | The desks in markets that talk to investors (sales) and quote and hold the prices they deal at (trading). | 22 |
| Secondaries | Secondaries is the market for buying and selling stakes in private equity funds, and in the companies those funds own, after the original investment has been made. | 4 |
Industries
| Word | In one line | Open jobs |
|---|---|---|
| Business Services | Companies that sell people's work rather than products, such as outsourcing, consulting and staffing. | 14 |
| Consumer & Retail | Companies that make or sell what people buy every day, from food and clothes to shops and brands. | 5 |
| Financial Institutions Group | The bankers whose clients are banks, insurers and asset managers. | 3 |
| Healthcare | Drug makers, hospitals, medical device companies and the services around them. | 9 |
| Industrials | Companies that make and move physical things, from aircraft parts and machinery to building materials and freight. | 12 |
| Infrastructure & Transport | Long-lived assets people rely on, such as roads, airports, power networks and water pipes. | 26 |
| Natural Resources & Energy | Natural resources and energy covers the companies that produce and move the world's raw materials and power. | 12 |
| Real Estate | Buildings and land, and the companies that own, develop and manage them. | 19 |
| Sustainable Finance / ESG | Sustainable finance is the part of finance that takes environmental, social and governance questions into account when money is lent or invested. | 1 |
| Technology, Media & Telecommunications | Software, internet, media and telecoms companies. | 7 |
The book, From Greenhorn to Gold(wo)man
The technical core
| Chapter | To read |
|---|---|
| Chapter 1. All Gold(wo)men Were Once Greenhorns | Opening free |
| Chapter 2. Buy Low, Sell High, Income Statement Mastery | Opening free |
| Chapter 3. Broke Is Bad, Solvency and Liquidity | Opening free |
| Chapter 4. How to Cloudwash a Combine, Patterns & Business Models | Opening free |
| Chapter 5. Forecasts Under Fire, Projections | Opening free |
| Chapter 6. Debt, Sweat, and Gears, Leveraged Buyouts | Opening free |
| Chapter 7. The Money Behind the Money | Opening free |
| Chapter 8. Capital Structure & Credit | Opening free |
| Chapter 9. Building the Toolkit, Valuation I | Opening free |
| Chapter 10. Valuation II, Judgment and Adjustments | Opening free |
| Chapter 11. Strategy, Process, Players, M&A I | Opening free |
| Chapter 12. M&A II, What Hits the Books (Series Finale) | Opening free |
| Chapter 13. The Complete Reference | Opening free |
Team and industry specials
| Chapter | To read |
|---|---|
| Chapter 14. The TMT Special | Opening free |
| Chapter 15. The Consumer & Retail Special | Opening free |
| Chapter 16. The Healthcare Special | Opening free |
| Chapter 17. The Industrials Special | Opening free |
| Chapter 18. The FIG Special | Opening free |
| Chapter 19. Natural Resources & Energy Special | Members |
| Chapter 20. The Real Estate Special | Opening free |
| Chapter 21. The Infrastructure & Transport Special | Opening free |
| Chapter 22. The Business Services & Outsourcing Special | Opening free |
| Chapter 23. The Restructuring & Special Situations Special | Opening free |
| Chapter 24. The M&A Advisory Special | Opening free |
| Chapter 25. The Capital Markets Special | Opening free |
| Chapter 26. The Financial Sponsors Group Special | Opening free |
| Chapter 27. The Private Capital Advisory Special | Opening free |
| Chapter 28. The Leveraged Finance Special | Opening free |
| Chapter 29. The LBO Mechanics Special | Opening free |
Hedge funds
| Chapter | To read |
|---|---|
| The London Hedge Fund Series, cram sheets (chapters 32 to 48) | Opening free |