In many cases, financial services firms and investment banks expect students who want to work for them in a financial career to complete an internship before they join. These internships come in several formats. In most cases, they are summer internships, which typically take place over a 10 or 12 week period during the summer months of a student's second year. At European banks, however, it is common for students to participate in far longer financial internships lasting for many months or even years. Often, these are part of a student's university course. Equally, week-long investment banking internships for first year university students are becoming more popular, with the intention of giving students a short introduction to the industry. Finally, for students who are unwilling or unable to undertake a summer internship, many banks are now offering a winter internship option as well. However, the summer internship remains the main route to getting a job.

It is common for the best students completing internships in financial services firms and investment banks to gain an offer of a full time graduate position, usually to start the following year after graduation. Successful interns return to join financial graduate training schemes. These schemes usually include both an element of classroom-based training and training on the job, with the latter often including rotations between different job functions so that students understand how the business works.

Investment banks are notoriously demanding when it comes to graduate and intern recruitment. They typically select university students with very strong academic qualifications and an ability to articulate precisely why they want to work in the industry. Students who are not successful in gaining an internship and then a job offer before they graduate may still be able to find a graduate role, but the process becomes much harder: many graduate finance jobs are filled by the previous year's interns.

This section includes both financial graduate jobs and internships related to financial services firms' investment banks' formal graduate training programmes and any graduate jobs and internships that appear on an ad hoc basis.