Spring weeks explained: the first-year door into London investment banking

What a spring week is

A spring week, formally a spring insight programme, is a short paid placement that a London bank runs during the Easter vacation for students at the start of their degrees. It lasts from three days to two weeks. It consists of presentations from each division, shadowing on a desk or in a deal team, a group exercise or case, networking sessions with analysts and senior bankers, and, at the end, an assessment or an interview. The bank pays a daily rate and usually travel, and treats the week as the first stage of recruiting for the summer internship fifteen months later.

The programmes exist because of the British degree structure. On a three-year degree, the penultimate year is the second year, so the summer internship that leads to a full-time offer is recruited in the autumn of the second year, when students have been at university for twelve months. Banks wanted a way to see candidates earlier, and students wanted a way to find out what the divisions did before committing to one. The spring week answers both. It has no real equivalent in the United States, where the earliest programmes are sophomore-year diversity and early-identification schemes, and only a loose equivalent in continental Europe, where some banks run insight days in Frankfurt or Paris.

Almost every large bank in London runs them, as do many mid-sized and some boutique firms, and they are not confined to investment banking: markets, asset management, wealth management, research, technology, operations and risk divisions all take spring-week participants, and several banks run rotational programmes that cover more than one.

Who is eligible

The programmes are aimed at students in the first year of a three-year degree or the second year of a four-year one, which the banks define by the number of years remaining rather than by the degree title. Some banks also accept students in the first year of a master's degree. Eligibility is set per programme and published on its page; it includes the right to work in the United Kingdom for the dates of the programme, which rules out some international students at non-British universities and lets in others. Diversity-focused spring programmes exist with their own criteria. The practical rule is to read the eligibility statement for each programme before applying and not to assume it matches another bank's.

Students at universities outside the United Kingdom can and do attend. The banks' lists lean towards British universities, but the application is open and a strong candidate from a continental or Irish university with the right to work is treated like any other.

The calendar

Applications open in late August and September of the first year, which means the student has been at university for a few weeks at most when the window opens, and in several cases before term begins. Most programmes close between October and December, but the review is rolling: applications are read as they arrive and places are offered as candidates pass, so a complete application in the first fortnight meets more open seats than an identical one in November. The selection process runs through the autumn and into January. The programmes themselves take place in March and April. Fast-track interviews for the following summer's internship can follow within weeks of the programme, and some banks make summer offers before the main application round opens in August.

The implication for a student who is reading this in the first week of term is that the deadline is now. For a student reading it in February of the first year, the window has closed for this cycle and the next section is the relevant one.

I'll start my second year as an undergraduate at Regent's Business School London in early September and I want you to know that it would be more than a previlege for me to help and contribute to the Academy in any way possible.

The application and the selection process

The spring week process is a smaller version of the summer internship process, and the interview guide covers the stages in full. For a first-year the shape is:

1. The online form. Personal details, education, work experience if any, positions of responsibility, and usually a cover letter or short answers: why this bank, why this division, what you know about the industry. Banks do not expect a first-year to have finance experience. They expect evidence of initiative, an accurate understanding of what the divisions do, and a reason for choosing them that is not a paraphrase of their website.
2. Online tests. Numerical reasoning and situational-judgement tests, or a game-based assessment. These are learnable and the single most common point of failure for strong candidates who did not practise. A fortnight of daily practice before applying is the cheapest improvement available.
3. The recorded video interview. Questions appear on screen; the candidate records answers with a short preparation time. The questions are motivational: why banking, why this bank, a time you worked in a team, something you have read about markets recently.
4. An interview or assessment day. Some banks make spring-week offers after the video stage. Others run a short interview with an analyst or a half-day assessment with a group exercise. Technical questions, if any, are basic: what the divisions do, what a bank is for, perhaps a question about a deal in the news.

The candidate who stands out at this stage is not the one who has learned the most finance. It is the one who can say clearly what a markets division does and what an investment banking division does, has an opinion about which they would rather see, has read the financial press for a few months and can mention something in it, and has joined and done something in a society or a job. The Investment Banking Foundations course is designed for exactly that level of preparation; the full Investment Banking Course is for the summer-internship stage that follows.

During the week

A spring week is an assessment that is presented as an introduction, and the students who do best treat it as both. The bank is watching for the same things it will test in the summer: curiosity, reliability, how a person behaves in a group, whether they listen, whether they are easy to have around. Practically: arrive early every day, dress as the analysts dress, ask questions in the sessions that show you have listened to the previous one, take part in the group exercise without dominating it, and use the networking sessions to ask analysts about their work rather than to collect business cards. Keep a note each evening of who you spoke to and what they said; it is the raw material of the summer application. At the end there is usually a short interview, an assessment conversation, or a feedback form; it is the point at which the fast track is decided.

Not only did I learn the basics of modeling but also got an inside scoop into the Investment Banking division of a bank.

As of now I am going back to London and taking it from there.

What a spring week converts into

The prize is the fast track. A strong participant is invited to interview for the following summer's internship in the division they chose, often within weeks, before the main round opens, and sometimes the invitation is to an assessment centre or straight to an offer. A summer internship in the penultimate year then leads, for most interns who perform, to a full-time graduate offer at the end of it. The chain from spring week to first job can therefore be set in motion at eighteen or nineteen, which is why the programmes matter more than their length suggests.

Three qualifications. The fast track is a fast track to an interview, not to a job: candidates fail summer interviews after good spring weeks every year. A spring week at one bank does not transfer; other banks will see it on the CV as a mild positive and nothing more. And the conversion rates are not published, vary by bank and by year, and should not be assumed to be high. The honest way to think about it is that a spring week moves a candidate from the general pool into a smaller pool at one bank, with a known process ahead.

If you do not get one, or did not know

Most summer interns in London did not do a spring week at the bank that hired them, and many did none at all. The spring week is an advantage, not a requirement, and the summer application round in the second year is open to everyone. A student without a spring week should do the following, in order.

• Apply for summer internships in the first fortnight of the second-year window, in late August or early September, having practised the tests in July. The rolling review rewards early applications regardless of spring-week history.
• Build evidence instead. A spring week proves interest and exposure. A modeling portfolio, a finance-society role, a case competition or a short placement at a smaller firm proves the same things, and some of them prove more. The non-target guide sets out how.
• Widen the list. Mid-sized banks, boutiques, asset managers and the London offices of European banks run summer internships with less competition and the same conversion logic.
• Use the off-cycle route. Off-cycle internships of three to six months are open to penultimate-year students on degrees that allow a placement year, to master's students and to graduates; the off-cycle guide explains them.
• Do not manufacture a story about it. Nobody at a summer interview will ask why you did not do a spring week. If asked what you did in the first year instead, have an answer that is true and interesting.

The equivalents elsewhere

In the United States, the earliest contact with a bank is usually a first- or second-year diversity programme or an early-identification scheme, both with their own applications, or an informational conversation arranged through a university network. The summer analyst process itself begins in the spring of the second year of a four-year degree, as the timeline guide describes. In continental Europe some banks run one- or two-day insight events in Frankfurt, Paris or Milan, and a few run multi-day programmes modeled on the London ones, but the first serious contact is more often an internship application. A student at a continental university who wants the spring-week route can apply to the London programmes, subject to the right to work, and a number do.

The lesson that transfers across all three markets is the same one the spring week teaches in London: the system rewards people who find out how it works a year before they need to use it.

Questions people ask

Can international students apply for spring weeks?

Yes, if they are studying at a university in the United Kingdom or, at some banks, in Europe, and have the right to work in the UK for the duration. The eligibility criteria are on each programme page; read them before applying rather than assuming.

Can I do more than one spring week?

Yes, if the dates do not clash. Many banks run programmes in different weeks of the Easter vacation and students sometimes attend two. Accepting more than you can attend and withdrawing late damages your standing with the bank you let down.

Are spring weeks only for investment banking?

No. Most large banks run them across divisions: investment banking, markets, asset management, technology, operations and others, and some are deliberately rotational so that first-years can compare.

What if my university does not run a three-year degree?

The rule is about how many years remain, not the degree length. A student in the second year of a four-year programme, or the first year of a three-year one, is the usual target; check each bank's definition.