From a non-finance student to securing roles at Bank of America and UBS

I am a current undergraduate at the University of Cambridge reading Modern and Medieval Languages, more precisely French and German. My degree is a 4-year course, which includes a compulsory Year Abroad in the 3rd year.

At my university, the planning of the Year Abroad is entrusted to students, allowing them to design it in a way that will best help them advance their language-, and academic- or professional interests. Given my aspiration for a career in finance, I decided to use my Year Abroad to my advantage and focus on the development of my professional skills whilst undertaking 3 internships abroad.

At the moment, I am based in Munich, Germany where I am completing a full-time internship in the legal sector, working as a Legal Administrative Assistant at Zimmermann & Partner - a European Patent law firm, as well as a part-time internship with a focus on Investor Relations at a private equity fund TopCap Partners Europe GmbH.

In January, I will be moving to Paris, France, where I will be spending the remaining part of my Year Abroad interning at a Paris-based hedge fund Varenne Capital Partners, in the role of a Portfolio Manager Assistant, following which, I will be returning back to London to join UBS as a Global Markets Summer Analyst and complete my final year at Cambridge before graduating in the summer of 2025.

My interest in finance stemmed from my completion of the Economics A-level course in sixth form, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and following which, I became very interested in trading and started learning about the analysis of the financial markets during the summer holidays.

With that being said, I wasn't considering a career in finance until I met the AmplifyME team, who introduced me to the corporate application of my interest in finance during one of the flagship Finance Accelerator simulations, where I found out what banking careers are all about and the scope of professional possibilities in the finance sector.

Truth be told, I knew very close to nothing before joining AmplifyME for the Summer Analyst Training Programme.

I had just completed a Finance Accelerator simulation, which I initially became interested in due to my passion for proprietary trading, and I wanted to discover more about the different pathways in the front office of an investment bank having found out that trading was one of the functions.

I was keen to understand how investment banks worked and delve into the operations of different divisions to explore my potential interest in a finance career and figure out where I could best apply my skills.

I really enjoyed all technical coverage during the programme - whether it was Excel modelling during the M&A week, trading during the Sales & Trading unit, or portfolio mapping during the Asset Management module.

As a non-finance student, I find technical skills to be the most challenging to acquire consistently, and the AmplifyME programme gave me the platform to learn them systematically, leaving me with plenty of extra material to study independently after the completion of the programme, which was immensely helpful for continued progression.

Take the time to learn about what you actually want to do if going into finance, especially banking.

From my experience, everyone who hears investment banking thinks M&A and starts applying completely in isolation, without assessing their strengths and weaknesses and understanding how they could suit and complement different divisions or exploring which banking function they actually like.

Having gained some experience in all three divisions (M&A, S&T and AM) on the AmplifyME programme, I was better able to explain my interest in Global Markets during my summer internship interviews by comparing different skill sets required in each role and explaining why mine are ideal for Global Markets as well as how I came to conclude that in action.

I also think it is vital that you make a habit of constantly learning about finance whether it's through different courses or reading as this will make a huge difference during applications, especially when it comes to interviews.

Take the time to learn about what you actually want to do if going into finance, especially banking.

From my experience, everyone who hears investment banking thinks M&A and starts applying completely in isolation, without assessing their strengths and weaknesses and understanding how they could suit and complement different divisions or exploring which banking function they actually like.

Having gained some experience in all three divisions (M&A, S&T and AM) in the AmplifyME programme, I was better able to explain my interest in Global Markets during my summer internship interviews by comparing different skill sets required in each role and explaining why mine are ideal for Global Markets as well as how I came to conclude that in action.

I also think it is vital that you make a habit of constantly learning about finance whether it's through different courses or reading as this will make a huge difference during applications, especially when it comes to interviews.