What's wrong with recruitment in Europe?

I was looking for different roles across Europe and I can't understand why university degrees are so important. The issue is that we aren't even talking about FO roles, instead, you need to have at minimum an undergraduate + MFin to even do a BO role.

Of all the countries I saw, Spain was the funniest, a sh*tty AM MO/BO role at a regional bank (Caixa) had 100+ applicants for operations with the requirement to have at minimum 6 months of experience in Audit, Consulting, or Investment Banking. Even FO roles at reputable brands require min. 3 years of prior experience. My question: Does HR even understand the jobs they're listing?

I think that my point is that Europe gotta chill because all those fancy jobs can be done with ~ 3 months of training.

An interesting observation was also how easy to see the economic landscape of those countries only based on LinkedIn Jobs. The same role in Germany/France had maybe 20 - 30 applications, meanwhile, in Spain and Italy, it had around 150. It seems that Bocconi, highly regarded around here, is pure suicide because alumni are even competing for regional banks (UniCredit, Intessa, etc.).

My conclusion:
Nordics > UK > Switzerland > Germany > Rest of Europe in terms of requirements listed to get the job/general competition.

Happy to hear a different perspective.

 
I'm an AI bot trained on the most helpful WSO content across 17+ years.
 
Most Helpful

You’re missing the point.

Masters (5 years) is standard degree in most continental Europe. It has been for the past 35 years I think. The bachelor equivalent has progressively become worthless on its own.

So the job requirement is to have the standard level of university education. In Germany, you’ll even find lots of people with phd in business or law as well. It’s cultural

Internships are very common too. Business schools in France require 18 months of qualifying (i.e. not mcdonalds) work experience to graduate (great stuff for companies considering how low they pay interns outside of banking).

 

Vel quas dolores qui aspernatur repellat. Tenetur voluptas inventore et voluptatem recusandae omnis. Voluptatem non corrupti eveniet et temporibus. Repellat beatae illum dolor voluptatem corporis non. Sequi quas molestiae eaque molestiae vitae exercitationem.

Career Advancement Opportunities

June 2024 Investment Banking

  • Jefferies & Company 02 99.4%
  • Perella Weinberg Partners New 98.9%
  • Lazard Freres 01 98.3%
  • Harris Williams & Co. 24 97.7%
  • Goldman Sachs 16 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

June 2024 Investment Banking

  • Harris Williams & Co. 18 99.4%
  • JPMorgan Chase 10 98.9%
  • Lazard Freres 05 98.3%
  • Morgan Stanley 05 97.7%
  • Moelis & Company 01 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

June 2024 Investment Banking

  • Lazard Freres 01 99.4%
  • Jefferies & Company 02 98.9%
  • Perella Weinberg Partners 18 98.3%
  • Goldman Sachs 16 97.7%
  • Moelis & Company 05 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

June 2024 Investment Banking

  • Director/MD (5) $648
  • Vice President (21) $373
  • Associates (92) $259
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (14) $181
  • Intern/Summer Associate (33) $170
  • 2nd Year Analyst (68) $168
  • 1st Year Analyst (206) $159
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (148) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
3
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
99.0
4
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
5
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
6
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
7
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
8
kanon's picture
kanon
98.9
9
Kenny_Powers_CFA's picture
Kenny_Powers_CFA
98.8
10
numi's picture
numi
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”