Career Tracks
Nobody draws this map for you. Most people piece it together from forum threads and a couple of coffee chats, then find out eighteen months in that the job they were working towards was not the one they actually wanted.
So here is the whole thing. What each job involves on an ordinary Tuesday, how people get in, and what it opens up afterwards. Pick any one and you will see what leads into it and where it goes next.
If the system these seats sit inside is still hazy, start with the industry map: who the participants are, and how capital, fees, advice and risk move between them.
10 tracks, one pressing
Every role in finance and tech, and how they connect
The bands run outward from the label: advisory closest to the centre because it is where most people start, the routes beyond the graduate scheme at the rim. Hover a band, or pick a track below.
Pick any role to see what leads into it and where it goes next.
Advisory
You work on the transaction. Someone else lives with it.
Consulting
You are bought to answer a question, and the answer has to survive the room.
Markets
The price is the product. You are hired by a desk, not just a firm.
Private Buy Side
You own the decision, and you are still there when it plays out.
Public Buy Side
Liquid, marked daily, and you find out quickly whether you were right.
Corporate
Inside one company, deciding what it does with its money.
Technology
The same analytical seats, different vocabulary and a shorter feedback loop.
Startups
A salary you can spend, equity you probably cannot, and a job that changes every quarter.
Independent Trading
There is no desk and no salary. You carry the loss, the costs and the tax return.
Your own business, not a jobCreator Businesses
An audience you own, a product you have to keep making, and revenue that follows attention.
Your own business, not a jobThe map is not a ladder
Almost nothing here is one-way. People move from banking to industry and back, from engineering into product, from consulting into a fund. The arrows show what is well-trodden, not what is permitted.
Timing beats preparation
Several of these recruit on fixed annual cycles that open earlier than anyone expects: PE on-cycle and APM programmes especially. Being ready in November for a process that closed in September is the most common way strong candidates miss.
What each one pays
Compensation by level across banking, private equity, hedge funds, venture capital and technology is on the compensation page, including what the cash figures leave out. Carry and equity are most of the story in three of those five.
Three routes beyond the graduate scheme
Startup employment is a job with equity on top. Trading your own capital and building a newsletter are businesses with no salary at all. They are different decisions with different risks, set out on the pathways pages.
The underrated routes
Equity research hires graduates directly and will teach you to write better than any other job on this page. FP&A is a real door into strategy and corporate development. BizOps gets you into the room where tech decisions are made without an engineering degree.
Where the doors actually open
Knowing the seat is half of it. Each track below carries the live programmes for one route, with the opening calendar and the application link on every row, and nothing stops you running two at once or switching as you learn.
Spring Weeks
Every spring week programme we track across investment banks and finance firms: opening dates, deadlines and application links, synced daily.
US insight programs
The American answer to a spring week: sophomore, freshman and diversity insight programs at US banks and funds, with the opening dates and the application link on every row.
Finance summer internships
Summer internship programmes across IB, PE, hedge funds, equity research and quant: opening dates, deadlines and application links, synced daily.
Off-cycle internships
Off-cycle and placement internships across finance: the openings most candidates never hear about, synced daily from firm career pages.
Graduate programmes
Graduate and new-grad programmes across finance and technology: opening dates, deadlines and application links, synced daily.
UK finance programmes
Every UK finance programme we track: spring weeks, summer internships, placements and graduate schemes with deadlines and links, synced daily.
US finance programmes
Every US finance programme we track: summer analyst roles, off-cycle openings and graduate positions with deadlines and links, synced daily.
Continental Europe finance programmes
Every continental European finance programme we track: summer internships and graduate schemes in Paris, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Zurich, Milan, Madrid and Luxembourg, with deadlines and links, synced daily.
Asia-Pacific finance programmes
Every Asia-Pacific finance programme we track: summer internships and graduate programmes in Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, Sydney, Shanghai and Mumbai, with deadlines and links, synced daily.
Investment banking roles
Every investment banking programme we track: spring weeks, summer internships, off-cycle and graduate analyst roles, with deadlines and links synced daily.
Private equity roles
Private equity analyst programmes, internships and off-cycle seats across mega funds and mid-market firms, with opening dates and application links synced daily.
Hedge fund roles
Hedge fund internships, analyst programmes and graduate seats across multi-strategy platforms and single-manager funds, with opening dates and application links synced daily.
New grad software engineering roles
New graduate and internship software engineering roles, read daily from each employer’s own careers system. Opening dates, locations, levels and what each process tests.
Data science and machine learning roles
Graduate and internship data science, analytics and machine learning roles, synced daily from employers’ own careers systems, with what each loop actually tests.
Quant roles
Quantitative trading, research and development programmes: internships and new-grad roles at trading firms and funds, synced daily.
Know the job. Now do the reps.
Every track has technical work behind it. The Labs are free drills on the concepts each one tests, and the Skills library is the same work in the format the job actually uses.
Know which one you want. Now catch it opening.
Whichever track you are aiming at, the applications for it open on dates the employers publish late or not at all. We watch every one of them and email you the day yours goes live.
One email when applications open, plus a short weekly round-up in season. Free, and you can leave at any point.