UK’s largest student finance event launches

Monday 8th November marked the inaugural UK Student Finance Summit organised by Career26, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping UK students build their career.  

With over 800 students in attendance and over 20 speakers from across the financial industry, the summit is the UK’s largest student event for those interested in finance. Included in the price of a ticket – starting at £50 – was lunch and unlimited coffee, with an opportunity between breaks to speak to fellow students. Although participants may have been disappointed with the lack of direct contact  with the majority of speakers, there were some smaller group discussions included in the event. For most sessions, students could address questions to speakers via Mentimeter which were then relayed to the moderator.

One of the students described his experience as, “very informative for undergrads to get some insights,” and related that he had met, “interesting dudes”.  

While the event was billed as a way for students to learn more about different career opportunities, where it truly excelled was teaching students about early career management. The attendees emphasised that the trait most sought across all financial companies and units remained passion and enthusiasm for the given role, which they said should also help applicants decide what is most suited to them. John Madgwick, the early careers managers of the Saïd Business School, suggested that being unable to convincingly answer the classic “why this company” was an early sign that applicants were misdirected. To get a more holistic view of a given career, attendees were also urged to read the biographies the bigwigs that rose through it, and research aspects such as the typical work-life balance in addition to technical specifics. 

The panels insisted that applicants should underline any experience – no matter how distantly related to the role – that demonstrates a commitment to hard work and personal ethics. Regarding interviews, they reminded the audience that employers are looking for a human being and not the voiceover of a spreadsheet: Rui Zhong from BNP Paribas emphases that a logical answer is always better than a memorized one, especially if it is delivered in a warm and humble way. 

 “The students who perform best at the beginning and at the end of an internship often aren’t the same”, noted Sophie Warrick from JP Morgan.

While hard work, willingness and commitment to staying long hours were repeatedly cited as the basis to a good attitude in an internship, curiosity seemed to stand out as the trait differentiating trainees. Issie Armstrong from DWS group also suggested that, in internships and in full-time jobs alike, promotions went to the best networkers and those who “shout the loudest” than to the hardest workers, heightening the importance of facetime with managers in the office. 

Artificial intelligence was discussed at length during the panel. Both Ms Armstrong and Mathieu Marc from Atomico agreed in warning that many laborious tasks previously given to young analysis, such as the analysis of long documents, slides, or even models could soon be outsourced to AI at a cheaper cost, and for similar results. According to them, those who dream of breaking into finance will benefit from excelling where AI can’t - namely in networking and persuasion.