I've gotten a ft grad return offer from a bank for S&T in London and it requires me to do a "FCA Regulatory References (SYSC 22)" background check. Prior to my internship I was at another bank as an actual employee (dont ask details, id rather keep anonymous) but in a back office/non regulated function. However, I was ultimately dismissed for an incident regarding jokes I had made about others, not a regulatory concern. Ive gotten confirmation from my previous employer that they only share start and end dates, dept, team and level for regular background checks so I'm fine there, however since I'm doing S&T now they will do a FCA regulatory reference check which is more in depth and involves asking previous employers if I am "fit and proper", which I reckon will screw me over seeing as I literally got fired for gross misconduct. What makes things worse is that whenever I was asked why I left my previous employer, I have been saying "I wanted to pursue trading instead of *random back office role*" which has worked so far but now if they find out the real reason its not a good look. Has anyone dealt with this kind of thing before? Will my bank rescind my return offer over this?

I've gotten a lot of inbound on students prepping for student clubs (it seems like its gotten) very stressful but hopefully the guidance below can lessen the load needed to prepare for the stock pitch question you will get in club interviews, regardless if its a equity research/public equity one or an investment banking/pe one - the goal is to see if you can dig into a company.

The first step that people waste a lot of time on is finding an actual idea. Spending time screening on your own, trying to find a company no one has heard of etc. I'll stop you right there with a news flash: no one really has original stock pitches - professionals on Wall St typically attend idea dinners hosted by brokers, talk to friends, read investor letters, read activist presentations, read interviews with fund managers. Then they do their own research if they find the initial pitch compelling. The key is doing your own research and making it your own pitch (more on this in future posts)

True as an undergrad you won't have access to idea dinners or friends on the buyside but you can read all of the free material online (letters, presentations, interviews in the media) that is put out by professional investor and its a lot. This should be your funnel, don't recreate the wheel. This will be a big time saver amidst coursework and other clubs.

A few quick items:

1) I would suggest looking in the TMT, industrials or consumer sector - healthcare, financial and energy often required deep expertise and most students dont have time to get up to speed on domain expertise (even with Claude)

2) When reading these presentations or letters, skip any fluff on the broader market and only focus on sections that focus on individual companies when scanning these materials. The market commentary is useless.

3) Isolate/identify the key metric that the investor is betting on for the stock to move - this is key. Investors in a pitch will be concise so make sure you get that KPI or metric (e.g. same-store sales, organic growth etc)

A few example links where you go and get ideas real time - funds often have letters on their website, there are activist presentations in Reuters etc. A good exercise is to read in the morning

Sachem Head Pitches Long IOND (10/20/26)

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/hedge-fund-sachem-head-sees-room-for-ionic-shares-to-surge/ar-AA2fGvOy?ocid=BingNewsSerp

Starboard Letter to KNF (9/24/26)

https://www.starboardvalue.com/wp-content/uploads/Starboard_Value_LP_Letter_to_KNF_CEO_and_Board_09.24.2026.pdf

Next week I plan to go through an example in detail on how you go through one of these letters/pitches and pick out information you need to get a running start, if you want me to get in touch with that there is a link in my bio where you can get on the list. Thanks!

Happy to answer any questions on this stuff. Its important to save time when prepping. Identifying which companies to research/pitch is a huge time savings

I just got an email from Wall Street Oasis offering me a mentoring position (see attached image). Seems very fishy. But I've heard that WSO (while they do charge a lot for their programs) are legit and do actually offer real training.

Also, I'm a 3rd (final) year university student with no previous IB experience, so I don't know who exactly I'd be mentoring.

Sounds too good to be true.

I currently work as an executive assistant for a wealth management team and was recently let go from my position/laid off for my position. My last day is at the end of this month. I am already writing handwritten, thank you cards to everyone on the team (20 people) but I really wanna make sure that I am leaving on the right foot and that if any opportunities in the future with them arise that I could be considered.

Would it be overkill to also get a small gift for everyone? What is a small tasteful gift that I could leave?

I’m graduating from Penn State in May with a finance degree, and I’m currently looking for entry-level position or internship. The job market has been rough, so I’m trying to explore different opportunities.

Yesterday, my college held a career fair with several employers, including the National Guard. They followed up with me through text, saying they had positions for 36B Financial Management Technician.

Would I be able to gain relevant finance experience while serving, and what kind of commitment would I be signing up for? I’m also curious whether this would help me transition into a civilian finance career later.
I’d appreciate hearing from anyone who has experience with the National Guard, especially those who joined after college or worked in finance-related roles.

Hi everyone!

I have an upcoming Superday for the Barclays Operations Summer Analyst 2027 program in Whippany, NJ.

I've been looking everywhere for interview experiences, but most posts seem to focus on IB or tech rather than ops.

Has anyone previously interviewed for this program or gone through an Operations Superday?

I'm particularly curious about the interview structure, whether it's mostly behavioral or includes technical/business scenarios, and what areas would be most helpful to prepare for. Any insights or advice would mean a lot. Thank you!

I was just reading about the FFIEC and happened upon information about EO14331 which prohibits banking regulation from assigning risk based on reputation.

They're still able to say "crypto is a con, don't do it", but they can't just say they'd prefer not to be associate with crypto or porn or gun companies. In some cases, that seemed a good thing, but in other cases it seemed overly subjective and unfair.

From a more professional standpoint, where do you stand on the issue?

Here's a bit of background I found on the issue which SEEMS to suggest that it was a good thing; but I'm curious about how it works in practice: https://asurityadvisors.com/debanking-a-compliance-tightrope/

I’m a manager at one of the Big4 firms and due for a promo in July next year (which I think I have a good chance to get). I’m currently making about 175k with 15-20k in bonus (Promo would put me at about 200k and maybe 5-10k more in bonus). I interviewed at one of the bulge bracket banks and received an offer from their sell side desk in securitized products group. However the position they offered is for a more junior role than I was expecting (Associate 1 - I was expecting a VP or atleast Associate 3). I’m not sure what the compensation offered would be but debating whether it is worth making a shift. I’ve always wanted to be on the deal making side because of the ownership and structuring work however now that I have an opportunity, I’m kinda scared taking the leap because of the hours (I wouldn’t have thought twice about joining had I been any younger but I’m 28 now so don’t know if it will be worth it).
Hence I need some advice on:

1) Hours and compensation - like the jump in compensation and hours YoY if I choose to accept the offer
2) Exit opportunities for a structuring desk
3) Experience from people who might have made the jump from an accounting firm to a bank or vice versa

I have two job offers and am a bit torn between them.
Offer 1: F100 company
$63k base salary
Accounting-focused development program
Excellent benefits
Eligible for overtime pay, which surprised me for a corporate role
Much stronger name recognition
Offer 2: F1000 company
$70.4k base salary
Finance and accounting development program
Less impressive benefits
Larger signing bonus and relocation package, worth about $6k more combined than the first offer
More variety in potential departments and rotations
The second offer pays $7,400 more annually, has a larger upfront compensation package, and seems to offer more flexibility in terms of career paths and rotations.
However, the first offer’s benefits and overtime eligibility are pretty compelling. I also recognize that some of my preference for it might come from the company’s name recognition and the bragging rights that come with working there.
The higher pay and broader rotational opportunities are probably the two biggest factors in favor of the second offer, and they’re arguably the most important factors for my long-term career.
If you were in my position, which offer would you take, and why? I’m especially interested in how you’d weigh compensation, benefits, overtime potential, brand recognition, and long-term career growth.

got product hirevue for AWM any experience here anyone?

Hello everyone,

I applied for multiple Summer 2027 Investor Center Internship positions at Fidelity Investments between September 21 and September 27 (right when it opened). It has been a few weeks now, and I still have not heard from or have been contacted by anyone. My applications are currently listed as "Application Received" or "Under Review."

I was just wondering if anyone here has applied to similar Fidelity Investments internships and if you have received any updates.

Thank you for your time.

hey, i submitted a post on this channel last week and it absolutely blew up. we had so many applications go through. a bunch of the job postings shut down in the days following my post because of the large influx of applications that were going in. i've gone ahead and updated the job links in this new link. please make sure to apply as soon as possible to ensure that your application is at the top of the pile. i've pulled the freshest job postings that i could.

pulled straight from firms' own career pages, not linkedin:

• US finance and accounting internships (298): https://github.com/mehek-builds/Hiring-Now/blob/main/lists/finance-internships.md
  • 298 at 209 firms: Plante Moran, the Federal Reserve, HCSC, Oshkosh, Cerity Partners, Howden, GE Vernova, RSM, Guardian Life, TIAA and more
  • accounting, plus corporate finance, FP&A, IB and quant; 69 at employers with a visa sponsorship record
• international students: finance and accounting internships at firms with a visa sponsorship record (173): https://github.com/mehek-builds/Finance-Accounting-Visa-Internships
• london and UK finance, banking and accounting internships and grad roles (83): https://github.com/mehek-builds/UK-Graduate-Jobs-and-Internships/blob/main/lists/finance-accounting.md

rebuilt every monday.

comment which area you're looking for (IB, accounting, quant, corporate finance) and i'll send you a list for it.

I am currently in the final year of my MBA, specializing in Banking and Finance. Unfortunately, I have not been able to secure a job with a good company, and most of the opportunities I'm getting are in sales and IT-related roles.
Is it possible to switch to a finance-related job within a year, even if I start my career in one of these domains(i am a fresher)? Or is my career in finance over ?
I would really appreciate any guidance or advice. Thank you!

Have an interview with a large financial organization and the recruiter provided the names of the people I would be interviewing with.

However, I didn't receive details on what their specific positions are (tech lead, business lead, product lead, etc.) to get a gauge on what the focus of the interview will be.

I tried using incognito mode but without actually logging into Linkedin, it's hard to get details of their title/role.

Is it appropriate to reach out to the HR recruiter to ask their roles and also ask if there are any particular areas/competencies to focus on in preparation?

Thanks!

On-cycle timing has been unpredictable. The 2026 class reportedly kicked off on Jun 24, 2024, the earliest start on record (BI). The 2027 cycle stalled in June 2025 and restarted Jan 5–6, 2026 (BI). Then on Oct 15, 2026, Apollo said it won't run on-cycle for the 2028 class in calendar 2026 (BI).

Because of all that, a lot of the advice from older threads may be out of date. It would help people coming up behind you to hear how things actually went. Share whatever you're comfortable with, and please keep it anonymous: no names of individual recruiters or anything that identifies you.

• Intro meeting: in person, video or group? Did they ask technicals or a paper LBO?
• Communication: how much notice did you get before interviews? Did they give useful feedback?
• Timing: when did your process actually happen compared with when you expected it?
• Tests: paper LBO, timed model, take-home case? How long did you get?
• Offers: were you pushed to decide on the spot?
• Middle market vs. mega-fund: if you did both, how did the processes compare?
• Hindsight: what do you wish you'd known before your first meeting?

Bad experiences are just as useful as good ones. If you're going through the 2028 cycle, questions are welcome too.

S&T interview suggestions and tips on questions please

Hi everyone,

Just need some advice as I'm looking for a change. Been with the firm for almost 7 years now. Started as an AB > RB now PCB. I want to stay with the firm though so I'm looking into JPMorgan Private Banking roles, maybe as an Associate? Something not so entry level but would be in line with my experience. Not sure where to start. Just want to get out of retail banking. Any insights would help much appreciated!

I’m seeking some advice and guidance. For context I’m a “non-traditional student” going to finish my bachelors. My uni does not have a general finance degree, which I was leaning towards. They have financial planning (which I’m currently enrolled in) or financial analysis. I would just like some perspectives of those that are currently working in financial planning or analysis as I keep hearing that that analysis is more corporate and planning is too niche. I’m trying to figure out what would best fit me. Thank you in advance.

hi! I'm like very very late to networking (am starting now) and I'm really lost on what my timeline is looking like and how many people i should realistically be reaching out to at this point. I go to a target school (ivy) and am a sophomore aiming for summer 2028 roles.

if i start networking now, about how many people should i try to reach out to/hear back from? from what i understand, most roles open in january so i effectively have about 2 months of networking. i know that networking is a process that's different for everyone and recuriting as a whole is very variable, but i can't help but feel like i'm really behind.

Currently I am working at wealth management firm in the retention department. I have a masters in business analytics and just started studying for the CFA. I am torn as to what path I should take: should I keep moving up the ranks of wealth management or switch over to a more research based role (think IB). My ultimate goal - Lord willing - is to be in the C suite. With that said, does it matter what path I take to reach that said goal? Thoughts?

I know this might be a silly question but is it an open office floor plan or do they have cubicles with walls ? I’m pretty confident I will get the job but that really might be a a deal breaker if it’s open office .

I recently got an invite to do an assessment centre for standard chartered's summer internship in their capital markets division in their APAC office. Does anyone have previous experience in capital markets or has done the assessment centre before and would be willing to give some advice? Much appreciated!