Less is more when it comes to banking applications

It's easy to think that spreading your bets and applying to as many banks as possible is the key to ensuring you have at least one offer on the table. But you could end up empty handed.

How many is too many?

Fears of diminishing places on investment banking graduate schemes has led European students to start taking a scatter-gun approach.

Figures from research firm Trendence's European Student Barometer suggest students interested in working for an investment bank think they need to make an average of 21 applications. The equivalent average in the UK is slightly less, but is still high at 16.

Stephanie Ahrens, head of graduate recruitment at Morgan Stanley, thinks this is over-kill: "Students really need to consider their career goals and whether a particular bank can help them achieve this. I would suggest three - a US investment bank, a European investment bank and possibly a boutique as a third option."

James Patching, account manager UK at Trendence, confirms that moderation is the best policy: "Many big recruiters suggest that the very best students, in their experience, only make around three or four applications."

Attention to detail

The danger of spraying out loads of applications based on a cut-and-paste approach is that you'll probably make mistakes.

If you wax lyrical about Goldman Sachs in your application to Citigroup, or explain your passion for investment banking when applying to the wealth management division, you'll be rejected straight away. This might sound obvious, but such howlers are surprisingly common.

"It shows a lack of attention to detail and makes it obvious you're just trying your luck with as many banks or divisions as possible," says Ahrens.

Quality over quantity

You underestimate the amount of work an application takes at your peril - in applying to too many programmes you could be biting off more than you can chew.

"We've had a number of instances where the offer has been on the table, but because the student has spent so much time on the application process at so many banks, they've failed to get sufficient grades," says one grad recruiter.

Patching says that students who make more applications "have less time to dedicate to academic work, extra-curricular activity or preparing for interviews, all of which are more likely to get them the job."

Be sure you want it

Do you really want to work for the bank you're applying to? Why? You'd better have something better than HR clichés and sycophantic praise for the bank up your sleeve when you get to the interview.

"You do get asked quite a lot of questions about career commitment, and it's really obvious if you've done the scatter-gun approach - you can't do sufficient research about 50 companies," says Jane Clark, head if campus recruitment EMEA at Merrill Lynch.

"If you've only applied to three or four you genuinely want to join, you're going to be able to come up with better answers than the generic material that's available on the bank's website."