Application Process

Division

Application Process

Division Breakdown

As you apply to specific divisions, you need to figure out what division you like the best and want to work in. To help you out we have broken down each division below.

Investment Banking

The Investment Banking Division is responsible for working with corporations, institutions, and governments to raise capital by underwriting in equity, debt, and hybrid markets, as well as executing mergers and acquisitions and various advisory mandates such as activism defense.

The investment banking division is subdivided into industry groups. The most common groups are:

Technology, Media, and Telecommunications (TMT)
Financial Institution Group (FIG)
Energy
Mining
Healthcare
Industrials
Real Estate

Asset Management

In Asset Management, there’s one key objective: generating income for clients. This is done by directing a client’s capital into a range of investments, chosen carefully by balancing risk, opportunity, and other variables – such as timeframes and other investments in a client’s portfolio.

On behalf of their clients, an Asset Management team might invest in stocks, bonds, property or foreign exchange to help a client meet their investment goals. These are just some examples of common investments.

Within Asset Management, there are two sides to the business: investments, and client coverage.

Investments

This is the ‘doing’ arm of Asset Management. Researchers, portfolio managers, and traders work here, managing and making investments for clients.

Client Coverage

This arm of Asset Management positions and sells the investment services offered by the bank and manages relationships with clients.

Private Banking and Wealth Management

Individuals with substantial wealth often have complex financial arrangements and want to make sure that their asset portfolios are generating the best possible returns. They’ll work with a specialist advisor at a bank with in-depth knowledge of financial markets and investment opportunities who will understand their perspective and help them reach their goals.

Wealth managers work in a consultative way, getting advice from appropriate experts and offering appropriate products and solutions.

Research

Research provides financial analysis across various asset classes – a grouping of similar investments. The bank’s research team analyses relevant trends in financial markets, the economy, and society as well as highlighting risks and opportunities, and acting as a consultant for clients and stakeholders.

Essentially, Research is about delivering high-quality, independent analysis that helps investors to understand markets.

Global Markets

The Global Markets Division enables clients to buy and sell financial products, raise funds and manage risks. We make markets and facilitate client transactions in fixed-income, equity, currency, and commodity products.

The division can be broken down into three main roles: Sales, Trading, and Structuring.

Sales

Sales people are in touch with institutions, corporates, and private individuals, suggesting appropriate investment opportunities, potential trading strategies, and products. If, for example, a currency suddenly increases in value, or there’s a new bond issuance, the sales team will inform investors and suggest the best course of action.

Trading

The actual buying and selling is done by traders, who make markets (give prices) for clients. They work closely with the sales teams to understand the client’s requirements and risk appetite. A trader tends to be an expert in a particular area (e.g. currency or bonds).

Structuring

Structuring teams provide products that are tailored to clients’ specialised needs. They might help an institutional investor achieve a required risk profile, or a corporate looking to acquire new equipment through financing.

Technology

The right technology can give one bank the edge over the competition and plays a big part in compliance with regulations that continue to evolve. It’s now less to do with IT support, but rather about emerging trends set to transform the industry like Blockchain and AI, and the increasing significance of the Cloud. That’s why institutions invest vast sums in tech and employ tens of thousands of people to develop and maintain it.

It’s most evident on the trading floor, where it makes trades faster, more competitive, and more profitable. But technology, and making technology better, is crucial to every part of a bank.

Infrastructure

Front-line banking is made possible by a diverse mix of specialists in infrastructure and support roles. Like every large business, banks have people responsible for human resources and accounting, as well as functions specific to financial services like risk and regulation. Some will have begun their careers in banking, but many will have crossed over from a similar role in a different industry. And as banks become more heavily regulated, they depend more on teams of specialists in compliance.

Infrastructure has seven main areas:

Spring Week Process

What to Expect During A Spring Week?

During your Spring Insight programme, you can expect to be invited to participate in several different workshops and masterclasses which are designed to showcase what to expect from working in a bank.

Some banks will provide a general overview, whereas others may provide opportunities to shadow specific departments.

You’ll likely be invited to watch business presentations and take part in group exercises designed to showcase your knowledge of investment banking. You’ll also be invited to participate in CV workshops and interview skill sessions which can provide insights into how to get ahead within the financial sector.

A key element of Spring Week is the networking events and social activities which take place after work. These are crucial to facilitating connections and getting yourself known to hiring managers.

During these sessions, recruiters will be looking to find out more about who you are, how you work as part of a team, and how you communicate.

Those who make a good impression will stand themselves in good stead to be invited to participate in an assessment centre for a summer internship.

Spring Week Application Process

Although Spring Week traditionally takes place during the Easter holidays, you should expect to apply around September/October time, but some programs will need you to apply as early as July.

You can only apply if you are in your first year of a three-year degree or the second year of a four-year degree.

If you are serious about a career in finance, you should do your research carefully. You must make sure that your application meets any specific deadlines and follows the application criteria set by the bank.

Generally, the application process is:

Online Application
- Includes a CV and a cover letter or questions
Online Tests
- You often receive these instantly after applying
- These often include numerical, verbal, and logical tests
- To prepare:
  - Do lots of practice. The difficulty for these tests is the speed as the questions are relatively easy. Lots of practice will mean you will speed up and get a better score.
Hireview Interview
- An online interview you can do at any time of the day where you record your answers and artificial intelligence is used to review your interview
- To prepare:
  - Do the interview in a quiet place with a neutral background
  - Research the firm beforehand and learn general information about the firm e.g. core values, but also unique factors about a firm to stand out.
  - Practice lots of situational and behavioral interview questions
  - Do not memorise whole answers but memorise points, as if you memorise and stumble on an answer, it can be a lot harder to recover than if you were to memorise points
Telephone Interview
- An interview where you will be asked a mixture of situational, behavioral and technical based questions
- To prepare:
  - Do the interview in a quiet place with a neutral background
  - Research the firm beforehand and learn general information about the firm e.g. core values, but also unique factors about a firm to stand out.
  - Prepare for technical interview questions specific to your division e.g. What is a DCF? (for Investment banking), Tell me about a piece of news and what effect you think it will have on the market? (For Global Markets)
  - Practice lots of situational and behavioral interview questions
  - Do not memorise whole answers but memorise points, as if you memorise and stumble on an answer, it can be a lot harder to recover than if you were to memorise points

Why a Spring Week Is Important?

Spring Week (or Spring Insight, as it is also known) is a way for banks to sell to students the benefits of working in investment banking; whilst recruiters use it as an opportunity to spot future talent.

Spring Weeks can be hugely influential. Students will have the opportunity to shadow senior management teams and participate in presentations relating to investment banking.

As it is an incredibly competitive career choice, it’s often ‘who you know’ who can make a difference. Therefore, applicants use Spring Week as an opportunity to make professional connections which can help them in their future career.

Sprig Week Process

Summer Internship Process

Summer Inernship

Why Do You Need a Summer Internship?

Just having a degree is not good enough now.

As a result, more and more university leavers are looking for additional experience to give them the edge when applying for graduate schemes or positions.

While bulking up your CV with extra-curricular activities is nothing new, the sheer number of graduates entering the job market each year means that relevant, work-related experience is now a vital addition to your application.

In many cases, one of the best and most accessible ways of gaining this experience is through a summer internship.

You can also get an offer for a full-time position after university if you perform well during your summer internship.

Summer Internship Application Process

You should expect to apply around August/September time, but some programs will need you to apply as early as July.

You can only apply if you are in the penultimate year of your degree.

Generally, the application process is:

Online Application
- Includes a CV and a cover letter or questions
Online Tests
- You often receive these instantly after applying
- These often include numerical, verbal, and logical tests
- To prepare:
  - Do lots of practice. The difficulty for these tests are the speed as the questions are relatively easy. Lots of practice will mean you will speed up and get a better score.
Hireview Interview
- An online interview you can do at any time of the day where you record your answers and artificial intelligence is used to review your interview
- To prepare:
  - Do the interview in a quiet place with a neutral background
  - Research the firm beforehand and learn general information about the firm e.g. core values, but also unique factors about a firm to stand out.
  - Practice lots of situational and behavioral interview questions
  - Do not memorise whole answers but memorise points, as if you memorise and stumble on an answer, it can be a lot harder to recover than if you were to memorise points
Telephone Interview
- An interview where you will be asked a mixture of situational, behavioral and technical based questions
- To prepare:
  - Do the interview in a quiet place with a neutral background
  - Research the firm beforehand and learn general information about the firm e.g. core values, but also unique factors about a firm to stand out.
  - Prepare for technical interview questions specific to your division e.g. What is a DCF? (for Investment banking), Tell me about a piece of news and what effect you think it will have on the market? (For Global Markets)
  - Practice lots of situational and behavioral interview questions
  - Do not memorise whole answers but memorise points, as if you memorise and stumble on an answer, it can be a lot harder to recover than if you were to memorise points
Assessment Centre
- You have a series of face-to-face interviews and may have to complete group tasks with other applicants. This may happen over a few days.
- To Prepare:
  - Continue to follow step 4. Telephone Interview preparation, but focus a lot on commercial awareness and technical questions as you will have interviews with employees in the area you want to work in

What is a Summer Internship

A summer internship is an opportunity offered by an employer to potential employees, called interns, to work at a firm for a fixed period of time. Summer interns are penultimate-year undergraduates, and most internships last between 8 weeks to 12 weeks.

A summer internship should give you practical skills, experience, and greater knowledge of an industry, in exchange for the employer benefiting from your labour.

With the emphasis firmly on training, summer internships give students real-life experience of the workplace and field they hope to break into.

This not only helps them gain critical work skills and decide if the career they are experiencing is right for them, it also enables them to make valuable work contacts and acts as an important stepping-stone to securing a job and climbing the first rung on the career ladder.

What Do Summer Interns Do?

The majority of interns will carry out a range of support tasks in a junior role.

The specific duties of an internship will vary considerably depending on your employer, the industry and the type of internship.

Unlike conventional employment, internships have an emphasis on training, rather than employment itself.

But they are a great opportunity for you to learn how the business operates.

Interns can be given a lot of responsibility using the skills they learn in real life and can be working on: live M&A deals, trading on behalf of clients, working on a project and much more.

Application Process

Division Breakdown

As you apply to specific divisions, you need to figure out what division you like the best and want to work in. To help you out we have broken down each division below.

Investment Banking

The Investment Banking Division is responsible for working with corporations, institutions, and governments to raise capital by underwriting in equity, debt, and hybrid markets, as well as executing mergers and acquisitions and various advisory mandates such as activism defense.

The investment banking division is subdivided into industry groups. The most common groups are:

Technology, Media, and Telecommunications (TMT)

Financial Institution Group (FIG)

Energy

Mining

Healthcare

Industrials

Real Estate

The Global Markets Division enables clients to buy and sell financial products, raise funds and manage risks. We make markets and facilitate client transactions in fixed-income, equity, currency, and commodity products.

The division can be broken down into three main roles: Sales, Trading, and Structuring.

Sales

Trading

The actual buying and selling is done by traders, who make markets (give prices) for clients. They work closely with the sales teams to understand the client’s requirements and risk appetite. A trader tends to be an expert in a particular area (e.g. currency or bonds).

Structuring

Structuring teams provide products that are tailored to clients’ specialised needs. They might help an institutional investor achieve a required risk profile, or a corporate looking to acquire new equipment through financing.

Spring Week Process

What to Expect During A Spring Week?

Summer Internship Process

Why Do You Need a Summer Internship?

What Do Summer Interns Do?

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warwickfinancesoc@gmail.com

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Application Process Division Breakdown As you apply to specific divisions, you need to figure out what division you like the best and want to work in. To help you out we have broken down each division below.

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The Global Markets Division enables clients to buy and sell financial products, raise funds and manage risks. We make markets and facilitate client transactions in fixed-income, equity, currency, and commodity products.

​

The division can be broken down into three main roles: Sales, Trading, and Structuring.

Sales

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​

Trading

​

The actual buying and selling is done by traders, who make markets (give prices) for clients. They work closely with the sales teams to understand the client’s requirements and risk appetite. A trader tends to be an expert in a particular area (e.g. currency or bonds).

​

Structuring

​

Structuring teams provide products that are tailored to clients’ specialised needs. They might help an institutional investor achieve a required risk profile, or a corporate looking to acquire new equipment through financing.

Spring Week Process

Summer Internship Process

Application Process

Division Breakdown

As you apply to specific divisions, you need to figure out what division you like the best and want to work in. To help you out we have broken down each division below.