Is Investment Banking in London Still Recruiting? This London Business School MBA Reveals All

Ryan grew up in Australia, where he did a double degree in physics and law – a unique combination. Then, he worked at Ashurst, a law firm in Melbourne, in their corporate transactions team, where he specialized in public takeovers and private equity work. Five years later, he moved to Kirkland & Ellis’s private equity M&A team, where he exclusively bought and sold companies for private equity funds. After three years, he joined Simpson Thacher & Bartlett in their M&A team, getting involved again in the UK private equity market. 

Then, Ryan decided to apply for MBAs to pivot into investment banking. He is now a student at London Business School. We sat down with him to discuss what he likes (and what surprised him) about the LBS MBA, what the job market looks like for an investment banking candidate, and what advice he has for other applicants.

Watch the full interview here:

What's the best thing about LBS?

Ryan: I feel like I should be getting paid by LBS for this because it’s also in all the school’s advertisements, but the diversity of the cohort is very impressive. 

What stood out to me is that maybe 85-90% of my class would have flown into London the week or two before the course started. People from all over the world, congregating in London.

There's a lot of benefits to that. Everyone is so proud of their culture and they want to share it with you. So you have this beautiful ability to live in London and get little tastes of other places around the world. You can go to a sake night that the Japanese club hosts, or you can go salsa dancing with the Latin American club. We have quite a few Peruvians in the class, so they organized a dinner at their favorite Peruvian restaurant and it was all very traditional and beautiful.

Even in the classroom, people have such interesting experiences, some of which are so different from mine, given I’ve done most of my career in Australia, the UK and the US. An example that stands out to me is when we were in a finance class and talking about conglomerates. Under traditional finance theory, they don’t serve much of a purpose and shouldn't really exist. Then, some students from emerging markets spoke about conglomerates in their countries and what value they added there. And that’s when you could see that in a  different context, maybe they do actually work.Getting those different perspectives opens your eyes to the world. 

Sam: What Ryan's referring to here is that there are approximately 70 different countries represented in the LBS cohort. That’s so many different people bringing unique perspectives to the classroom. And after you graduate, your network is going to be all over the world, right?

Ryan: Yeah, that’s a major benefit of it. You end up knowing someone somewhere. Whichever city you want to go to, there will be someone you can shoot a message to. Partially because everyone has come to London just for this, so there’s a feeling that you’re all in it together and the bond you get with your cohort is really strong. 

What surprised you about LBS?

Ryan: Two things:

One, the power of its alumni network. Again, it's something every school talks about. So I'd have mentally dismissed it a little bit previously, but here I’ve really been surprised at how much engagement you get from alumni.

Whether that’s sending out an e-mail to talk to someone, or getting a coffee with someone. The responses are very positive. 

It does depend a little bit, however. If you're trying to reach out to alumni in a structured program where 100 other students are doing it, they probably have a certain amount of time they can dedicate. 

But outside of that, it’s been really impressive. Recently, I received a summer internship offer from Citi. I was thrilled after the big, long recruitment process. Within a day, I had 2-3 emails from alumni that were in the team, asking to grab a coffee and offering to put me in touch with relevant people. I really wasn’t expecting that sort of active support from alumni, but it was so noticeable and such a nice little surprise.

Sam: And it's nice that you say that from a banking perspective as well, because one of the conversations right now is that graduates, especially international applicants, who want to go into investment banking have historically targeted New York. And what you're saying is that London is also thriving in this industry. 

Ryan: I think so. There has been a bit of a structural shift away at the bigger firms to get away from MBA Associates and they tend to get more Analysts now. The theory being that Analysts are easier and cheaper to bring in and you can train them up to a much higher technical base than you'll get an MBA Associate at.

But the MBA program is still very alive at all of the banks here. Maybe less so at the mega funds like Blackstone. I don’t think they take that many, but if you look a bit wider, there is still a big PE pipeline there as well of MBA Associates. Everyone I know that was targeting PE has managed to get an internship there.

Sam: What’s the other thing that surprised you? 

Ryan: There are certainly moments of the 2-year MBA at LBS that are quite intense, but there are moments that are not as well. And you have a bit of time to reflect on what you like, what you don't like, what you want from your career, what opportunities and industries excite you.

At the same time, you've got a range of opportunities that you can try and test, and it gives you a lot more out of your program.

In law, I often felt like I was on a narrow, very well-defined path. But here, having some time to see what’s out there was massively valuable. I wasn’t expecting that going into the MBA.

Sam: Interesting that you say that. I had a similar experience during my MBA. I remember randomly going to a luxury goods event, which I thought would be interesting to broaden my viewpoint. Everyone there was immaculately dressed and I was in my ripped jeans and T-shirt. I remember thinking that wow, I’m underprepared for this and these are not my people. So that kind of just ruled out like that industry, which I couldn’t have done without that exposure!

Ryan: Exactly. Learning what you don’t like is as valuable as learning what you do like. I’ve gone to presentations from employers, which I would have thought would be up my alley, but quickly realized that it wasn’t for me. That by itself is valuable. 

Tell us about the LBS Rugby tour

Sam: I used to play rugby as well. So one of the things we talked about when we were scheduling this interview was your LBS rugby tour. How was that?

Ryan: The tour was one of the absolute highlights of the year so far. We did a week in the US, playing in the MBA Rugby World Cup. Columbia, Harvard, Yale, Wharton, Michigan were all there. It’s the culmination of the whole season.

I was one of the captains, being one of the more experienced players in the team. I was involved a bit on the coaching side as well. It’s a weird team in the sense that some players have played a lot and some have never played. It’s interesting to navigate that and figure out how to bring people together and get everyone on the same page.

But by doing that, we saw the improvement from when we first started playing (when we were practically hopeless). By the end of it, playing in a very structured rugby tournament made me feel like a proud parent. The growth has been so rewarding. 

Sam: How was it playing against American players? 

Ryan: I don't think they had a lot of experienced players, but some very big players that ran hard made up for it. It was one of those tournaments where it’s serious and everyone wants to win, but there’s also this great atmosphere and energy among people to meet others, make friends, and build connections. It was a brilliant week. 

Sam: I like that more and more of these initiatives are happening to bring together people from different business schools. It’s such an interesting way to potentially broaden your network even further than just the MBA cohort you're in. Did you connect with anybody useful in other programs? Or did you just tackle them and beat them up?

Ryan: We had a big post-match function, where we met a lot of the lot of the different players from the different schools. I can’t say I met anyone who would change my life and give me a job somewhere, but it’s nice knowing people in the city. I could see them in a few years’ time if they’re doing PE. There's a lot of value in just knowing people in places whom you can talk to and understand the job landscape. 

How is recruiting for MBAs at the moment?

Ryan: It depends. The range of jobs that people look for out of an MBA are so wide. So the experience you get in recruiting can be dramatically different.

Investment banking is a structured program, which is managed by the school's career department. They have an investment banking lead, who is amazing. She speaks to all the banks and they pitch to you. There’s a very formalized process you go through, and the school provides a lot of guidance and resources to navigate that.

That said, you still always have to put the work in yourself. Sometimes, there’s a misconception that the careers department will be throwing all these employers at you. That’s not how it works.  

Two years ago, it was a tough recruiting landscape. It opened up a lot last year. Most people I know from that program have already got offers for the end of their program already. I get the sense that it’s even better this year. Again, it’s not that you walk in and get a job. Some people may have had to take slightly less direct paths than they would have liked or they have had to explore slightly wider universes. 

But people have also got exciting opportunities. One of my close friends just got an internship at a VC startup that's focusing on the food tech industry. Some very cool jobs! I really don’t think it’s as bad as people are making it out to be. 

Can you walk us through the investment banking recruitment timeline in London?

Ryan: For investment baking, recruiting started last year. Around late September-November, which is early in the MBA program, but you still had enough lead time to be prepared for it.  

The exact process depends a little bit on the bank, but the broad structure that most of them follow is that you do a round of coffee chats with junior associates, both to find out about the bank that you're looking at, as well as for them to screen you. Throughout that process there might be networking events that the bank holds as well. 

Then, you apply formally. Typically, you’ll have 3-4 interviews. For Citi, we did 4 interviews. There were two rounds. Day one was a fit interview plus technical knowledge. Day two was more about the fit. Most of the banks do two rounds; one may have done three.

At the end of that, you get an offer for a ten-week internship. Typically there's a matching process to figure out which team you will be in. At most places, it’s a joint process where you can submit preferences and so will they. That’s a lot of coffee chats again, but better ones because this is where the teams will try to pitch to you rather than you pitching to them!

At some point after the internship, you hopefully get a return offer for the following year to start in a full-time role. 

What's a typical post MBA role for an Associate and how does that fit into the investment banking hierarchy?

Ryan: Typically, the hierarchy is Intern - Analyst - Associate - Vice President - Director - Managing Director. 

After your MBA, you would come in at the Associate level, which is a slightly different role because you haven't had the typical 3-4 years of Analyst training. While you need to know the more technical aspects like modelling, your value add is more in the experience of interacting with clients and managing teams. You need to know the basics, but no one is expecting you to be the best modeller, coming in as an MBA Associate. 

Given your private equity and law background, where do you expect to fit into an investment banking team?

Ryan: I had 8-9 years of work experience right alongside banks running deals. I’ve seen a loy of what they do, and I’ve done hundreds of deals before. So I can add a lot of value through that deal knowledge; knowing the process, what clients care about. 

I’ve also been doing a lot of modelling courses and taking many finance electives at LBS, which have improved my understanding greatly. I’m also learning this aspect on the job. 

What are key character traits that LBS MBA students have in common? 

Ryan: It's hard to answer that in some ways, because there is such a range of characters in the cohort. Personally, law was such a Type A, high performance environment which was very internally competitive. Even when you meet people socially, there was a sort of contest of who could humble brag the best. I came into the MBA expecting a similar power play among the cohort, but I’ve been very pleasantly surprised to find almost none of that.

So the characteristic that I find common among the LBS cohort is their humility. Other people celebrate your successes, and there’s always someone congratulating someone else. There’s a sense of “oh, I don’t have to sell myself”. You've got people around you that care about you and will celebrate your wins for you.

Then there’s a strong element of collegiality. I felt that from day one. People were really invested in wanting to get to know you and build relationships. I wondered how it would hold up through recruiting, because that’s where things get competitive. But it didn’t change at all.  For IB, there was a Whatsapp group where everyone was posting about what’s going on, deadlines and due dates, process tips, people to speak to – just trying to help each other out. 

For me, this would be a defining characteristic among LBS students. 

What did you learn about yourself during the MBA application process?

Ryan: Looking back, I started the application process a couple of years ago. 

I did the GMAT first, which I ended up taking three times to get the score I wanted. I probably came in a bit cocky on the GMAT, because having done Physics in my undergrad, I was confident about the maths side. My law background also made me think that reading comprehension and sentence correction was in the bag. But I learned that prior experience is helpful, but it doesn’t carry you through. You just need to learn how to approach it the right way. 

As for my narrative, we spent a lot of time forming one that explained my non-traditional background in a succinct, cohesive way. My application was a lot stronger for having done that work. But it takes time. You have to reflect and consider why you made certain decisions. When you’re the decision-maker, you reason out and weigh the short and long term consequences of things. 

But when someone looks at it from the outside, they don’t have that context. What makes perfect sense to you can often appear contradictory or random. So you need to build a theme to explain your journey, which was really powerful for my applications and something I’ve also used a lot in recruiting. 

For example, earlier in the year, a few asset managers came to LBS to pitch, and while IB was my focus, I thought this was an interesting area. I applied all of those same narrative techniques and formed a story where it looked like this was the culmination of my life’s work. I ended up getting interviews for most of them.

And I can pretty confidently say that I wouldn't have had those interviews if I had just submitted a generic cover letter, because my background didn't fit the things that they were looking for. It was a real testament to the power of having a good story.

You can present yourself so much more powerfully because you have this cohesive story about why you're here and how you fit – whether it’s in an MBA or at a job. 

What advice would you give somebody who is early on in the application process?

Ryan: Obviously, hire the best MBA consultant around!

But also, give yourself time. I get approached quite often by people on LinkedIn, particularly lawyers, that are thinking about doing an MBA. A lot of them have really tight schedules where they want to do the GMAT and applications in 3-4 months. You could probably do it in that time, but it will be surface level stuff. It takes time to do the groundwork for a really strong application.

The time you spend doesn’t just make your application better, but it’s generally valuable in life. When you get to interview prep, you’ve done that thinking already. You’re not scrambling on a week’s notice to do all that thinking and figure out answers. 

So I’d encourage anyone to give themselves as much lead time as they can. 

Sam: To add some numbers to that for anybody thinking about the admissions process, when we’re working with an applicant, we aim for 8-10 weeks or 2.5 months for a three-school application set. Anything less than that, we're going to be cutting corners. On top of that, ideally you’d have done the GMAT beforehand. Add another 4 months. That’s approximately 6 months in total. 

Thank you for your advice and time, Ryan! 

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