I just ended my last UoL exam 3 days ago, but I may not be able to secure a job by end June.
One particular comment received from an interviewer was the lack of internships among SIM students, and that places them at a disadvantage.
The usual responses among some of my friends are: "internship is cheap labor...might as well do part time job" or "it's quite late to do internship".
However I realize that there were also many good examples. There was a UoL Business graduate who is working as Business Development Manager at a foreign bank.
There were others who secured summer internships with banks and performed well such that they are able to start work after exams. There are others who had done ACCA, CFA, CFMS and many other qualifications while they were still students.
The point is that, if you seek to enter banking industry but had not done the necessary preparations in your undergrad years (SIM or otherwise), you are unlikely to be able to make it in any specialized banking function, be it M&A, Risk, Compliance, Equity, Treasury, Transaction Banking and Operations (yes, even Ops too) now.
Then again, the banking sector is not as "evergreen" as before. The pie is getting smaller as regulation tightens and hurts the bottom line of banks, which are made worse by the credit glut prevalent across the global economy now. I'm not a doomsday prophet, but it should be no secret by now that job security and advancement opportunities are not the general case for most of the rank and file in the banking sector (I'm not talking about the elites though).
I'm still looking for a job. In the meantime, I'll perhaps pick up some useful skills like learning how to code and speak french, whilst volunteering for non-profit/startup by carrying out corporate functions for free (to build up portfolio).
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