Interview skills, applications and career insight

These pages are written for students and early-career candidates chasing competitive graduate schemes, internships and entry-level roles - spring weeks and summer analyst programmes in the UK, sophomore and junior internships in the US, and the first full-time seats that follow. If you are staring at a blank application, rehearsing for a case interview, or trying to work out whether a career is right for you before you commit two years to it, this is where to start. The focus throughout is on what wins offers at real firms, not generic careers-service advice.

Every article sits in one of four categories that map to the recruiting journey. Interview skills cover the rounds themselves - case interviews, behavioural and competency questions, technical finance, and the delivery that turns a good answer into an offer. Applications cover the work that gets you in front of a human in the first place: CVs and resumes, cover letters, networking and referrals. Explainers answer the plain-English questions - what private equity actually is, how a bank's divisions fit together, how a career progresses. Career insight is the honest part: day-in-the-life reality, exit opportunities, hours and the trade-offs nobody puts in the brochure.

Guidance is dual-market from top to bottom. Where the UK and US diverge, both are covered on the same page rather than split across separate sites: a CV in London and a resume in New York, an assessment centre versus a superday, salaries quoted in pounds and in dollars, and the UK's structured spring-week-to-graduate pipeline against the US's sophomore-internship-to-return-offer model. Where a rule only applies in one market, we say so.

The fastest way to use the library is to jump to the category that matches where you are stuck. Early in the process, start with applications and explainers so you apply to the right places with a document that survives the screen. Closer to an interview, move to interview skills and drill the format you will actually face. Read career insight before you accept anything, so you sign the offer with your eyes open. Every page carries worked examples you can borrow the structure of, and links across to the firm, sector and assessment guides where the same advice gets specific.