Choosing between them

updated 30 sep 2026 · 6 notes · 1 figure · 3 min read · 13 sources tool

Five markets, and the choice is usually made by constraints before preferences: your passport, your languages and where you are in your degree. Every rule below links back to a city page and its sources.

The five markets, side by side

LondonThe default.
- Summer class, apply Aug-Sep
- English
- No bonus cap since Oct 2023
- Graduate visa
FrankfurtDACH deals.
- Rolling off-cycle
- German required
- EU bonus cap
- Blue Card €50,700
ParisLocal houses lead by count.
- Six-month stage in-degree
- School agreement required
- EU bonus cap
MilanBig Four lead by count.
- Off-cycle before graduating
- EU bonus cap
Zurich & GenevaOne home bank.
- Non-EU: highly qualified only
- Geneva: wealth and commodities

Summarised from the five city pages on this site, each of which carries the underlying sources and dates. Only facts those pages source are shown; a blank is a gap in the research, not a “no”.

toolwhich city fits you

Passport

Where you are

Also true of me

I speak GermanUK degreeExits matter most

ParisOpen to you
- An internship of up to six months per academic year, paid beyond two months.
MilanOpen to you
- Recruiting runs through an off-cycle internship in the last six months before graduating.
Zurich & GenevaOpen to you
- The highly qualified test applies only to people from outside the EU and EFTA.
- Geneva is a wealth-management and commodity-finance centre, not a second M&A market.
LondonPossible, with a condition
- English is enough; other languages are an advantage.
- A Skilled Worker visa, so the bank has to sponsor you. The salary floor (£41,700) is below any analyst package.
FrankfurtHard for you
- Internships are open to German speakers; German is the working language inside the teams.
- No work permit needed.
- Offices take interns year-round on off-cycle internships, so there is no single autumn deadline.

Every line is a sourced fact from the city pages, which carry the sources and dates; a condition the pages do not cover - a French or Italian language requirement, say - is left out rather than guessed.

Without an EU passport, the permit decides first^1-3
The UK’s Graduate visa gives two years after a UK degree if applied for by 31 December 2026, 18 months from 1 January 2027. Germany’s Blue Card needs €50,700 in 2026, or €45,934.20 for recent graduates, which any analyst salary clears. Switzerland admits non-EU workers only if highly qualified and only after the employer shows no Swiss or EU/EFTA candidate fits - for a graduate, the hardest of the three.
Without the local language, it is London^4-6
Frankfurt internships are open to German speakers, and German is the working language inside the teams even when the documents are in English; London programmes ask for English alone. For a candidate with English only, London is the realistic market, and languages become an advantage there rather than a requirement.
For the widest exits, London^6-8
London is rated the best city for exits after New York: every US mega-fund has an office there, as do the European funds - Ardian, BC Partners, Bridgepoint, Cinven, CVC, EQT, PAI, Permira. Pay runs about 30% below New York, but the UK removed the bonus cap from 31 October 2023 while every EU city on this list still has it.
Missed the summer cycle, still in a degree: the continent^4,9,10
Frankfurt takes interns quarter by quarter on rolling applications; a Paris internship can run up to six months per academic year but must sit inside a degree under a school agreement; Milan converts off-cycle interns in the last months before graduation. London has its own six-month off-cycle internships starting in January or July; the continent adds more entry points on top of them.
Pick the market by who leads it^11,12
By number of deals in 2025, Rothschild & Co led Europe (119) and France (139); in Italy the Big Four advisory arms led, with Mediobanca the top bank; in Switzerland UBS did 37 deals, more than any other adviser in the value top ten. Count tells you where the volume of work is; value tells you who wins the largest mandates.
Geneva is not a second Zurich¹³
Geneva’s financial centre describes itself by asset management, commodity trade finance and commercial banking. It is the right choice for those careers, not a fallback for an M&A candidate who missed Zurich or London.

sources (13)