Something about Warwick

coralgirl

I've been at Warwick for about two months, major is Economics. I want to point out something I experienced, which was totally different from what I thought a year ago. DON'T MEAN TO START A DEBATE! Anyone interested in the job market, especially banking, in UK may want to read this:

1. I was thinking UK is not a good job market.

If you didn't have an IB or consulting internship, I'd admit that you are almost impossible to land a graduate job in front offices at IB, PE, HF in UK. But isn't it the same at other places?  In terms of internship application, I really think every Chinese student has a chance.

2. I was thinking Warwick is not a good university in terms of job hunting.

Honestly speaking, I was aiming for an academic career. In the past, I normally assumed that Warwick was not an IB target university. When I came here, every major bank does have presentation, attend the career fair, and open some skill sessions here. Some prop trading firms and hedge funds like Optiver, Jane Street also have presence. After extensive networking with employees and HRs, I think the general consensus among them is that the best six UK IB target universities are LSE, Oxbridge, IC, UCL and Warwick. If talking about trading or quant trading, Warwick can be in top 3. Here I can also get the opportunity to meet with banks' MDs, free training courses from Training the Street, and office visit to the big banks in London.

3. I was thinking Economics master is a useless major for job hunting.

Until now, I found this major put me an advantage other than disadvantage. The main argument of the uselessness theory is: first, the courses are so theoretical and impractical -- how about history, music, and politics? Are they useful? At least economics trains people to think logically and quantitatively; second, economics department does not have a strong career service -- which is true, but I really think networking and peer effect are way more important than the CV editing...Without being biased, the majority of the employees appeared in the presentation are from econ majors. I admit, because I am applying for internship and equity research position, I must have some bias towards this.

coralgirl

4. I was thinking Chinese students cannot efficiently network.

After several weeks, I really want to say that not Chinese students cannot network, but most Chinese students do not network. I don't know the reason, maybe due to confidence, may don't know the importance. When the MDs of the banks present the slides, you can see many Chinese faces on the seats. When moving into the networking sessions, there are fewer and fewer. This is even worse among Postgraduate students. I started my decision to apply for internship about one month ago, I can now network with the people -- some of them are really nice, one girl from Goldman Sachs carefully modified my CV and cover letter, and one Italian guy from Morgan Stanley was really supportive during the whole application process. It was not because I am good, but because networking is not that hard.

At last your personality and ability win you the job--which is totally your business, no one or university could help you a lot. Whether a university is good or bad should be judged on whether it could give a platform to get through CV screening process. In terms of this criterion, Warwick is not a bad choice. I have no experience in finance before -- not even an internship. All in my CV are just societies, academic experience... But I start to have some interview invitations now. Many undergraduate students here from China also do really good jobs.

IN THE END, I REALLY WANT TO SAY I HATE ENDLESS COMPARISION. WHAT I WANT TO SAY IS THAT WARWICK IS NOT BAD, UK IS NOT BAD. THAT'S IT. ALSO, WHAT I TALK ABOUT IS UK JOB MARKET. IF YOU WANTED TO KNOW MORE ABOUT HONKONG AND MAINLAND'S MARKET, I REALLY CANNOT HELP. I AM A NEWCOMER TO THIS FIELD. WHAT I WANT TO DO IS TO HELP SOME OUTSIDERS, JUST LIKE ME A YEAR AGO. DON'T MISLEAD ME AS WELL. THANK YOU.