Banking Associate Graduate Program 2026 Chicago

Job description

Graduate Program Overview
If you're a recent graduate or soon-to-be graduate join us and unlock a world of carefully curated experiences, knowledge, and connections to shape your career. Along the way, you can expect all the training and support you need to make your mark on the world. Put simply, we’ll empower you to help determine how we do things and where we go next. Our graduates are a vital part of our success, and we welcome applications from people from all walks of life. Whoever you are and wherever you want to join us, if you’re curious, creative and ambitious, this is a world in which you can truly belong.

Why the Investment Banking Graduate Program?
Banking provides comprehensive financial advisory, capital raising, financing and risk management services to corporations, governments and financial institutions worldwide. We take an integrated approach to client coverage, providing our clients with access to bankers who have industry and geography specific expertise across all investment banking products.

As a Banking Associate graduate , you will be working with various Investment Banking teams. Here, you’ll come up with the answers to our clients’ most strategic questions. Advising a broad range of corporate clients, you’ll deliver holistic, structured solutions that help our clients deliver on their goals; whether that’s through mergers and acquisitions, capital raising, structured solutions or risk management.

After several weeks of intensive training to start, you’ll join one of our industry, product or geographic groups and start working on live deals and business development projects right away. Within small deal teams, you’ll quickly play an important role on a variety of demanding assignments. You may work on:
• Financial analysis and modelling
• Valuation
• Industry research
• Business evaluation and strategic assessment
• Business and idea generation
• External and internal stakeholder communication.

Investment Banking at Barclays
Barclays is one of the world’s top-tier investment banks. We are one of the only non-US, full-service rivals to the biggest US investment banks. And being headquartered in Europe gives us a unique advantage. We think and act differently. From Hong Kong to Houston, and Tel Aviv to Tokyo, everyone at Barclays enjoys a real sense of purpose, because they work for a business that fosters innovation, champions sustainability, and deploys finance responsibly for the common good and the long term.

Who we're looking for
To be considered for this program, you must be pursuing an MBA degree, graduating between December 2025 - June 2026.

Ideally you'll have A GPA of 3.2 or above. You'll have a keen interest in business and finance and a curiosity to learn. We value resourcefulness, teamwork, enthusiasm and an entrepreneurial spirt, all of which might be showcased through your involvement in extracurricular activities.

Working in Chicago
Chicago, on Lake Michigan in Illinois, is among the largest cities in the U.S. Famed for its bold architecture, it has a skyline punctuated by skyscrapers such as the iconic John Hancock Center, Barclays plans to invest and expand the new space at 190 S La Salle St in Chicago. We support consumers and small businesses through our retail banking services, and larger businesses and institutions through our corporate and investment banking services.

Salary / Rate Minimum : $175,000
Salary / Rate Maximum : $175,000

The minimum and maximum salary/rate information above include only base salary or base hourly rate. It does not include any another type of compensation or benefits that may be available.

It is the policy of Barclays to ensure equal employment opportunity without discrimination or harassment on the basis of race, colour, creed, religion, national origin, alienage or citizenship status, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital or domestic/civil partnership status, disability, protected veteran status, genetic information, or any other basis protected by law.

This role is regulated by FINRA

Purpose of the role

To participate in the day-to-day activities of the investment banking division. Gain broad exposure to different type of clients, transactions and focus on specialist areas.

Accountabilities

• Collaboration on live deals, client pitches, support the team with advising on a broad range of corporate clients, delivering holistic, structured solutions to deliver on client goals.
• Collaboration with cross-functional teams to support business initiatives.
• Participation in training and development programs to enhance skills and knowledge.
• Identification of opportunities, development of business cases, management of the deployment and launch of new products and services for investment banking.
• Management of client relationships and provision of customer service support to clients and customers, under steadily decreasing supervision, responding to questions about products and services, processing of transactions.
• Development and implementation of financial models and strategies that support in decision making in investment banking. Understand how businesses work and learn from experts in the industry.
• Training and mentoring of junior colleagues.

Associate Expectations

• To advise and influence decision making, contribute to policy development and take responsibility for operational effectiveness. Collaborate closely with other functions/ business divisions.
• Lead a team performing complex tasks, using well developed professional knowledge and skills to deliver on work that impacts the whole business function. Set objectives and coach employees in pursuit of those objectives, appraisal of performance relative to objectives and determination of reward outcomes
• If the position has leadership responsibilities, People Leaders are expected to demonstrate a clear set of leadership behaviours to create an environment for colleagues to thrive and deliver to a consistently excellent standard. The four LEAD behaviours are: L – Listen and be authentic, E – Energise and inspire, A – Align across the enterprise, D – Develop others.
• OR for an individual contributor, they will lead collaborative assignments and guide team members through structured assignments, identify the need for the inclusion of other areas of specialisation to complete assignments. They will identify new directions for assignments and/ or projects, identifying a combination of cross functional methodologies or practices to meet required outcomes.
• Consult on complex issues; providing advice to People Leaders to support the resolution of escalated issues.
• Identify ways to mitigate risk and developing new policies/procedures in support of the control and governance agenda.
• Take ownership for managing risk and strengthening controls in relation to the work done.
• Perform work that is closely related to that of other areas, which requires understanding of how areas coordinate and contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the organisation sub-function.
• Collaborate with other areas of work, for business aligned support areas to keep up to speed with business activity and the business strategy.
• Engage in complex analysis of data from multiple sources of information, internal and external sources such as procedures and practises (in other areas, teams, companies, etc).to solve problems creatively and effectively.
• Communicate complex information. 'Complex' information could include sensitive information or information that is difficult to communicate because of its content or its audience.
• Influence or convince stakeholders to achieve outcomes.

All colleagues will be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Values of Respect, Integrity, Service, Excellence and Stewardship – our moral compass, helping us do what we believe is right. They will also be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Mindset – to Empower, Challenge and Drive – the operating manual for how we behave.

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