How to Get Into Sales and Trading in the UK

The route in one paragraph

Most people go from a spring week in first year, to a summer internship in penultimate year, to a graduate offer that comes from converting the internship. You can skip the first step. The internship is the one that matters most, because at most banks it is the main way graduate places get filled.

Spring weeks

A spring week is a short insight programme, usually a few days over Easter, aimed at first-year students at most banks. Eligibility varies, so read each programme's page. You learn how the bank is organised, meet people from the desks, and get an early look at the recruiting process. Some banks give spring week alumni a shortcut in later rounds, and others treat everyone the same.

You do not need one. Plenty of people who end up on a trading floor applied straight to the summer internship.

Summer internships

Summer internships are aimed at penultimate-year students and run for around ten weeks. You rotate through the team, work on live projects, and are assessed throughout. At most banks a strong summer is the direct route to a graduate offer, which is why this is the application to put the most work into.

Graduate programmes

Final-year students can apply directly to the graduate programme. At many banks returning interns fill a large share of the seats, so the odds are harder than for the internship. If you have missed the internship window, apply anyway, and keep a wider set of routes open as well: smaller banks, boutiques, or moving across into markets after a first job elsewhere.

What the application process looks like

The stages differ by bank, and some drop or add one, but the usual sequence is:

1. An online application: your CV, short written answers and eligibility questions.
2. Online tests: numerical reasoning, verbal reasoning and situational judgement, all timed.
3. A video interview: recorded answers to set questions, usually with very little preparation time.
4. An assessment centre or superday: several interviews back to back, sometimes with a group exercise or a markets exercise.

Read the bank's own process page before you apply, because the format changes from year to year.

When to apply

Applications typically open from late summer and run through the autumn. Summer internships tend to open between about August and November, and spring weeks between October and December. Many banks review applications as they arrive and can fill places before the stated deadline, so sending yours in during the first week or two is safer than waiting for the last day.

Exact dates move every year. Check each bank's careers page, or join the free alerts below so you hear when a window opens.

What to do before applications open

• Learn what the job is. The guide to what sales and trading is covers the basics, and Module 1 of the course goes deeper.
• Start a daily markets habit. Read the FT, Reuters or Bloomberg, and write two lines each day on what moved and why. After a month you will have a real record of the market to draw on in interviews.
• Practise the online tests. They are usually the first cut, and the format gets easier with repetition.
• Rework your CV with numbers and evidence of interest in markets, such as a society role, a simulation or a portfolio you followed.
• Talk to people. Short, specific messages to alumni who work on desks get more replies than long ones.
• Draft your answers to the standard motivation questions, starting with why sales and trading and why this bank. The interview questions guide covers what to expect.

Roughly, how the year runs

The summer before you apply is for learning the products and building the news habit. Autumn is applications and online tests. Late autumn through winter brings video interviews and assessment centres, in waves as each bank works through its applicants. Offers follow in the weeks after. Because gaps between stages can be long, keep reading the markets throughout, since your knowledge needs to be current on the day you are interviewed and not the day you applied.

If you do not have a finance degree

You do not need one. I wrote a separate guide on getting in without a finance degree, including how to prove numeracy and how to explain your subject in an interview.