Online applications puzzle Continental students
Online application forms are the biggest hurdle. Bank recruiters say many students at Italian and Spanish universities, in particular, are unfamiliar with online application forms. As most recruiting is now done online, this can be a problem.
A graduate recruitment manager at a large bank said: 'Students in Spain and Italy are not used to applying online. Their standard method of application is a CV, a cover letter, and wad of paper with a million references from everyone they have ever met.'
Application forms are not the only problem. Mark Blythe, managing director of the publisher GTI, which provides online application systems for investment banks, said the whole process of applying for a job in banking was unfamiliar to students in a number of European countries.
'The Anglo-Saxon method of recruitment is alien,' said Blythe. 'Recruitment in these countries is a lot more informal. Students have not encountered things like assessment centres and psychometric tests.'
Italian students sometimes do not take assessment centres seriously enough, he added.
Numeracy tests are often part of the online application procedure. Applicants who fail the tests are instantly rejected. Blythe said Italians were at risk of failing in disproportionate numbers, not through any lack of competence but as a result of their approach to the online process.
With hundreds of applications often being made for one place, no student - however talented - can afford to put themselves at such a dsisadvantage.
Some banks have decided to tackle the problem directly. UBS Warburg has run training sessions at Bocconi University in Italy to teach students how to handle online applications.
Sarah Watson, head of graduate recruitment at the bank, said the standard of applications had increased dramatically as a result.
Isabelle Lhuillier, director of the careers service at Bocconi, also said students had become more familiar with online application forms.
She said Bocconi gave students general advice on how to approach the forms. All applications to the university itself are now made online.
