Elite Careers Strategy (ECS) is based in London and works with families internationally. It advises candidates aiming for roles in London, New York and Hong Kong in corporate law, investment banking, private equity and consulting. Many of the families ECS works with live outside the UK and have a son or daughter studying in London, or studying elsewhere and aiming for one of these cities.
Why international candidates find this hard
The selection processes at the most competitive firms are demanding for every candidate. International candidates and their families often face extra problems:
- Unfamiliar processes. A UK training contract cycle, including vacation schemes, direct applications, the Watson Glaser test, video interviews and assessment centres, works very differently from law recruitment in the US or Asia. Banks run their own timelines for each city.
- Early deadlines. Many firms recruit well ahead of the start date. A family that learns the process in a candidate's final year has often missed the main window.
- Positioning. Strong grades from abroad do not explain themselves. The written application has to show why this candidate, this firm and this city, in terms the firm's recruiters recognise.
- Distance. Parents who are paying for or supporting the process often cannot easily follow it from another time zone.
How ECS works with international families
- Every engagement begins with a Private Diagnostic, held online, and a parent or sponsor is welcome to join.
- One adviser throughout. Every engagement is led personally by Hassan Akram, with a written plan run against the live recruitment calendar for each target firm and city.
- Sessions are arranged across time zones.
- ECS deliberately limits the number of families it works with each year, and engagements are by application only.
What ECS does not do
- ECS does not give immigration or visa advice. Candidates should check each employer's sponsorship position directly and take qualified immigration advice where needed.
- ECS does not guarantee offers. Employers make hiring decisions. ECS's record is stated as 106 documented outcomes and selection progressions across 53 candidate journeys, and /how-we-count-outcomes explains how that figure is counted.
Is a private adviser the right choice?
Not always. /private-adviser-or-platform sets out when free or platform support is enough and when one-to-one advisory is worth it.