Free guides, by city and by career.
Every city hires differently, and every finance career asks for something different. Start with where you want to work and what you want to do.
City guides
London
London recruits earlier than you think, reviews applications as they arrive, and fills places months before deadlines.
New York
New York recruits earlier than anywhere else.
San Francisco
The Bay Area is where tech companies go public and get acquired.
Los Angeles
Los Angeles mixes restructuring, media and entertainment, and middle-market deals.
Chicago
Chicago is the capital of US middle-market banking, with a large private equity community and deep coverage of industrials and business services..
Toronto
Canada’s Big Five banks lead most domestic deals, with deep expertise in mining, energy and financials.
Paris
Paris runs on six-month internships, a gap year (“césure”) and the grandes écoles.
Frankfurt
Home of the ECB and Germany’s biggest banks, Frankfurt grew after Brexit.
Milan
Milan’s banking market is built on Italian family companies and strong domestic banks.
Madrid
Madrid connects Spanish corporates with Latin America.
Zurich
Zurich is built around UBS and wealth management, with smaller investment banking teams than London.
Dubai
Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Riyadh are among the fastest-growing banking markets in the world, with sovereign wealth, IPOs and zero personal income tax in the UAE..
Hong Kong
Asia’s biggest banking hub, built around IPOs and China-focused deals.
Shanghai
China’s largest domestic financial centre, home to the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the STAR Market for technology listings and some of the biggest securities firms.
Beijing
China’s capital is home to CICC, the national regulators and the Beijing Stock Exchange, the newest of the mainland’s three exchanges.
Shenzhen
Southern China’s financial hub, next to Hong Kong and home to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and ChiNext, its board for growth companies.
Singapore
The hub for Southeast Asia deals, sovereign wealth and private wealth.
Tokyo
Tokyo combines Japanese megabanks with global banks’ Japan teams.
Sydney
Australian summer internships run from November to February, for penultimate-year students.
Career guides
Investment banking
Investment bankers advise companies on buying and selling businesses (M&A) and on raising money.
Capital markets
Capital markets bankers help companies raise money: equity capital markets (ECM) through shares, and debt capital markets (DCM) through bonds.
Sales and trading
Sales and trading teams buy and sell shares, bonds, currencies and derivatives for big investors.
Private equity
Private equity firms buy companies, improve them and sell them.
Equity research
Equity research analysts cover a group of listed companies, build models, and tell investors what to buy or sell.
Asset management
Asset managers run portfolios for pension funds, insurers and individuals.
Hedge funds
Hedge funds invest for professional investors using strategies like long/short equity, macro and event-driven.