By Francisco Riederer T'16
Francisco is a first-year student at Tuck who previously worked in investment banking and private equity in Brazil, spending most of his time in the investment boutique arena. Born and raised in Brazil, he graduated with a BA in business administration from FAAP. He now wants to expand his horizons and pursue a career in investment banking outside of his home country. A former amateur horse rider (jumper), Francisco enjoys exploring the Upper Valley, promoting social events, and he recently became addicted to skiing.
Recruiting for banking starts very early during the fall term. After all the pre-term activities that last at least 10 days before classes begin, when everyone is fresh and still adapting to their new lives here at Tuck, you realize that if you are serious about recruiting for banking you should quickly decide, since banks will soon start to come to campus one after the other to launch the initial recruiting phase. It happens even before the first month of class.
Usually the on-campus recruiting process for investment banking—when firms come to Tuck to recruit students directly—refers only to positions in the U.S., most of which are in New York. If someone wants to recruit for international locations, including London, he/she needs to apply for those positions through an off-campus process which usually is more complicated and less structured. Nevertheless, due to the importance of the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region, banks in London promote an organized way for MBA students from top schools in the U.S. to network with them, learn more about them, and apply for positions in the region through a formal process.
If you are interested in the EMEA region, whether because you want international exposure, because you have roots in Europe, or just because you may be attracted to the region for some reason, you should consider applying for positions in London—a market similar to New York in terms of size, development, diversity, complexity, and sophistication. This was exactly my case—I was interested in these two markets. Both cities are the most important cities in the world and where the financial market gets its pulse from. I would be able to achieve my goal of launching a successful career outside of Brazil and explore my full intellectual capacity.
The London Banking Summit is a formal trek organized by seven of the leading investment banks in the world with offices in London, where generally the investment banking activity for all the EMEA region is concentrated. The 2014 event happened during Thanksgiving and was open to eight schools only: Tuck was one of them.
Through a series of back-to-back sessions at each one of these banks, students could meet and interact with alumni from all the selected schools and participate in informational interviews. The trek lasted three days (bank sessions on Thursday and Friday, and a happy hour on Saturday). Below is the schedule of the trek and the banks we visited:
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Six students from Tuck attended the summit this year: one from the U.S., one from Australia, one from South Korea, two from India, and myself, which demonstrates how truly global the opportunities at Tuck are.
I believe that this trek was very successful because none of us were born or raised in Europe and most of us were invited for interviews with those banks after coming back and applying for the summer associate positions there. I am sure that attending the London Banking Summit was a great experience for all of us because it showed us that the world is much bigger, complex, and fascinating than the one we see when looking at it through on-campus lenses. You would be surprised by how well some of the off-campus recruiting processes are organized and compelling, bringing some of the most amazing career opportunities to Tuck students.