Good connections are becoming more important when it comes to getting a job in investment banking. One senior banking analyst says banks are being distilled down to three kinds of people: people who are good at maths and can structure products, people who are good at processes and can deal with compliance, and people who are good at relationships and can bring clients on board.
When it comes to relationship-building, it probably helps if you have family connections with some of the most esteemed industrialists in the country. On this measure, Leander Cadbury, an Eton-educated heir to the Cadbury chocolate fortune, should be a hot ticket for banks. Having sold out to Kraft for £10bn in 2009, the Cadbury family no longer have much to do with their eponymous empire, but they’re still one the biggest and best-connected names in Britain. And according to Tatler magazine, the chocolate-coated 22 year-old is, ‘hunting for a job in investment banking’ as we speak.
Cadbury’s CV reveals that he already has plenty of investment banking experience. Last summer, he interned in UBS’s equity sales business. The summer before that, he was a consultant with Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Two summers before that, he was an intern at Coutts & Co. He’s also completed the requisite insight weeks (at Goldman Sachs) and won the requisite prizes (at Deloitte’s official insight event). On top of this, he appears to be part of JPMorgan’s rugby team.
Despite all this, it seems Cadbury has yet to secure a definitive job in banking. He graduated this summer from Leeds University, with an MSc in financial mathematics and says he’s, ‘interviewing for full time roles to start in summer and autumn 2014.’
Leander Cadbury didn’t immediately respond to a request to comment on this article. However, the fact that he’s still searching for a banking job despite an impeccable pedigree, an array of banking internships and all the requisite academic achievements and prizes, just goes to show how hard it is to get into banking now. Especially if you don’t have the kinds of relationships that might catch banks’ attention from the outset.
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