J.P. Morgan is the biggest of the bulge brackets, and that shapes everything about applying. The intake is large, the process is very standardised, and you will be one of an enormous number of applicants. Size works in your favour in one way: there are more places, across more divisions and more offices, than almost anywhere else.
Pick the division before you apply
Because J.P. Morgan is so big, "J.P. Morgan" on its own isn't an application. You apply to a specific programme, and the main ones for undergraduates who want banking are:
- Investment Banking (the classic M&A and capital markets analyst role)
- Markets (sales and trading)
- Asset & Wealth Management
- Corporate Analyst Development Programme and the technology programmes, which are separate tracks and recruit separately
Read each description properly. I've seen a lot of CVs tuned for M&A sent to Markets, and the bullets read wrong for it. A Markets CV should show you follow markets and can think quickly with numbers. An IB CV should show deal-type work and modelling.
Programmes and timing
| Programme | Who it's for | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Spring week | First-years | Opens early, usually autumn |
| Summer analyst | Penultimate-years | About 10 weeks; most graduate offers come from here |
| Graduate analyst | Final-years | Fewer places, since the summer class fills most of them |
Apply in the first week. Like most banks, J.P. Morgan seems to look at applications as they arrive, and a big intake doesn't stop popular programmes filling early.
The process
Expect an online application, an online assessment (it has used a game-style test in the past), a recorded video interview, then an assessment centre or superday. The early stages are heavily automated because of the volume. That has one practical consequence: your CV has to parse cleanly. No tables, no columns, no text boxes, no graphics. A beautifully designed CV that the system reads as a mess never reaches a person.
What gets you through the CV screen
At a bank this size the first human read is fast. They're looking for the anchors: university, predicted grade, firm names, job titles, numbers.
- Put your predicted grade on the education line, not in a sentence further down.
- Name the deal size in your strongest bullet. "A £60m acquisition" registers in a second; "several transactions" doesn't.
- If you've been on a spring week or insight programme anywhere, list it. It tells them you've already passed someone's screen.
- Show interest in finance even if your degree is in something else. An investment society role does more here than another module name.
If you're applying from outside the UK
J.P. Morgan hires into London from all over the world, and into its offices in Hong Kong, Mumbai and elsewhere. If you studied outside the UK, convert your grades for the reader (a GPA out of 4, a CGPA out of 10 or 5, a gaokao score) and give a percentile or class equivalent next to it. Don't leave a London screener to work out what 8.7 means.