How to get a spring week in 2027: a step-by-step plan

If you are a first-year starting university this autumn, spring week applications for 2027 are already open, and banks read them in the order they arrive. Every week you wait, seats disappear. This is the complete plan, in the order to do it.

What a spring week is and why it matters more than it sounds

A spring week is a two-to-five-day insight programme at a bank, run over the Easter vacation, for first-year students (second-year on a four-year course). It sounds like a taster. It is actually a pre-interview for the summer internship: most large banks convert a significant share of their spring week class straight into penultimate-year internship offers, often with just one extra interview. And because summer interns are where graduate offers come from, a strong spring week in 2027 can settle your 2029 job in your first year of university.

Step 1: this week, finish the CV

One page. Academics at the top with grades, then work experience and positions of responsibility, then skills and interests. At this stage nobody expects finance experience; they expect evidence you finish things and hold responsibility — a part-time job, a sports captaincy, a society role, a project you ran. The most common CV mistake we see is describing duties instead of outcomes. "Worked on the school magazine" is a duty. "Edited a 40-page magazine to deadline with a team of six" is an outcome.

Step 2: pick eight to twelve firms and apply in waves

Do not send one application and wait, and do not carpet-bomb thirty firms with the same form. Choose eight to twelve across bulge brackets, elite boutiques and one or two smaller firms, and apply to your top choices in the first wave, this month if possible. Rolling review means September applications are read against a mostly empty class; December applications are read against a mostly full one.

Step 3: prepare for the online tests before they arrive

Most firms send numerical, logical or situational-judgement tests within days of your application. They are pass or fail, and they end more applications than interviews do. Practise before you apply, not after the email lands: the formats are learnable and the difference between an unprepared and a prepared attempt is large.

Step 4: the HireVue or video interview

The recorded video interview screens for two things: whether you can explain why banking and why this firm in a structured minute, and whether you know what the job actually involves. Prepare five stories from your life (a team, a challenge, a failure, a leadership moment, an achievement) and a clear, honest answer to why finance. Look at the camera, not the screen. Rehearse out loud; polished delivery on a mediocre answer beats a brilliant answer read off a second monitor.

Step 5: assessment centres and interviews

Later rounds vary by firm: some interview live, some run group exercises. At first-year level the technical bar is basic — what an investment bank does, what the divisions are, a view on a market story from the last month — but the competition bar is high on structure and enthusiasm. Being normal, prepared and genuinely curious carries more weight than memorised jargon.

If you are reading this late

Applications close between October and January depending on the firm, and some reopen or add places in the new year. A late application to a still-open firm with a strong CV beats no application. And if the 2027 cycle passes you by, the summer internship cycle in your penultimate year is the main event anyway — a spring week is a head start, not the only door.

The honest version of the odds

Acceptance rates at large banks are low single digits. That is not a reason to skip it; it is a reason to apply early, to more than one firm, and to treat each stage as something you prepare for rather than hope through. The candidates who win seats are rarely smarter. They started earlier and wasted fewer attempts.