I think to have a very good understanding about what is going on that that particular industry that you are coming to interview for. Because you would be amazed how many people go into an interview and they think that they have a first class honours degree from Cambridge but they haven’t got a clue what has going on in the world of finance in the last couple of months.

Just trying to read the papers, maybe a year or so before the application process so that if someone says to you 'Have you seen a deal in the press lately that has caught your eye?' You can talk about it and say what has happened over the last few months of that transaction.

I spent a few weeks in campus recruitment as part of my rotation as well and certainly when reading application forms you can tell if somebody has just written a couple of sentences without really thinking about it or if someone has actually gone away and looked at the consulting sector, looked at the investment banking sector and made a decision of whether they want to work in one or another.

Know your stuff, but you don't have to come specialised and say I want to equity derivatives and know everything about that. Be more flexible have a general idea of what investment banking is, what the markets do, what the general themes are at the moment.  After that the bank will train you.

Since all the application processes are the same initially, you need to spend time to put together a really strong online application. If your application is successful you then need to really get to know people when you go down to the institutions because it will be people that are offering you the jobs, not computers, so looking good on the system isn’t good enough you need to make sure you make an impression on individuals with relationships.

If you think about the kind of competencies that people need to do well in any career, and generally they are going to be things around problems solving, being able to demonstrate leadership, drive and ambition. To be able to do those things you need to have some kind of experience doing it and I think university is really good way to develop those things, through the work you do on your course and also the things that you pursue outside the classroom. If you’re interested in doing really well in a career in the City, you need to maximise the opportunities that you have at university to ensure that you are equipped with those skills so that when you do come for a job in the city you have already got experience that speaks for itself.

The biggest tip would be go out and get yourself some experience before you are looking to get your permanent graduate position, so that might be through an internship, through work experience, I know that we, and also some of our competitors run a Spring programme which is a week long course and gives an insight into the investment banking industry so getting on one of those, getting some understanding is really really important.

Many people in research come via the accountancy firms, after graduation they do their three-year accountancy and that gives them a very solid basis and understanding of accounts because we do spend a fair amount of our time looking through annual reports. They then apply subsequently to go into research and I guess in research you probably have 30-40% of entrants that have gone that direction. So a lot of people straight from university to the graduate scheme but also a large volume of people via the accountancy firms.

Be honest, because I have had instances from my friends as well, if you claim to know  something you don't know, I think people in this industry are very very smart they can catch you out.

Try and get an internship if you can and get some finance background and try an meet people at careers fairs, try and understand what the role specifically entails such that when you go to an interview you are not reading what you read in a careers brochure and you can actually apply it to questions that they ask you.

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