IB: Milan vs. London (+ Profile Evaluation)
Hello everyone, I hope you are having a good day!
(This is my first post on WSO)
I would appreciate it if anyone with sufficient free time and knowledge could provide insights on whether I should choose Milan or London as a destination to begin my career in IB.
This post is based on the assumption that I will be able to land an offer, however, I would also appreciate an evaluation of my profile and what chances I have to get into the industry.
The questions are numbered at the bottom of the post, please feel free to answer any of those :)
There isn’t much (up-to-date) information that I could find online that concerns compensation, work hours, company/team culture, etc. between the two locations.
Here is a summary of my situation:
- I’m an Italian student majoring in finance at Bocconi University, currently in my final year of a 3-year BSc with a decent GPA (28.8/30) and aiming to graduate with 110/110
- I had a six-month finance internship in a top 10 company of the F100 during my penultimate year of BSc
- I will begin my MSc in Finance at Bocconi (I will probably major in either Investment banking or quantitative finance) in Sept. 2023; it is a 2-year program, so I’m aiming to get an SA position for 2024 (which would be in my penultimate year)
- I live in Milan with my brother. Rent is low relative to London and my parents provide for it; this means that if I worked in Milan, I’d be willing to accept a (significantly) lower salary since I would not have to pay rent.
My questions are the following:
1) If I managed to land a summer internship in Milan, would I be constrained to work in Milan if I obtained a full-time offer, or would I be able to choose London?
2) If I obtained a full-time offer in Milan, but eventually decided I’d want to change location within the same bank, is it a common (and practically doable) thing to relocate from Milan to - say - London, NYC, Dubai, etc.
3) Does anyone know if competition to land an SA position is higher in London (where I reckon most continental European students aim to work) or Milan (where positions are - I assume - remarkably less)?
4) Bocconi has an extensive alumni network in London. Does anyone know how I could leverage that to facilitate getting a position there?
(from what I have read on WSO, it works differently between the U.S. and Europe; it seems - correct me if I’m wrong - that networking is much less needed to land an offer in Europe)
4) What is the presence of Middle-market and Elite Boutique IBs in Milan compared to London? I’m not going to apply to BBs only, as I want to maximize my chances.
5) Are Milan's work hours as “bad” as London's (deal flow is - again, I assume - probably lower)
6) If I ended up working in IB in Milan eventually (either by choice or because it’s the only location I could find an internship), would my growth aspects in the industry be hampered (or slowed)?
7) Does anyone know how much an A1 analyst on average would get in Milan compared to London?
8) If anyone has worked in both locations (or knows someone who has), how does the team culture differ between the two?
9) The U.S. has Superday, the U.K. has an assessment center; what does Milan have in the final stage of the recruiting process?
It would be interesting to know what you’d do if you were in my situation.
Do you suggest to apply to both locations to maximize my chances?
I hope this post can be useful for other Italians or any people interested in working in Milan.
Thank you in advance for your attention and availability!
Bump
Bump
You can find answers to 99% of these on the inverter
1) Absolutely not. Extremely common to start in Milan and then go to London
2) Doable to London and Dubai. More challenging to NY
3) Yes, London process is more challenging. Much more random process
4) You leverage the Bocconi network mainly by being considered a “target student”. This means that no place in Europe will ever turn you down because of your uni.
You are right about networking, it’s not really a thing in London.
But you can always chat with alumni to ask for advice. In very rare cases this could lead to a fast track in the application process.
Thank you very much for taking your time to answer my questions, I appreciate it!
bump from a fellow italian
A1 Base pay is around 80-85k euros which is higher than London though the bonus can be lower
Thank you for the insight!
that translates to 70k GBP so not really higher than London base, but COL is lower so you could save more ig
Depends on the bank but London base is lower than base in continental europe
Taxes in Italy are brutal though
Do you know the Agnelli family? If so, stay in Milan. If not, go to London.
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