Hi Brij I myself have the same question about breaking into IB. So can you please tell me how you managed your further education in Australia and did you break into IB PE

Yes, banks tend to prefer graduates from the Group of 8 universities. I can’t say whether or not it’s worthwhile to transfer to one of them because I don’t know how the timing and costs differ in Australia. But if you can transfer early on without paying a lot more, I would assume it’s worth it if your goal is IB.

Getting into the U.S. as an Australian graduate is extremely difficult because of all the standard work visa issues and the fact that, unlike Canadians, there’s no “backdoor” work option for Australians that want to work in the U.S. (no equivalent of the TN-1 visa). If you want to do this, you should either go to a U.S. university, major in STEM, and use the OPT program to gain work eligibility after graduation or work in Australia at a large firm and then ask for an internal transfer to the U.S.

Thanks for your article. I have a couple of questions…

Would banks prefer a graduate from one of the Go8 universities in Sydney, such as the University of Sydney or UNSW Sydney, compared to say the University of Queensland; I’m currently studying a commerce degree at the University of Queensland and wondering whether it would be worth it to transfer to Sydney.

Also, how difficult is it to break into the US market as an Australian graduate? I of course would love to move over to the US after graduation but figured it would not be possible.

I would greatly appreciate your help figuring this out.

Many thanks,
Theodorus

I would definitely pick the UK. It is much better than Australia in almost every way if you’re just starting out in IB or other finance careers. Maybe infrastructure investing is better in AU, but even there, I’m not so sure.

Thanks. I’ve thought about New Zealand before but there is very little search traffic (1/20th the volume of searches for IB in Australia, so not really worth the time/effort required).

Thanks for this article, it’s awesome!

Have you considered writing an article on the investment banking scope in New Zealand?

Thanks. Sorry to hear about your experience, but I’m glad that you can confirm this article is accurate for Australia… it really is a bad market.

It all comes down to either being an absolute all-round genius or having connections to make it in finance here. What’s worse, it is impossible to work your way up despite having smaller transactional experience + self-learnt financial modelling skills as recruitment for experienced hires at investment banks is always from those who already worked at an investment bank before and you can’t apply for the graduate programs/internships if you’re not a student! Chicken-Egg problem….