Fix what is on paper
Before anyone reads it
Many applications fall at the first screen. The CV and written evidence are rebuilt so the strongest material shows at once.
Applying repeatedly, hearing nothing back.
By Application · Limited Intake Each Year
How we help
Strong candidate. No offers. We find out why.
ECS finds the selection problem, builds the strategy and directs the preparation. Led by Hassan Akram, with the ECS client team, firm-specific resources and assessment simulations.
Corporate law, investment banking, private equity, venture capital and consulting.
Request a Private DiagnosticIndividual advisory. Parent or sponsor welcome.
The method
Three things have to be fixed, and in this order.
In the candidacies ECS reviews, the loss usually sits at one of three points. Effort on the wrong one achieves little.
Write each application properly
Firm by firm
Why this profession, why this firm, and the evidence behind both, answered per firm and never pasted between them.
Magic Circle, US law firms, bulge bracket, private capital.
Rehearse the interview
Against the real format
Interviews and assessment centres, practised under real conditions until the answers hold.
Reaching interviews, not getting the offer.
Independent view
"The strongest career strategist I have encountered - anywhere in the world."
Kristin Irish
- Former Head of IB Campus Recruiting, UBS Investment Bank, New York
- Former Early Career Program Manager, Jane Street
- Former Deputy Director of Career Development, Yale School of Management
Independent professional endorsement. Former roles shown; no institutional endorsement implied.
Personalisation
What is built around each candidate.
"Bespoke" is easy to claim. Four things change per client.
Your target firms
A Magic Circle training contract and a bulge bracket markets process reward different evidence.
Your failed stage
Work starts where the case is breaking down.
Your evidence
Your record, rebuilt into a case an assessor reads quickly. Nothing is invented.
Your cycle and deadlines
The sequence follows the real calendar, including where an application should be held back.
How this applies by sector: private advisory for corporate law training contracts and private advisory for investment banking and private capital.
What the work looks like
The plan is a document, not a conversation.
Ten days before a Magic Circle assessment centre, one client received a written preparation plan built around his profile and that firm's format. Below is its shape: ten days, each with a theme, each requiring timed written work, a group exercise drill and interview practice to camera. Every day, all three. That is the level of specificity an engagement produces.
Anonymised client work sample · the ten-day arc
- Day 1Foundation Day
- Day 2Structure Under Pressure
- Day 3Commercial Depth
- Day 4Delivery and Composure
- Day 5Depth and Follow-Ups
- Day 6Integration Day
- Day 7Pressure Testing
- Day 8Speed and Precision
- Day 9Full Dress Rehearsal
- Day 10Sharpening and Mindset
Structure only, from an anonymised historical client work sample. The document itself is not published: it is walked through with the family, once ECS has diagnosed the candidacy. No outcome is claimed here.
The roadmap
What private advisory actually looks like.
The roadmap links the candidate’s position, target firms and selection stages, sets the preparation sequence and adapts as results arrive. The example below is an illustrative composite.
Pathway architecture
Scenario planning
Decision and risk management
Illustrative composite. Client information is never published without permission.
Private Careers Advisory
ABB A-levels. Four years of rejection. A White & Case training contract.
- The problem
- ABB A-levels. Four years of rejection cycles. No assessment-centre invitations.
- The intervention
- Private Careers Advisory
- The outcome
- White & Case London Training Contract, converted off the vacation scheme
"Probably the best investment we have ever made."
What is included
What the family receives.
The written plan sets the priorities. Advisory led by Hassan Akram, client-team coordination and focused preparation turn it into work, feedback and the next decision throughout the agreed engagement.
- One-to-one advisory sessions led by Hassan Akram, supported by the ECS client team.
- A written advisory plan setting out the diagnosis, the sequence of work and the firms in scope.
- Application and written-evidence work firm by firm, reviewed line by line.
- Interview, assessment-centre and written-test rehearsal against the real format.
- A record of every session, with assigned actions tracked to completion.
Full list, and what a parent or sponsor sees: the engagement.
The work itself
Two screens from a live engagement.
The plan narrows the week to three pieces of work, in order, and re-runs when the position changes.
The simulator screen carries a published marking correction, with its effect on earlier scores explained.
A full session note, client removed: the engagement.
Private Careers Advisory
Karam Kahlon. Four years, on the record.
Karam first messaged Hassan in November 2022, aged 17 and in sixth form. He resat his A-levels, read Finance and Investment Banking at Exeter, and worked with ECS for four years before either outcome landed.
HSBC 2026 Investment Banking Internship. Blackstone 2026 Spring Insight Programme.
Named with his consent, documented on camera and held on file.
Read the Karam Kahlon case study →What ECS will not do
The limits, stated plainly.
We do not sell access.
ECS has no employer relationship that could influence a hiring decision. Every outcome here was won through the firm's own process.
We do not guarantee outcomes.
Firms make the hiring decisions. ECS commits to the preparation, not the result.
We do not fill in applications.
The candidate writes and speaks for themselves. A line they cannot defend does not go in.
We do not take everyone.
Where ECS is not the right answer, we say so at the Diagnostic.
The route in
It begins with an application.
- 01
Apply
Send the applications, rejections, firms and timings.
- 02
Reviewed for fit
Reviewed for timing, fit and capacity before a Diagnostic is offered.
- 03
Private Diagnostic
A structured conversation with Hassan; parent or sponsor welcome. Scope comes afterwards.
If the problem is real, start with the diagnosis.
ECS takes a limited number of private clients each year.
Request a Private DiagnosticRelated: documented track record, briefing for families and sponsors, what the engagement contains, and Hassan Akram's background.
Disclosures and remaining questions
Is ECS one-to-one, or something off the shelf?
Individual advisory led by Hassan Akram, supported by the ECS client team, preparation resources and simulations. Scope is tailored to the candidate.
Is pricing published?
No. Scope and investment are discussed privately after the Diagnostic, where an engagement is appropriate.
Outcomes vary and are never guaranteed. ECS is independent and unaffiliated with any firm or university. Evidence for every outcome is held on file.