Choosing a division
Sales and Trading vs Investment Banking
Both sit inside an investment bank and both recruit heavily from UK universities, but the daily work is very different. This is how they compare and how to decide which to apply for.
The core difference
Investment banking is advisory. Bankers help companies, governments and financial sponsors raise money and buy or sell businesses. A deal can take months from first pitch to completion, and the work is analysis, documents and client meetings around a single transaction.
Sales and trading serves investors. Salespeople and traders help asset managers, hedge funds, pension funds, insurers and corporates buy, sell and hedge financial products, live and all day, with a profit and loss figure at the end of it. Feedback arrives the same day.
Side by side
| Investment banking | Sales and trading | |
|---|---|---|
| Main clients | Companies, governments, private equity sponsors | Asset managers, hedge funds, pension funds, insurers, corporates |
| Rhythm | Deal cycles, quiet then very busy | Market hours, with an early start |
| Feedback | Weeks to months | Same day |
| Core skills | Financial modelling, valuation, writing, attention to detail | Numeracy, quick judgement, market knowledge, concise communication |
| Typical first-year work | Models, pitch books, due diligence support | Booking trades, risk and P&L checks, morning notes, client support |
| Hours | Long, and unpredictable during live deals | Demanding, but anchored to the market day |
| Interview technicals | Accounting, valuation, deal questions | Market awareness, products, brain teasers |
Pay and progression
Both pay well at graduate level, and both make more of your pay variable as you move up. On a trading desk the bonus follows the desk's results and the state of the market, so it can swing more from year to year. I have left out figures because they change every year and differ by bank and desk.
Exit opportunities
People leave both for the buy side, for corporates and for start-ups. Investment bankers have a well-worn route into private equity. People in sales and trading move to hedge funds and asset managers, or stay and build a career on the desk, moving from analyst to associate to vice president and beyond. Choosing a division for its exits is a weak reason, because most of your first few years will be spent doing the job itself.
Which one rewards which skills
Investment banking rewards the ability to stay with a detailed piece of work for days and produce accurate models and slides under time pressure. Sales and trading rewards making a call with incomplete information, explaining it in twenty seconds, and staying steady when it turns out wrong.
How to decide
- Do you read market news without being asked? If you follow rates, currencies or equities out of curiosity, S&T will feel natural. If you would rather read about how a company was built or sold, investment banking may suit you better.
- Would you prefer to know today whether you were right, or to build something over months?
- Would you rather sit at a screen with a client on the phone, or in a room working on a presentation?
- Are you comfortable deciding with information missing and then defending it?
Talk to people in both. A fifteen-minute call with an analyst on a desk and another with an analyst in a deal team will tell you more than another article.
Can you apply to both?
Yes, and many applicants do in the first year or two. By the time you reach the summer internship, your applications should tell a coherent story. Interviewers will ask why you chose their division, and "why sales and trading and not investment banking" is a standard question. Saying you like fast-paced environments tells them nothing, since every applicant says it. A specific answer names something you did, such as following a market closely, taking part in a trading simulation or speaking to someone on a desk, and says what you liked about it.
Your technical preparation will differ. Investment banking interviews lean on accounting and valuation. Sales and trading interviews lean on markets, products and mental maths. Behavioural preparation overlaps, but the rest does not, so decide early where to put your time.
Next, read what sales and trading actually is, or go straight to the UK application timeline.
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