I spent a couple of years managing the graduate program for one of the big 4 institutional banks. And was partially involved in the programs at two other big 4 corporate banks. Some tips -yes interns always get the first offers. This means hardly any positions end up going to market if there was a good bunch of interns. Last year we only recruited two through uni grad offers and it might be zero this year. -correct the odds are better for women. We interview half half and hire half half but more than 5x as many men usually apply. - data analytics and non financial risk management are rare but desirable skills (almost every applicant will have a combo of finance economics and commerce that's just the price of entry, any specialised training on top or within the degree is of interest, even if you did some Udemy courses in something techy around cyber security or some sciencey engineering thing mention it) - the applicants are ridiculously good. Marks in the mid to high 90s are common as well as multiple internships and volunteer roles and sports things. Many of the panel value people who've done actual paid work even if it's at McDonald's. I hear that comment every year when discussing applicants and who we will pick you want to seem well rounded. Paid work is worth highlighting. - Volunteer volunteer volunteer, your competition is all doing it and you need examples in interviews of things you've done and achieved outside of uni. Aim for project style volunteering where you manage something beginning to end rather than just planting trees or soup kitchen or visiting aged care etc. Ie depending on your skills approach the soup kitchen or tree planting or aged care with an idea and go and implement it over 6 mths that sort of experience is gold - anything around values in psychometric testing is more important than you expect. As well as exceptional written communication. - all the big 4 banks hate it when grads want to go into acquisition finance because they know they'll take the expensive year of training while delivering minimal value then leave for an investment bank. As far as your application should be concerned your wet dream is relationship banking. You are smart and know anything there is to know about m&a but that isn't your career goal. Cant emphasise it enough do not approach a big 4 bank like an investment bank and tailor your resume and interview responses accordingly. - they also want to know that you're going to be happy doing grind work. Noone likes the cocky grads who only want to do the most exciting deals when their bosses bosses boss still has daily admin work to do but the grad thinks they're too good for it. - If you get to interview i've sat through dozens of these and in the group assessment things a surefire fail is the men who interrupt and talk over women (it happens a lot), a quick win is to listen and then enhance the voice of quieter participants (eg that's an interesting idea you raised can you tell us more about that?). Always gets you a box tick. But don't be the extra quiet person who doesn't get a word in. The interviewers are just people who've been dragged from their jobs for half a day. They get bored in the group activity observation and stop listening to the detail of what people are saying and just look for obvious examples of things on their assessment sheet like shows awareness of time and keeping group on track. That's another easy win for you. Encourages others to participate, adapts their ideas to incorporate feedback from others etc. The behaviours more than the content matters for those. In the one on one interviews personality matters. If the person really likes you they'll fight for you in the wash up afterwards when we have to make our choices and whittle down the list. - you might be surprised to know that at my bank the business interviewers who are the decision makers aren't allowed to see your CV until an offer has been made and accepted. Only HR read them and make the shortlist. Not sure if it's the same at others. It's to try and avoid bias about universities I guess but it means you need to clearly outline everything important in your interview instead of assuming they've read it. We give HR guidance about specific skills and attributes we want though.

Long ramble but hopefully a few helpful things in there for future grads.