Hiring at BII

We understand that searching for a job after graduating can be time-consuming and complex, therefore we’d like to make our application and hiring process as straightforward as possible. Below, we’ve outlined our hiring process, what we’re looking for at each stage, and some preparation tips to help you perform to the best of your ability.

British International Investment (BII) is the UK’s development finance institution established in 1948. We have a mission to help solve the biggest global development challenges by investing patient, flexible capital to support private sector growth and innovation. We invest to create more productive, sustainable and inclusive economies in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean, enabling people in those countries to build better lives for themselves and their communities. We have offices across Africa and Asia, with colleagues on the ground to support investments with their expert experience and knowledge.

Given our strong mission, we’re looking for passionate individuals who share a keen interest in not only investment and finance, but also have a commitment to development and supporting emerging markets. Our employees come from diverse backgrounds, but we all share the same mission. The impact of our investments on the communities in our markets is at the heart of what we do and is a passion shared by all at BII, including our Graduates Analysts.

Our Investment and Impact Graduate Analyst Programme offers in-depth insight into what we do at British International Investment. We have designed this programme to give you exposure to both commercial and impact career paths, developing the core skills and experience needed to become a well-rounded impact and investment professional.

Across the two-year programme, preceded by an eight-week training period to prepare you for the programme, your rotations will include 12 months within the Impact Group and 12 months within an Investment team, with the opportunity for international travel to the countries in which we invest. After successful completion of the programme, you will have gained unique exposure to our organisation and have the potential to be considered for an Associate position within either the Impact Group or an Investment team.

Your investment rotation tasks will include analysing new investment proposals and supporting due diligence. While your impact rotation tasks will range from assessing the environmental and social risks of our investments to developing strategies for sectors to ensure consistency with our frameworks. For further insight on what you can expect to be involved in, take a look at our Graduate Analysts’ articles.

The primary step to prepare for the application process would be to explore our various digital channels, to enable you to broaden and demonstrate your knowledge of BII.

A good place to start would be to look at our website for insight into who we are and how we operate as an organisation. Given that we’re government-owned, we have a commitment to display details of all our investments on a public platform to ensure transparency. Therefore, you will be able to explore the variety of remarkable and life-changing investments and the impact they have had on communities.

Our Youtube channel is another great place to go for a visual demonstration of the work that we do and the investments we make. Our videos capture the impact that our investments have on our markets and how people have been given opportunities to build better lives for themselves.

• Who we are and what we do
• Investing for a better tomorrow  
• What is true impact?
• Our approach to managing impact

The recruitment process includes:

• Application form – requiring general details including, personal details and education history.
• Online test – consisting of several situational judgement questions, questions focused on numerical and verbal reasoning and finally questions that will assess your analysis, abstraction and problem-solving skills (please note the assessment is untimed).
• Video interview – you will be asked three questions that you will record yourself (with time to practice). These will be assessing your motivation for applying to the programme. There will be a final written question assessing financial literacy.
• Assessment centre – we will be running two assessment centres at our London office at the end of November, and if successful, you will be invited to attend one. This will include a group assessment, case study and interview. We will be assessing both your technical skills/knowledge, as well as your motivations for applying to BII.

Following both assessment centres, we will be in touch to confirm whether you’ve been successful in securing a position on the graduate programme. We will also reach out with feedback if you’ve been unsuccessful, as we appreciate how useful this is for development and other applications.

Best of luck – we look forward to receiving your application!